SVAH Besant Nagar — Restaurant in Zone 13 Adyar

Sharing one star here as there aren't negative ratings here in Google. Visit to this place here is a story that needs to be vented out, not narrated. We chose this place to celebrate an occasion, more so when a couple of members in our group had been to this place once and loved the ambience. The referral, the location and the neighbourhood set the expectation a little high, only to be butchered in the following ways: You book an indoor space given the Chennai heat. You are told that the staff had allotted the indoor spaces to other groups by mistake and made to sit outside in the scorching sun. We requested for a fan, only to be given one that runs at half its speed. You decide to bear the heat and call for the menu. The staff waits for you to order something with a lot of excitement to tell you that it’s not available...! Sadism maybe...? You decide to order what's available and wait for the food. The staff comes back 10 mins later saying that the ordered item is unavailable. this is beyond sadism You call for the bar menu and nearly 80% of what's in the menu is not for the customer...This is when we realize that we are part of a big puzzle. The tone and manner in which you are informed of the unavailability is that of reprimand and admonishment. When you place the most standard order of a Whiskey Sour with egg white, you are served the drink half an hour later without egg white. When you ask for the reason, you are told that the restaurant is veg and doesn't use egg in anything! It was a Eureka moment for the customer. And it comes at the cost of your time! Time is obsolete and irrelevant when you step into this place. It has a whole new dimension here. Much like a Nolan's movie. Complete disregard and suspension of customer's time and expectation. Takes half an hour and lot of plead from the customer for the staff to bring the bar snack menu. Made us feel as though we had asked for the forbidden fruit or the restaurant's P&L! Not less than 45 mins for a starter, half an hour for the menu, an hour for the main course and forever for a drink!!!! We truly were part of a puzzle that needed to be solved The attitude, tonality and the service were at an incomprehensible level of customer understanding. Anything that was asked was met with stoic silence, poker-faced expressions. Seemed like they were trying to instil a sense of guilt for visiting the place After failing to solve the puzzle with the staff, we decided to have a conversation with the manager and explain our plight and seek his help in solving the puzzle we were struggling with. We even shamelessly told him that we had gathered there to celebrate one of our friend's bday. He played the blame game on his staff to begin with. Truly a MASTERCLASS in management. Then he assured and promised to make our stay better from then on. We felt assured. Within 2 mins of him leaving our room, another staff walks in to serve water. When we asked him for a salad order we placed half an hour ago, he tells us that it’s no available!!!! he thought that the other staff would have informed us!!! We were left shocked as we were posed with the biggest puzzle! wondering if we were actually hallucinating to be going through what we actually were!!! UNBELIEVABLE!! Food quality - very bad. period. The manager sent a plate with 2 cupcakes to celebrate our friend's bday after we told him. For once, we felt sorry for sharing our joy! such was the quality! The best was reserved for the last! While exiting, we found a nice corner to click pics. While doing so, the owner of the property steps out and tells us that we had no right to be there in a very curt and discourteous tone. The corner wasn't part of what he had leased out to the restaurant. as their customer you ought to know the lease boundaries too!!When we suggested that he puts up a signage as the restaurant didn't inform us, his response was "ITS MY WISH. YOU MAY LEAVE NOW". We were finally relieved and not angry as he provided the answer to the puzzle we were battling with until...

A calm and beautiful place amidst the beach is literally how we'd like to go for weekend lunch, @svahofficial is one such! 🤌🏻 The ambience has my heart for how serene it was😚 Let's now dig on how the food tasted.

First things first!

Drumstick Leaf Soup ₹225/- I'm usually the Tomato soup/veg clear soup person but wanted to try something new and I'm glad I did. The soup was really flavourful of moringa leaves and I loved the papadam that was given alongside to it 😍

Falafel Wrap with Tabouleh, Baba Ghanoush and Hummus ₹349/- Tabouleh is mainly chopped chopped parsley, tomatoes, mint, onions with olive oil, lemon juice and pepper. Baba Ghanoush is mashed cooked eggplant, olive oil, lemon juice alongside veggies. Hummus is a dip with mashed chickpeas and garlic predominantly. I really liked the way it was presented and it was as appetizing as it looks.😋

Fusili with Basil and Pistachio ₹499/- The quantity does total justice to the price but this is the one dish that isn't upto the mark in terms of taste. The basil and the pistachio sauce was very mild and the parmesan cheese and pepper was hardly felt. I'd conveyed the same with the restaurant 🤗

Dark Chocolate Mousse with Almond Praline & Double Chocolate Fudge ₹249/- (each) Both the desserts were served in jars and was REAL GOOD The mousse was really moist and the dark chocolate was on point. The double chocolate fudge had an overload of chocolate and should be your choice if you're a hardcore chocolate lover 🍫

The Mocktails were my favourite, one of them was Cranberry and the other is Mosambi Sour.🍹

ALSO, You can show my profile in the restaurant and avail a complimentary dish, how cool is that?

Will you try it out?😛 I'd love to know about your experience ☺️ . . . #chennaifoodspots #svah #chennaiinfluencer #chennaiblogger #chennaifoodblogger...

Enamoured by the Instagram reels posted by influencers and also that it was a vegitarian resturant, we as a family booked a table in advance for a sunday morning brunch on the 22nd May 23, 12 noon. The reservatiosn were made thru the Eazy Diner app. We called to confirm the bookings Not only the staff who received us and the one who served us were extremely coutreous, all of them were very warm and welcoming. A great plus to this quiet little place. I just loved their theme of private rooms and open air spaces for out door dining and their cute little garden. The major let down was the food. Despite our confirmations, the kitchen wasnt ready with most of the ingredients needed for our orders. While I'm even okay with them narrowing down our choices, what was an absolute "No", was the quaity of the food. I could clearly see through the food that was served was mostly from the previous days or a couple of day old ingredients. The coconut milk, an accompaniemnt to the buddha bowl was watery and wasnt fresh at all,and very less in quantity. As for the Buddha bowl, the least said the better. . The starter- Stir fried mushrom, lotus root & chestnut not only did not have mushroom, but also the lemon grass or even a hint of it. The fried rice served , again did not match the description. As for the desserts- again just 3 choices, the salted karupatti cheese cake was probably a day old, with the karupatti as a thin layer on top, that's all. The place needs serious maintenance and care. The dining table was rickety and shaking, upholstery has seen better times .On the whole a very disappointing experience for the entire family. Iwish that it was just our bad luck and the food isnt as bad on all other days. Our family brunch had been...