Saravanaa Bhavan — Restaurant in London

Saravanan Bhavan has long been a go-to for South Indian vegetarian cuisine and are frequent customers.

Our recent visit to their Ilford Cranbrook Road location, however, revealed a restaurant resting on its laurels, desperately in need of a refresh. While the food remains acceptable, the overall experience is marred by a sense of staleness and neglect. Let's start with the ambience. The double-fronted, two-level space boasts solid wooden tables, comfortable padded chairs, and spot lighting. Yet, the restaurant's 15+ years in business are painfully evident. The décor feels tired, the menu hasn't seen an update in ages (presented on the same old plastic cards), and even the furniture, especially the chairs, showing its age. A wobbly staircase bannister knob that detached in my hand perfectly symbolized the restaurant's overall decline. The cramped entrance, now further congested by delivery drivers jostling with oversized Uber bags, hardly creates a welcoming first impression. The food itself is a mixed bag. The dosa, a signature dish, was indeed crispy and colourful, served with the usual dipping sauces. However, my rava dosa was disappointingly plain, lacking filling and any real depth of flavour. The accompanying mutting and puri with chola was large, impressive, and tasty. Idly is a rice like boba breads served with spicy dipping sauces. And Plain naan bread is a traditional Indian flatbread.

The menu is minefield of hit and miss dishes. Some oily messes, but if you're after dosa, then stick to the dosa menu.

Definitely not worth the premium they once commanded. Prices, on average, have increased £2 per dish. Quality has declined 50%.

The real cause for concern, however, lies with the restaurant's cleanliness. The state of the restrooms was frankly appalling. No toilet paper, unclean facilities, a strategically placed yellow "wet floor" sign (wedging the men's door open for 15+ years), and non-functional taps made handwashing a game of "whack-a-mole." A cleaning rota showing the toilets last cleaned in 2015 raised serious questions about the hygiene of the entire establishment, especially the kitchen. The service, while pleasant and not overtly friendly, felt strained. Overworked waitresses and a general air of laxity among the management staff contributed to the sense of decline. It's clear that Saravanan Bhavan is struggling to maintain its once-held position as Ilford's premier dosa destination. With increasing competition from places like Yummy Dosa on Cranbrook Road and Royale Spice Dosa in Gants Hill corner, their lack of innovation, declining cleanliness, and inattention to detail are pushing customers away. Saravanan Bhavan needs a serious overhaul. A thorough cleaning, a menu refresh, and a renewed focus on...

Table no: 24 ,on 28/12/2024 at 1930-2030.

We are regular customer of this restaurant, so the quality and taste of the food here, we are experienced. But today the item we order was may be wrong ones which was a big disappointment.I felt Eastham Saravana Bhavan is superb, but that expectations we should leave at home and go to illford. We are going there from Chelmsford, and My husband is a pure vegetarian too

l told them before they brought to the table, that ,as you forget to bring soup , l don’t prefer this at the end of the meal, please try to cancel, the staff hesitate to do that , as we order we did not said a single word.They bring starter at the time of desert and they don’t feel sorry even. Also vegetable soup was just like a vegetable stack water with over cooked vegetable pieces in it. I feel it was better to drink rice water than this. Exactly rice water.

2.Panner manchurian was just like panner pieces separately in a curry of flour.

Kids vegetable noodles which was boiled noodles with some cabbage and capsicum with no flavour, no taste. I have tried same other days which was better than this.

Other items was average. (vegetable dosa,cholae batturae, vada) .I suggest not to compromise the taste and quality of food when your business at the peak time.l understant it is very busy, but please think about your costumers who have very high expections from you and we invited our friends for a dinning there .

I am editing only because l have seen so many review which is really bad , Since then What changes have you made to fix this. You are sending same reply to reviews, are you really working to improve your service.

Next time ,l will go legally with evidence of your food sample if this continues for sure. Please be aware, People know what is panner Manchurian, dosa , and all . So please don’t cheat people serving what you have made. We may have to name them differently. Thank You . This is a review just for the improvement, only because we like Saravana...

Great South Indian food, lovely meal and lovely atmosphere.

Went with family of 6, struggled a little with parking in the area so not always easy. We arrived and waited a little while for a table. We were offered 2 tables of 4 but seated separately, this was a shame considering the 2 tables were near to each other and staff were not willing to move them together for us. The tables would have been socially distanced regardless. We decided to wait for a genuine table for 6 instead.

Another issue is that we have come here since its opening and there's one dish called potato bonda which is never a available. They always first tell us that it will take 20 - 30 mins, then when we say wait it only actually takes 5 mins or they come back claiming they don't have any. It's become a running joke here as we have gone through this conversation for 100+ visits. To the customer this just looks like laziness and chefs cannot be bothered to cook a dish on their menu as it might mean a bit more work then other dishes, quite disappointing. I write this review now as I am sitting at the restaurant to speak to the manager about this..

They also don't seem to check tables have everything before taking us to our table, every time we come here we have a quarter filled water jug, not enough cups and not enough serviettes. It's a nightmare trying to get these things once our food is here, end up eating most of our food without water or serviettes.

Otherwise the service was great, food came ridiculously quick and was delicious, prices were very reasonable. Atmosphere was nice, definitely one of their better branches in terms of dining experience. Menu is extensive at everything we ordered was great, we tried the chilli paneer, mini idlis in sambar, masala Dosa, Kara Dosa, binda and all of...