81 Lexington Ave,
New York 10016
Saravanass had a great review in the New York magazine, which was the draw as I was with the family and we were looking for a place that served good vegetarian south indian food. If you have read my past posts you will know I am a sucker for a good service, but bad service does a great job in ruining a meal for me as well. Perhaps the biggest problem is that this place is not organized with the wait staff, waiters do not have assigned table, it is a free for all with anyone going over to any table. Through our lunch we dealt with at least 3 different waiters. Another issue I had was that the food was not brought out at the same time for all in the party. Each persons dish was brought out as it was made. I started eating immediatly and was almost done by the time the last persons dish came out (almost 15 mins later). I could have waited for the others to get their meal, but my meal would have been cold, so it was a loose loose situation. With all that said, the food was still excellent, so I can not say it was a bad meal. Orignally I wanted the Tomato and Onion Uttapum, but the waiter told me it would take 20 mins to prepare, they didnt mention this to the others with me whose meals did take 20 mins, maybe then all the food would have come out together. With that said I went for the Rava Onion Dosa, which I did enjoy as it was not too heavy and the samber was nicely spiced. Perhaps with slightly better service this place would be a top pick of mine.