Adyar Ananda Bhavan - A2B — Restaurant in Green Park

Yet another place in Delhi where you can savour some authentic south Indian food. I have been to this restaurant, located in the upmarket Green Park, south Delhi, several times earlier too. I like the food and it's preparations. AMBIENCE: First impression is very important and this restaurant doesn't score much. It has a simple outlook that doesn't give you any impression of being in a south Indian outlet. There is no decor as such and no south Indian music playing. Yes, get to shelves filled with south Indian namkeen packets and pickle 🥒 🍋 bottles. There are south Indian sweets on display and sale alongside north Indian counterparts.

FOOD & PRICES: When you do not get a hitting ambience you look for some good food that satisfies your taste buds as well as fills the tummy too.

Talking of taste the Adyar Bhavan scores well.. in fact, four stars. When it comes to quantity it scores two points only.

We had mix veg Uttappam. We got two small size pieces along with sambar, coconut chutney and gun powder chutney. It was soft by could not fill the stomach of my better half who already has an appetite that matches a small kid.

Let us talk if south Indian fixed menu Thali. It comes with a wide variety of South Indian vegetables, a choice of either two puris or two chapatis, a bowl of rice 🍚 and a papad. The restaurant seems shy of giving good servings and that is why, perhaps, puts up small steel katoris (bowls) for the vegetables. Since it is fixed menu food you cannot expect refilling and therefore have to manage puris and rice with all the stuff that you have in front of you. This is the difference between Karnataka Sangh outlet in R K Puram and Adyar. In Karnataka Sangh you are served vegetables in large katoris that fills the stomach and allows you to have a taste to your fill.

The dosa, most common food item on demand, is crispy and has a tasty potato 🥔 filling.

NORTH INDIAN FOOD: The restaurant also offers all north Indian food stuff and Chinese food to cater to the needs of the complete family. I have seen lots of children opting for regular chowmein and Manchurian. You also get all varieties of chaat minus aloo tikki.

Since the servings are small or do not fill your stomach well, if have a good appetite or if you are very hungry, you cannot do away with single dish. You have to order more and that inflates the bill. The prices match any other restaurant but it is quantity that makes the whole difference.

ONLY VEGETARIAN: Adyar Bhavan serves on vegetarian food. So don't expect those non veg dishes with Chinese food etc.

DISLIKE: The restaurant serves food on yellow colour plastic plates which I didn't like at all. Another thing I disliked was reluctance in giving second serve of sambar or coconut 🥥 chutney. We asked for sambar and it took more time than expected to reach the table. Then we had to ask for chutney again. Otherwise, what happens in other restaurants is just the opposite-- the waiter keeps an eye on you and serves the sambar/ chutney much before you could ask for it.

A good place to taste south Indian food at the end. Good and safe place to sit with your family in a...

NO CIVIC SENSE. A WOMAN CHANGED HER BABY'S DIAPER ON THE TABLE 1 FT AWAY FROM OURS, PLAYED WITH FRESH CUTLERY WITH THE DIRTY DIAPER HANDS.

While I would give this place a 5/5 on food, our experience here got ruined by 1. A large group of women who were here for what seemed to be a very loud kitty party causing a lot of nuisance, and 2. A woman who was not dignified enough to NOT change her baby's diaper in the booth adjoining ours. This woman, who was with the raucous group of women, had brought a baby in a stroller. When we got there, the first floor was full so we got to the second floor where to our dismay, 2 separate but large groups of women having their kitty parties -- typical -- reading numbers out loud and discussing their orders loudly, were occupying majority of the 2nd floor.

The woman in question already seemed like an even bigger nuisance, as, upon us getting there, she occupied the little path that one has to pass through to get to the only vacant booths at the back. She was bent down, cleaning up the stroller, with her back out, not letting us walk through. We didn't disturb her, trying to be empathetic and squeezed ourselves into the little space left without letting her touch us.

However, in a few minutes, we had started having our food when the same woman, with her baby, came up to the booth adjoining ours (last one which is basically a 2 seater sofa with a table, facing the wall) and called up a server to get her her "black bag", and once he brought her the bag, she started changing her baby's diaper. She then proceeded to let her kid play with the cutlery & tissues on said table, making loud noises as the baby and herself clanked cutlery against the table (with the diaper changing hand unwashed, btw). She then told a server "1 minute isko dekhlo, mai diaper fenk kar aati hun". And the server obliged. Our mood was severely ruined by now, the women's group that this shameless woman was with were getting louder and louder, screaming at and arguing with all the staff over "delays" and what not. Moreover, having realised how uncivilized this woman was to not use the washroom or perhaps change the kid's diaper in his stroller, to not do whatever she was doing near her own group BUT TO INSTEAD DO IT in the booth adjoining ours -- we were severely disgusted. She didn't seem to realise anything. Any of it. We then decided to check any vacant tables on the first floor since the noises of kitty women gave us headaches and the whole diaper mess really messed with our moods (we JUST wanted to have our food without such unacceptable nuisance). We went to check, came back upstairs, informed the staff we were shifted to the first floor and requested them to bring us our food which we had eaten half of.

Also, The staff didn't do anything about the cutlery (spoons, forks) and tissues that this mother-kid duo played with with their dirty diaper hands, so good luck to whoever they have...

If you are in 5km radius of Green Park and want to have some snacks or coffee, look no further than A2B / Ananda Bhavan.

Me and my wife just felt like having some coffee and a small outing to refresh ourselves after a pretty monotonous day, (dominated by all talk of class X board exams of our son!!)

We set out to Green Park, a pleasant place to walk down on any evening, not very crowded, enough joints to eat... and clean, tidy and a reasonably posh place.

The moment we parked the car, we saw through the glass facade of the hotel in front of us - pani puris being served!!

That made us choose the place and only then did we look up to se that it is Ananda Bhavan / A2B restaurant.

While we expected it to be a south Indian joint, we were surprised how good the pani puris were! That made us order Bhel Puri and it was out of the world!! After leaving Mumbai, this was the best Bhel that we have had in the past several months!!

That led us to order Masala Dosa. This was their home territory! Absolutely amazing!!

We got a few other things parceled and the staff took special care to ensure that Bhel. Doesn't go soggy, the Medu wadas remain fresh and enough quantity of the chutney and sambar was catered to.

A special word for the staff. I forgot to ask their names but were the perfect gentlemen who added to our food experience... Such polite and affable staff!

Overall it was a great evening to spend. And an unplanned one at that!!

For sure A2B will be a regular...