Outstanding service, authentic South Indian
Amazing place for South Indian food. Everything on the menu is tasty and authentic. Great service. Highly recommended
This is the place I went to the day I arrived in london. It was such a comforting experience that I didn't feel that I arrived elsewhere. The prices are high compared to india but the portion size is really good that you don't feel you are wasting money for the food. Their dosa curd rice chole bhature and kothu parota are very authentic and feel really good eating fr here. It would be my comfort place to go to whenever I feel like.
Excellent South Indian vegetarian restaurant, Good friendly service, Excellent food, reasonably priced, generally very busy, but quick, efficient service
Neha | Culinary Chaser
+4
Cravings for South Indian food took me to Saravanaa bhavan..
Spacious area with fine dine and banquet hall... They serve South Indian and North Indian food as well!!
I had
* Idli sambhar
* Medu vada
* Mini idlis
Good in taste... staff was friendly, service was quick.
Would recommend them for your Indian food cravings😍
Mini South India !!! If anyone seeking for an authentic south India food Saravanaa is the place. The south Indian dishes are quite good and all at reasonable price. Although the service is quite slow. One has to have a bit of patience on that front. However, the place is really crowed so if you need to go to Saravanaa you might need to wait a little in the queue.
KrantiKrishna (krantiawelltravelledgourmand)
+4
When you are in London and still in Search of a hearty vegetarian fare then do head to Saravana Bhavan
Its a popular name in INDIA (southern part) - chennai and has setup multiple outlets across the world
They are popular for the vegetarian fare they offer.
So on a Monday a night headed to this place
Ambiance - 3/5
Nothing fancy though, simple casual dine in place.
They have a seating space of up to accomodate 50 odd
They have some old dance form portraits on the walls.
And early evening they have 2 tables being setup on the outdoors as well.
Food 4/5
Was quite pleased with the ones I have tried
Tried their Vada which is served along with delicious Sambar. A mix of veggies cooked along with toor dal (split peas).
The chutney is a bit bland but tasted good.
Bisibele bath - sambar rice - this one has a plain papad as an accompainment
The bisibele bath has rustic spices used and the rice is cooked to perfection.
do try this if you are saravana bhavan, the quality of the ingredients used is up to the mark.
service - 4/5
The staff are really quick and do understand your orders and get things on time
They are warm and do create that memorable experience and make sure you feel that warmth.
VFM - 4/5
Their prices are reasonable for what they offer.
Good hygiene and palatable vegetarian fare.
Will be back soon.
A great place to try some South Indian cuisine.
Good food.
My personal favourite dishes are Mini Ghee Idly Sambar, Filter Coffee and Lemon Rice.
We are regular visitor of Saravana. It is a fantastic experience visiting Saravana each time. It is an authentic South Indian restaurant. There dosas are mind blowing, idli, vada, uttapam are equally good.
Alongside South Indian they also do North Indian and Indian Chinese, but they are not 100% authentic. But I must say that they are doing a great job with serving other cuisines as people living outside there country get to taste/eat something similar to what they Iove.
All in all a very good place and not very expensive place to eat.
Very nice place to try food of India.Good food every time but also fresh.The staff is nice as well,highly recomended for families who are after traditional indian vegan food.
One of the other outlets of this restaurant and too say the food is amazing here but it's a little to spicy. So if you don't mind slot of your dishes being hot then head down here. The service is alright.
A decent eatout for those eager for Indian eateries. Quite an enjoyable foodie experience with friendly staff.
Dosas and rice varieties definitely live upto the expectations.
Snacks/starter options tried:
Samosas - though it tasted good it wasnt the typical Punjabi /north indian style samosa, if you expect that
Ambience : 4/5
Food: 3.5/5
What a relief it brings to oneself when you get to eat Indian (well south indian) food while at foreign land.
My joy knew no bounds when I saw Saravanaa Bhavan on my recent 2 month long trip to London.
Polite and well coordinated staff.
Sambhar served with idli sambhar was even better than what I have had in authentic South Indian food joints back in Delhi NCR.
Puri Bhaji was super delicious and I ended my meal with their signature filter coffee.
The entire meal costed me around 9 pounds but it was worth every penny!
Hmmm...A bit hit and miss not great service/ lots of mediocre dishes, they kind of stare and make you leave asap. Also kind of over priced... Basically the East Ham branch much better. But I did really enjoy their paneer 65 it was delish.
This place deserves full rating. Convinient location, huge menu, typical Indian tastes, huge seating options. The only downside is that the place is always full , so you may have some wait. Other than that, you will not miss Indian food in Ilford with Sarvana bhavan to your rescue!
A nice spacious desi (but south indian) restaurant, serving great tasting food & coffee. The typical saravanaa bhavan sambar & dosai & their coffee. Highly recommendable for south indians & others likewise, living & visiting in & around ilford, east ham, essex, etc.
Rajagopalan Krishnan
+3.5
Looks to be new...the name is famous but somehow the food lacked the original punch of HSB brand..staff can be a bit more welcoming instead of mechanically directing foodies...
