Saravanaa Bhavan — Restaurant in Stockholm

Visiting Stockholm after 2019, first on the list was to go here.

Regret or happy?, I would say both. Finding a vegetarian Indian restaurant is a great deal when Sweden. Saravana Bhavan was the place to be rescue myself. The happiness of able to order anything from menu gives bliss 😂.

I took no second option but dined there for two days three times. I guess the people there would have expected us for second day dinner. Friday - Saturday visits.

Friday lunch- Thali which was the only availability. Thali had options like combo of tiffin items or rice sambhar rasam . So we had ordered tiffin and rice . The dosa was not really good and so was the sambhar. The food was very 50-50 but the hospitality was good. We left tummy full but not very satisfied as we were expecting a level that wasn't possible (perhaps?). Lunch-6/10

Friday dinner - no regrets, finally had the chance to try Indo Chinese. Bhatura and channa was good enough to eat and again the dosa had its own story. The dosa was never crispier anytime of the visit. It was dough in the corners, when it is ghee dosa and Saravana Bhavan, expectations would be those golden brown dosa with crispiness overloaded , which was obviously missing. The fried rice was amazing and the taste was meeting our expectations. The Gobi Manchurian was very well made and tasted so good that i ordered it again on Saturday. The biryani was also equally good and wasn't rice mixed with kuruma ( few places serve veg biryani this way). The quantities seem to be less when you look at them first, but it turns out to be ok when followed by a dessert or a drink.

Dinner- 7.5/10

Saturday lunch - one good thing, it was not a lunch menu but a menu from which you can choose anything. There was Thalis, parotta and Gobi Manchurian again. The Thali was adequately served. As there were no rotis we were substituted it with two puris. The puris were really good and the taste was good. The parotta was tasty but not the side. What i was expecting was a kuruma , but i had received potato masal and channa, which is not a combo for parotta. As the taste was better, i had not take it too seriously, but the kuruma would have been much appreciated. The Gobi Manchurian was much tastier than the dinner previous night . The Gobi Manchurian was seasoned amazingly that i didn't regret eating it again.

Lunch -8/10.

All these are from our perspective, taste and perspectives can change for everyone and...

very disappointed after going there - We did not get what we ordered. We ordered Mysore Masala Dosa, which was not at all what it should have been. The sambhar did not taste like it does at a good Saravaana Bhavan restaurant. The North Indian cuisine there is terrible and highly disappointing! We ordered a lot of food for take-away, after eating at the restaurant. However, we unfortunately did not verify the contents of it before walking away from the restaurant. It was only when we reached home, that we saw that they had messed up our whole order:

1. Kela (banana) vada, instead of Medhu vada (How would that feel?! A sweed vada instead of a salty vada made from lentils and rice!!),
2. Daal fry instead of Daal Makhani (I know that most of the Indian restaurants in Sweden disappoint us on this. So, I made sure to ask the waiter if they made Dal Makhani using the black full lentils, which is what is used in the authentic dish. The waiter said that they did use black lentils. Despite that, they gave us the regular daal fry with yellow lentils),
3. Baingan (Aubergine/Eggplant) curry, instead of "Baingan Bharta". The latter is made by grilling and smoking aubergine, which is then mashed up and cooked with Indian spices. However, they gave us "Baingan ki sabji", with hardly any "baingan" in it, We ordered "Chhole bhature". However, the Chhole (chickpeas) curry was very very disappointing!! The gravy for all the curries that we ordered was basically the same. We ordered Saravaana special thaali. In the menu it says "Gulab jaamun" for dessert, which are deep fried brown-colored balls of flour, soaked in sugar syrup. They gave us "halwa" (which was not really a halwa) instead. They should have at least alerted us that they would provide with some different constituents than was mentioned in the menu. The curries in the thaali were burnt (they has a burnt taste and smell, although they did not look burnt). To the restaurant: "If you cannot serve good and authentic North Indian cuisine, I would recommend removing them from your menu". The "chai" (Indian tea, cooked with milk) was terrible. The waiter was not very receptive of the orders, and was having a hard time understanding what we ordered! I will not recommend anyone to go to this particular place at all!! Very very disappointed! For a chain restaurant worldwide, such a poor service is...

I want to preface this by saying almost all the South Indian dishes they have on the menu are something I have had home-made and/or at restaurants in south India growing up. I have been to Sarvana Bhavan in India and this does not live up to the standards in no form.

My friends who have been there last year or so also commented as to how it seems that the menu and the staff have changed, perhaps even management. This is my experience from last night.

We ordered medhu vada which was actually quite tasty and crunchy, would recommend this! We also got to try a bit of the gobhi Manchurian from the thali, it tasted good but later I realised it had a bit too much cooking soda. Idli and chutney was okay too! Chettinad spicy dosa came with cheese? In what world is that a proper chettinad dosa I don’t know. Veg biryani was actually pulao, have had better in Sweden. The veg thali was just fine. They forgot our onion and chilli uthappa until we asked again! When they did bring it, it was not cooked properly which I assume is because they cooked it on high speed to make up time, I wish they hadn’t! FILTER COFFEE WAS NOT THERE? Really? At a supposed to be South Indian restaurant? That was unacceptable. ( I didn’t even drink coffee and this was outrageous to me) the tea was okay, no hate there. Gulab jamoon looked orange which was new to me, it was plain okay!

Staff was just there, no enthusiasm or exceptional service, subpar.

Would I recommend? Overall - NO. But the vada and tea were the only reason for...