Saravana Bhavan or Satharana Bhavan

I am a big fan of Saravana Bhavan. There are few things that I need to convey about. No, no you are wrong this is not about "Annachi" or Jeeva Jyothi or recent marriage of the later. It's all about my taste buds.

Yeah! I am a big fan of Saravana Bhavan. Especially the Sambar served at this hotel is unbeatable. My First and Last experience (at present) in Saravana Bhavan ended up bitter. My first experience was 7 years before, I joined my first job at this time. My friend who recently got married wanted me to go with him to this hotel. At that time, been at Madurai for 4 years (Bachelor Degree) I do not want to spend more than Rs 15 for dinner. I love Madurai for the good food with the reasonable rates. I was surprised to take up a meal for Rs25 and with rice, vegetables everything in limited quantity. If I need to order an extra cup of rice or vegetable it will cost me more. What?? I already paid Rs25. The night we visited the same hotel and I had to order a Dosai which is Rs 15. Obviously I had to stop with that as it crossed my budget. I felt myself as a big spender( I did not feel the same way when I spent Rs 15000 for my Birthday after few years). I was sad the whole day. The first experience was bitter because of cost, but it is of no fault of the hotel. I was in kept in the dark that dinner should not cost more than Rs 15.

After my trip to USA for three years I returned to India and I had a Saravana Bhavan in the same building, my office did. This experience was really good. Rs 25 was not a issue now. This Saravana Bhavan is good for me in lot of ways. Most of the customers to this hotel is my office colleagues. So we get a royal treatment in this hotel. Also, we can eat as much vegetables as we want. At that time as I was in a diet, so I don't eat rice and rather replace the routine with vegetables. There was lot of options, we can buy only curry or vegetables to home, we can preorder and take home etc.,. I loved this hotel (though I am a orthodox non vegeterian). The reception was good and I used to finish my dinner in 20 minutes with more than 3 orders. Employees were so friendly. Actually I gave a send off party to the hotel employees when I came to US again. But the sad news is, this hotel was closed few months after I came to onsite.

Many of the times I used to think when there so many restaurants in NJ(My work place) , that are able to sustain their business even with their poor quality food, restaurants like Saravana Bhavan can run a Kingdom over here. I heard that Saravana Bhavan had it branches in Sanfrancisco. I was even thinking of giving a suggestion to Annachi to start one in NJ. I was dreaming about the day when HSB anounces its branch in NJ. Atlast one fine morning (few weeks before) Saravana Bhavan branch was opened in New Jersey. Hip hip hurrah!

One thing I hate most in the US south Indian hotels is Coconut Chutney, it tastes really really bad. I thought that this problem will be in dusk once HSB comes in. First two weeks for this hotel was really busy and I had to sacrifice my desire until the crowd comes down. I was counting my days to visit the hotel. Rush was not coming down and I did not have any patience. As the rush was high, I planned to have my dinner at 5:30 PM on a Saturday which is the opening time for the restaurant. As usual I went with a delay and reached there at 6:00. By then the hotel was full and I had to take up the last seat near the door. It was fine with me, anything for a good food. As it was early for dinner , myself and my wife just ordered a mini tiffin and a coffee at 6:30 PM. Yeah! waiter came to me only after 30 minutes, and it was surprising that only two people were there to take up the order. And these two people were very talented and they had no feelings on the face and there were successful in creating an impression "Gosh! Why I came to this hotel". After I ordered the food, it was about 30 minutes to bring the food to my table by a sad faced guy. I think it was brought by a TEMP in the restaurant. "Wow!great service,forget it", I started eating the kesari in mini tiffin, good I felt I was in chennai. I saw coconut chutney, bye bye bad chutney welcome good chutney. I closed my eyes to feel the great taste of tamil chutney. What??? it is the same old US chutney. Come on give me a break!. Poor service and poor chutney this in intolerable. My wife is wise she ordered a pongal and it tasted great. I missed the "Famous' sambar of HSB. It was good here but not as good as it was in chennai but forgiveable.

Atlast I paid my bill at 7:30 PM. No wonder why people wait for long time, for a mini tiffin and a coffee , I had to be there for 1:1/2 hour. Given a chance will I go to HSB in NJ, not again with the same reception and I will not encourage my friends to go there. Most of the american restaurants sustain their taste across the territory. Annachi should learn this lesson and should bring in process to see whether customers are treated well, because with only brand image and continued low customer satisfaction you cannot survive longer.