Whether you are in chennai or in Ilford, you will find exactly same ambience, atmosphere and crowd in Sarvanaa Bhavan. Thanks to one of my south indian friends who shifted to UK and invited for brunch at Sarvanaa Bhavan. Tube, train travel was worth visiting restaurant. Weekend crowd made us wait for sometime but once seated we took and without spending time going through menu ordered thali and masala dosai.
Absolutely delightful and stomach full too was thali (may be coz of many days of veg sandwich diet) all types of curries, subzi, drumsticks, curd, kheer and puri with papadam! What else you can ask for! Post lunch signature coffee in same katora and steel glass but little less strong than one in chennai.
Perfect for lunch on weekend and if you happen to be around on weekdays they have lunch buffet option at reasonable prices.
Go for it even if you have to travel all the way to Ilford!
One of best place to have Indian food. My friend advised to have Filter Coffee and it is really awesome. Masala Dosa and Idli-Wada are my favourite here. Great to see that they have chain all around the globe.
Good vegetarian Indian food. I had been there numerous times but have tried only south Indian food. Good food, but at rush hour the food quality falls. Very friendly staff and quick service.
Lovely ambience. Easy to locate. Great food. Specially filter coffee. Sunday breakfast is must here. Have been going here for more than 2 years
Went there with family had
Chili paneer
Paneer malai
Butter naan
2 south Indian thali
2 chole puri
The food overall was ok not bad but not out of the world although it was definitely value for money 5 adults 2 children total bill 35gbp
Verdict value for money if you are after vegetarian food
We all know the place and it's branches are famous for the masala/ rava dosas/ idli/vadas. But another timeless gem on the menu has to be their filter coffee. Bliss. Everytime.
Have been very frequent here since the past few weeks as it is the closest place offering Indian food. The standard South Indian grub like dosas, idlis are pretty good.
Like to have the thali which is pretty decent.
Good service and overall a recommend
Went in the afternoon for the buffet and found the food good enough but definitely the cutlery needs to be cleaner. Also, had a flea in the rice which made me waste the food. Need to try the buffet one more time to see how it goes.
Lemme say the good things first. Sambhar, Chutneys, Idly and dosas are really good and never dissapoint you. Rest all are just fine.. Sweets r good too.. Oh! one more thing.. You should definately eat Bisibelebath if u r craving for a good vegtable sambhar n rice.. its comfort food in a bowl :-)
![Zomato]( "Recensione")
Saravana Bhavan is an exclusively vegetarian restaurant that specialises in North and South Indian cuisine.
The South Indian dishes especially the dosas (similar to a crepe) are authentic as you would get back in South India. I have tried dosas in many restaurants before and this one stands out. The dosas come piping hot and have delicious spiced potato, vegetable or paneer fillings. The Onion rava dosa and Paneer Dosas are my personal favourite. They come with various chutneys and a sambar. The sambar is again genuine as are the various chutneys.
The Thalis too are also very good. The chole- bhatura is delicious.
The food is economical, genuinely tasty and original in style and presentation. It is also freshly cooked. The food always arrives quickly and portion sizes generous. It all came to £10 per head so excellent value for money.
The restaurant is usually busy with at queues at lunch and dinner time so it might be best to make a reservation especially if visiting on the weekend. Also parking around the area is limited with residential parking in most spots apart from Sundays.
Overall -simple tasty food, good value for money and definitely authentic tasting cuisine. Will strongly recommend that you try this place, especially if you fancy South Indian cuisine.
Craving for South Indian food? Well, there is a good place where to eat located in Ilford.The ambiance is quite nice and casual. The service is quick and the food delicious. I decided to have some basmati rice with mushrooms and Indian spices that was incredibly tasty. After that, I ordered a very fresh fruit salad with some chocolate ice cream, which was very refreshing and what I needed to conclude my lovely lunch.
As you see from the menu, the place is veggie friendly and not expensive. You should expect spending roughly 30 £ for two people. I recommend going !
Order anything but the paneer dosa...all other food tastes good esp the channa bathura...
The best thing about this place is the great ambience. This place is quite spacious is quite spacious compared to other south Indian restaurants in London which are crammed.
The service is good and the food also matches their service. The waiter's are all techy here n they use tablets to take your order and it helps them to process the orders quickly.
I have been here 5-6 times and I have managed to get a table whenever I walked in unlike the eastham branch where there is always a Q and people people are standing near your table for you to finish the food fast. Here you can have your food patiently.
I have had their mini idli's and masala dosa most of the time. The idli's are yummy and just slide down you throat. I have a pure tamil filter coffee to finish it off.
