Anand Bhavan Restaurant — Restaurant in Mumbai

No matter how much ever you rave about the batting exploits of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina & company but when we watch an old classic match of the FAB FOUR - Sachin, Rahul, VVS & Sourav, our heart [atleast mine does] skips a beat and mind goes racing into the past.

I feel the same about the old guard of South Indian restaurants located at Matunga. They are unbeatable on the count of quality food, tasty quotient & value for money proposition. They all serve the similar type of dishes with maybe a couple being unique to each establishment but yet the amazing part is the each has managed to create its own niche and hold on it it for years at a stretch.

They have some fiercely loyal clientele who wont eat anywhere [ I know a couple of such people] . There are the butterflies like me also, who keep hopping from restaurant to another eating [read hogging] the best that they serve.

Today my craving for breakfast led to another old guard of this bastion, Anand Bhavan. What an experience, it was!

Location:

Its located bang in the centre of King's circle [Maheshwari Udyan], adjacent to the Jain temple. If you walk from Matunga towards Sion, you will pass Cafe Mysore. Come to end of the road and turn left, you are there.

Ambience:

Its a typical South Indian restaurant. Dining is on two levels. The tables have been designed with a lot of thought. They have joined 2 tables which have a capacity to seat 2 people, hence if a large group comes they can be accommodated or if you are two or solo they also can be accommodated.

Food:

I ordered for a UPMA, honestly it was better than home made one. It was melt-in-mouth soft and consistent, made a tempering of mustard and onions. The pre-requisite for such a wonderful dish is that the rava should be pre-roasted lightly and then added to the other ingredients.

Then followed up with a WADA SAMBAR, the wada was soft, crispy. The sambar was same like the one made at home, a bit sweet, with the addition of coarsely grounded masala made of whole coriander, dry red chilly and jeera and some white pumpkin, tomatoes and onions. A typical of coastal Karnataka taste.

The CHUTNEY was also delicious made from coconut shavings and chana dal, topped with a tempering of mustard and red chillies.

Then came the star attraction of my visit, RAVA ADAI. Adai again is a dish which was confined to the South Indian households and it is available very sparingly across the South India restaurants. Its a dynamic dish, can be made sweet or salted also. Its actually made from a combination of many grains. The dominant of them being rice with the addition of tur dal, chana dal, urad dal and topped with onions, tomatoes, green coriander. Some people add sugar and eat with coconut chutney.

The Adai that I had was a customised version of the original one. It was predominantly made of Rava, some grated cucumber and finely chopped onions. The addition of cucumber made it a bit sweet and gave a nice after taste to it. The adai turned out to be like a thick hard pan-cake / crepes maybe because of the rava. It was served with a sprinkling of Molaga Pudi or gun powder.

You have to eat it to believe it, yummy is the final verdict!

They also sell some snacks across the counter, try the banana chips.

The bill for all of the above came to Rs.102. I had told you, they are the guardians of the value for money concept ;-)

A visit is highly recommended. Sit in here, soak in the culture & the environs and savour their specialties to your hearts...

Amongst the seemingly countless eateries in Matunga East specializing in delicacies from the south, Anand Bhavan is one of the classics, and that's where we popped in for dinner tonight. After a bit of a wait we got a table, and a quirk of this place is the tables are shared, and that's what happened with us, albeit briefly, as a gentleman took the lone empty seat for a quick bite. The funny part here is after snacking he drained his glass of water, and then picked up mine and drained it too!! Inspite of me already having taken a few sips!! Now about the food, I started off with my all time favourite, Medu Vada which is served here with Rasam and White Coconut Chutney. The vada was fantastic, hot and crispy, the rasam was decent, could've been spicier while the chutney was a little below par. Up next were Pasarettu and Tuppa Pola. The pasarettu was with onion stuffing, and touch too stiff, would've preferred it to be softer. The pola looked similar to an uttapam, though was almost sweet, being cooked in ghee as the name suggests. This was followed by Set Dosa, the name originating from it's format of 3 set pieces per serving, though here only 2 pieces are served. Soft and spongy, served with amazing coconut chutney, I really enjoyed this one. I then ordered their Veg Cutlet, since some of the more fancier items such as Bun Puri, Biscuit Roti weren't available. The cutlet didn't disappoint, and the accompanying Khatta Chutney was top notch. For desserts we opted for Phirni and then for Rabdi, the former is the best I've ever had, and the rabdi was equally impressive, super thick, appropriately sweet, totally unexpected from an udipi. To sum up then, you would struggle to find a better VFM place, us 3 ate to our fill, and for what we paid, a more upscale restaurant might offer you no more than a couple of starters. While one can't expect a posh layout, richer ambience and so on, the taste and quantity will compare to, and probably even better, any high end restaurant. The service being lightning fast as well, your meal will rarely go north of 45-60 min. A must visit for many items which aren't available at most...

I have been a patron of restaurants in Matunga since my childhood. And I keep giving Anand Bhavan a chance, again and again but it is extremely disappointing. They arent customer friendly in the least. After COVID even the road hawkers have become Gpay and Rupay friendly. But Anand Bhavan insists that we pay cash and if we wish to use Gpay then order food upto Rs.500/-!!!! Rs.500/-!!! I would have to buy out their whole entire menu for that! They do not accept card at all. Only cash. Now this is all fine. But the rudeness in communicating these insane rules takes the cake. I sat down, placed an order for my food and coffee. I showed them my card and said I had a debit card. They said they don't accept card. I was pretty chill as I have Gpay and said that I would Gpay. The profusely sweating, rude waiter said you need to order food worth Rs.500/- for Gpay. I said why would I do that. He said pack it and take it home. I said I am sorry but I don't want to. He simply walked away saying, "theek hai toh aapka order cancel karta hu." As a customer, that was extremely upsetting to place and order and then have to get up and leave because of their crazy payment rules. Madras Cafe, Mysore Cafe, Ram Ashray etc. all have rules but they are never rude to their customers the way Anand Bhavan is. Anand Bhavan has always been rude traditionally, beginning with the owner in whites who used to sit at the counter to the waiters. I guess that's why while other eateries and even hawkers are always brinking with customers, Anand Bhavan is always empty except on Sundays when people who cannot stand in line for the other eateries come to Anand Bhavan just for a quick bite and convenience. SO yes, they do have a market... of left over clientele of other...