Saravanaa Bhavan- Riyadh Sulimaniyah — Restaurant in Municipality of Olaya

This place is very good for pure vegetarian people and have good options too. Was there last night as I’m a regular in both the branches, Murabba and Sulaimaniya. The staff are pretty good but last night when we visited 4 tables that we wanted to sit on were having plates that were leftover by the previous customer and the staff had not cleaned it. The reason for selecting those seats were because the restaurant had 1 big group of people and 1 medium sized group so wanted to be away because I wanted to have a peaceful dinner as I had a small kid with me. So I very politely requested an elderly staff to please clear the tables or rather ask someone to clear the table so he rudely said you go and sit and someone will come and clean, so I told him, how do I sit on a table that has food on the table and half eaten meals left so he had the audacity to reply that then keep standing. I was and still am so irritated with such behaviour. If I was rude it would be okay for him to have replied so rudely but if the management will keep having such ill mannered staff then they will definitely loose loyal customers. Completely unacceptable behaviour from that old...

A built brand name.

The quality of foood is indeed very good unlike most southindian food restaurants. And you cann tell about the cleanliness and quality standards, well maintained. Very picturesque.

I wanted to try the south indian thali but I could only try the north indian thali- since that was only available - didnt find the gravies much flavorful. The use of onionss is a little too much i believe - and you can taste the raw onion flavour in the gravy- it should have been roasted more in my opinion. The masla rice in it was good. The puris were really good The chole gravy wasnt upto the mark The paneer gravy had onion smell The dal was nice The fried cauliflower was really really good

There wasnt much variety in gravies innthe thali

And yes there is no refills in the thali

The parotta is totallly over priced even tho it comes with a small bowl of gravy. The taste wasnt there either.

The dosaa was nice and crisppp The chutneys again not so flavorful but still good to go withhh The sambhaarr was really really good

I also took the rasam - it was good

Overall nice one time experience - but a little too over priced and...

Never again

So we arrived around 30 mins after prayers had started, so we though we would be able to enter. The door was locked, but people were inside. We waited 15 minutes to finally be let in. I will give them some credit by saying there were many vegetarian options (my family and I are vegetarian). We had decided after around 5-10 mins. Then we waited for a server. We waited 20 minutes for a server, who finally arrived (they forgot we were there), looking very scruffy and had dirty clothes (not a good impression). Quite unprofessional but nevertheless, we ordered and had high hopes, as this chain brands themselves as the “best Indian vegetarian restaurant in the world”. Not a chance.

After 15 mins after ordering, our drinks still hadn’t arrived. We asked about them, and wow! They forgot about us for the second time! Food arrived after about 30 minutes. The food was very good to be fair, but overly oily. Good price, bad service. There are so many other Indian restaurants in Riyadh, which might be more expensive, but they treat you 100 times better than this...