Annalakshmi Mississauga - South Indian Vegetarian Restaurant — Restaurant in Mississauga

Annalakshmi may have a loyal following, but after this visit, I genuinely don’t see the appeal. There are plenty of other South Indian restaurants where both the food and the service are worth your time and money.

As someone who has dined at numerous South Indian restaurants, from small family-run gems to busy hotspots like Gurulakshmi, I had high hopes for Annalakshmi. Unfortunately, this experience was far from what I expected and certainly not one I’d want to repeat.

From the start, service was slow and disorganized. We waited over 15 minutes just to be handed a menu. Ironically, the moment we received it, the server immediately asked for our order, no time given to even glance through. It didn’t get better from there. Cutlery arrived after the food, which is unacceptable at any dining establishment, let alone one that seems to pride itself on tradition and culture.

The plates provided were novelty style, more for aesthetic than practicality. Awkward and not functional for serving dosa or any kind of curry based dish. We also had to wait another 15 minutes for paper cups because the cups initially given to us were scratched up and visibly worn.

What was particularly frustrating was our experience with the kids’ menu. We specifically asked the server if the food would be spicy, explaining that our niece isn’t very spice tolerant. The server replied rather dismissively that it’s just a regular kids’ portion and that they don’t make any spicy food for kids. When we asked again to please ensure it wouldn’t be spicy, the server snapped back with attitude, saying “It’s all standard.” Unsurprisingly, when the food arrived, the masala in the kids’ dosa was in fact spicy — exactly what we were trying to avoid.

When we raised concerns or asked for anything, be it cutlery, cups, or clarity, we were met with the same excuse every time: “It’s really busy.” But I’ve been to far busier places, including Gurulakshmi, where both food and service are handled with care and professionalism. Being busy shouldn’t be a reason for poor hospitality.

The food itself was average nothing to rave about. Certainly not enough to outweigh the service issues or justify...

Google really needs to give reviewers the option to select negative stars. It leads to restaurants like this getting way more credit than they deserve. This restaurant is the perfect example of why you shouldn’t follow the crowd. We made the terrible mistake of listening to all the positive reviews here. For starters, the roster of waiters and servers were extremely confused, having absolutely no idea what was going on with their customers, in fact, there was only one waiter who even seemed to care about us. All the other waiters didn’t even bother to acknowledge us when they came to our table, and left just as fast as they came, without even acknowledging what we said. It felt like the waiters were playing hockey with our dishes and cutlery, haphazardly serving them onto our table. In particular, one of the waiters offered to replace our soups with drinks (after we informed her of how absolutely awful the soups were). Naturally, we didn’t find the waiter within 20 feet of our table after she made the offer. Now, for the food. Each item was bad in its own way. You can confidently recommend any of these foods to someone if they annoy you a lot, especially the chettinad masalas that they serve. It is a guaranteed way to alienate yourself from anyone. Firstly the soups (tomato and sweet corn) were something that I would only feed my worst enemy. The tomato soup was just aqueous ketchup, and the sweet corn soup had the consistency of barf dissolved in water. The dosas were obviously not fresh, and it was very clear that the dosas were prepared well before the toppings. The mushroom in the mushroom biryani was extremely soggy and the rice might be older than my car. The only item that was even semi-decent on the menu was the Gopi Manchurian, and even that wasn’t very good. In conclusion, I would never go to this restaurant again even if I got paid...

I visited Annalakshmi Restaurant in Meadowvale, Mississauga on a Saturday evening with my family—a group of nine. Although I frequent the area, I hadn’t been to Annalakshmi in a while and chose it based on a recommendation instead of our usual dining spot.

The food was decent, especially the dosas—no complaints there. However, the customer service was disappointing.

When our order arrived, we were simply trying to figure out who had ordered what. During this brief moment, the lady who was serving us made a visible and unpleasant facial expression, which was quite unprofessional. As someone with a long background in customer service, I know that such non-verbal cues have a big impact—rolling your eyes at a customer is unacceptable, especially in the food and hospitality industry.

I spoke to the gentleman who took our order, and he politely apologized. However, the same staff member returned shortly after—not to apologize, but to justify her behavior by saying she had splashed sambhar on her hand. Even if that were the case, it was the tone and attitude that made the situation worse. A simple, sincere apology would have been much more appropriate.

Another point I’d like to raise: the servers were referring to customers as “bro.” While I’m sure they meant well, it comes off as unprofessional and overly casual. This isn’t what I’ve experienced at the Oakville (Ford Drive) branch, where the service has always been more polished and welcoming.

Overall, while the food was fine, the lack of professionalism and courtesy from the staff really took away from the experience. I hope the management takes this feedback seriously and offers better training to ensure the guest experience matches the quality...