Had my 1st dinner/food in London here. Had Gobi 65, plane dosa and a white wine. This is a nice place, people come in regularly. Service is also good. Have to visit atleast once and this is near to the iflord station.
hey guys,
iv been here once so the reveiw goes by what I feel
welk food was nice dnt have a fault with anything we ordered, but you will need to ask them when placeing an order reagrds to how spicy the food is because some of them dishes ordered were a bit over the top.
service was alroght my guess would be around 2.5 out of the 5 cause it was a busy day and everything just to quick as of they want you in and out
What to say about Sarvanna Bhavan at Ilford. I went to this restaurant as I was craving for South Indian food. As the quality says, there were loads of people waiting for their turn to get a table and be served. Fortunately, we were a gang of 3 and we made it. The ambience is great.
The service was very prompt and the food was tasty. I also relished the mango shake along with my dinner.
Thank you and Keep it going!
Balbinder Singh Bhatia
+3.5
Inexpensive. Tasty food. Good Service.
Made an unplanned visit on a day, which was turning-out rather bad...4 pm, and I am yet to have my Lunch! Oh god, damn damn hungry. I ordered their south-indian thali, and it made my day. Very tasty, and balanced (spices) curries. 11 katoris, a big bowl of rice, and a big poori. Pic attached. I finished every single thing. I know, I was hungry and all, but food was equally tasty. She ordered an idli-vada. Equally good. Vada was so fresh - crisp outside and soft inside. Yum!!!
Service was also prompt. Place was clean, but crowded. Lots of Indian folks. Food was quite inexpensive in my opinion. Overall, had a very good experience and I am going there again for south-indian food!
Went to this restaurant for lunch. It’s located just a stone’s throw away from Ilford station.
Atmosphere was great. Nicely greeted and felt welcomed when we entered the restaurant. It was fairly busy.
Food arrived quite quick and tasted yum!
Will definitely go there again in the future.
Taste of food is good, always very busy place and a little bit noisy. Sometimes have to wait before getting scope to seat . Service and food taste is satisfactory. Recommend this place .
We were bought here by some vegetarian friends. Bit dubious as we love our meat. However, we had a fantastic meal and enjoyed all the lovely spices and flavours.
The staff were really friendly and the decor and atmosphere were lovely.
Came out really stuffed and had a lovely evening.
Chandrasekaran Vaijayanthi
+4
Got the perfect taste of India at our favourite Saravanaa Bhavan. We loved the taste and the ambience. It was a quick service and people were polite too. Loved it.
Great place. Food, ambience and service was too good. Regular customer to this spot.
Their regional specials are always top notch. Recently became a big fan of their starters as well. Dosa varieties and idli varieties are always my fav. I almost tasted and tried everything, ghee roast and Kara dosa always stands out.
Podi idli and keema idli became my recent addiction. And not forget about their starters, Manchurian balls and chilli baby corn were mouth watering.
The place was so busy regardless of the day and time. There is always a waiting queue yet we were seated in a few mins and served asap.
This used to be one of my favourite restaurants in the past but for some reason the service and quality of food has gone down recently. The service was so bad last night I had to wait for 20-25 minutes to get my Rawa dosa. When it finally came it was cold. Overall very disappointed with the service and quality of food.
Enjoyed our breakfast here, Friendly staff and food tasted authentic. Sambar was very tasty.
Went to Saravana bhavan Illford branch, ordered Idly, Sambhar rice, Paneer dosa. The food taste and quality was excellent especially compared to any other Indian restaurant I have gone to. The rates are reasonable. The service and ambience is good. But there is one suggestion regarding the toilets which are not well cleaned and the flush was not working properly.
I tried masala dosa and choly bhatoory for the very first time from Indian restaurant , I had great experience there with good taste and price. Waiter was so nice and I am happy that I visited this place.
I love all of them. Not only there are various vegetarian manues but they also are very delucious. I will come back.
This is a unique place for those who like to have vegetarian food. It's South Indian cuisine so you get options like dosas and idlis. I've been here a few times in the last and always liked the idli vada sambar, which like all dishes are served on a metal plate like a thali so you get an authentic experience. The curries were a bit heavy on the sauces but the paneer tikka was cooked nicely and came in generous portions.
The place is over 2 floors, as it's in the town centre it gets very busy. We went around 6.30 for dinner, fortunately there was an empty table but an hour later it was completely full with guests waiting but it would be worth the wait.
The location does make it tricky to find parking as there are limited spaces, however there is a bus stop outside the restaurant and the train station is a few minutes away.
We come here weekly basis.
Always busy, on weekend if lucky to get a table.
Good service good food. Though if it little less spicy or option.
Otherwise a great option to have vegetarian food.
Lovely ambiance. Feel like we are in Chennai. My suggestion is to order South Indian food than North Indian. Must tried ones are tiffen and thalis. Better not to try Chinese.
Me and my husband went to SB this Friday and got amazing experience. The food was delicious and staff was very nice specially Priya and Alexandera, both lovely girls. I would love to visit it again and again not only for delicious food but also for the service given by these two lovely girls.
It's value for money. We had a good time with our friends and family. We ordered masala dosa, panner chilli ,mango juice ,idli and Vada. Everything was good 😊
An error has occurred! Please try again in a few minutes