Sri Saravana Bhavan's Aasai Dosai — Restaurant in Tamil Nadu

Happy New Year to all!! We were passing through Salem on new years' day and stopped at this venue for breakfast.Good clean place to "break a fast". They started off by serving complimentary mini jhaangiris as this was the 1st of Jan (celebrating our earth making it once around the sun, again!!). We had pongals, vadas, ghee roasts, puris and coffees (are those plurals even valid?). Ordering and service was swift - both serving up the dishes and clearing them as their contents vanished. We were there at around 715 am and it was full of local patrons. The ones with walking shoes on, in particular, caught my attention and made me wonder...if their pit stop was just before or immediately after...but the pongal and vada placed in front of me helped take my mind off such futile thoughts....you see...quick service helps. Sides (assortment of chutneys) were replenished as soon as we gobbled 'em up and believe me that is a tough act to master even for seasoned f&b veterans. The aasai dosai team did it and not once we had to ask for it. It was in "auto" mode. Made me look at the team in disbelief to check if AI robots had replaced humans on new year. That was not case here. Senior citizens in our group were served with finger bowls (service differentiator from their peers, no one asked for it)..while young ones in the gang "army crawled" to the wash making a resolution never to stuff themselves to inaction again that day. Been here couple of times earlier in 2017 whenever passing thru Salem..but now they have added additional parking and restrooms adjacent to the said property. Good option for traditional vegetarians....

We always see this restaurant when passing by Salem and have never been able to go to this as we take the flyover which bypasses this restaurant. This time around we made sure we take the road below the flyover to be able to go to this restaurant. It's a stay/lodging and restaurant type of hotel. It has good parking facilities and restroom facilities. The restaurant was very busy on the day we went but it could be because of holidays or may be it's always a busy hotel. Though it's a vegetarian restaurant it has quite different millet based food varieties in its menu. As this was first time and we were passing for a normal breakfast we did not experiment much. The usual items such as poori, ghee roast and Pongal was very good. We did the try raagi chappathi which was very good. The pricing is slightly on the higher side but it's worthwhile considering the variety on offer and the quality of food served.

We have now been to this restaurant few more times for breakfast on the way to Bangalore - this time around tried few different upma varieties - Wheat Upma and Milk Upma - both were excellent in taste (though quantity was very less - have posted pics of them). Tried Rava dosa which was good as well. The cost is high for a vegetarian based breakfast(tea and coffee costs 50rs and boost costs 75rs as of October 2024). This time around the service was good by a lady in our table - very courteous and...

Let me write an honest review about this place. Range of food i tried was not worth it at all for the price. I had food in many Saravana Bhavans but this one i would definitely not recommend. Saravana bhavan is known for their traditional south Indian food varieties like idly and dose, especially the aromatic sambhar which they serve along with idly,dose. But this branch leaves us with disappointment.

I tried onion uttapam, bun parotta, roti and panner butter masala. Uttapam was ok'ish and it was so thin that, it won't fill one's stomach. The sambhar they gave was so much watery and chutneys were again okish.

Since hunger i ordered parotta and they gave a palm sized small parotta called bun parotta. This was good with the veg curry they gave but you need to order 3 parotta's at least to feel that you had something!

Roti was super soft and tasty but paneer butter masala was not that great. It was good.

The bill was around 650+ rs for single dose, single parotta, 3 butter naan and panner curry.

Overall: I would not recommend this place for traditional south Indian food (at least for dose & parotta varieties). The reason is simple, the taste of the foods i tried was not tasty and it was also not worth the money. Also the portion of each variety of food is small, which won't fill your stomach. There are many good options for vegetarians near this place at an...