saravana bhavan - review

A delicious three course sit-down meal, in a pleasant venue, in London, for under £8? 'Impossible!' I hear you cry. Actually very possible; allow me to share.

The list of establishments to try and test for the new 'London Cheap Eats' section of the blog has been fast growing thanks to my own contributions and that of fellow Londoners I know. The first destination on this pocket friendly journey of culinary discovery was suggest by my good friend Aarti; we were to pay a visit to Saravana Bhavan in Tooting, a vegetarian restaurant serving south Indian food. 

'You can have dinner there for £3.50', Aarti exclaimed. 

'Don't be ridiculous', said I.

kara dosa

 In order to provide a fair and objective review of the meal and to balance out Aarti's preference of legume over loin (she is herself a vegetarian), we invited along another good friend of ours, Chris. I would say Chris is happy to plunge his muzzle into the pleasures of cooked meat slightly more so than the average person, and along with my presence (firmly on the fence when it comes to my preference of a dish with meat over a dish without - I would say I enjoy both equally), the three of us provided a good snapshot of the culinary preferences of the general population.

rava masala dosa

Aarti was familiar with all of the dishes on the menu and so we entrusted her to order whatever she thought was good whilst keeping the £8 budget per head in mind. She advised we each start with a dosa and if we were still hungry, order some sides after. If we were still hungry? This was me and Chris she was dealing with - hunger post just one course consumed is almost a certainty.

A dosa is a very thin and crispy flat bread, almost crepe-like. They are served with dips and often contain a filling. Aarti ordered two rava masala dosas (made from semolina and encasing a spicy potato and onion filling) and one kara dosa (made from rice and with the same filling). These were served on large stainless still plates to accommodate the huge pancakes, along with built-in compartments filled with a range of chutneys. And these were so good, so good. The bread on its own was excellent, savoury and speckled with spices and traces of cashew in the kara dosa. Start dipping the bread in the chutneys and side curries and another layer of pleasure is added to the experience; chilli, coconut, lentils, tomatoes. Then you reach the spiced onion and potato filling of the dosas - completely delicious. Chris and I were both very pleasantly surprised at the huge amount of flavour in these dishes containing no meat. Whilst the dosas made considerable dents to our hunger pangs, we had no plans to finish yet and still had money to spend. High-rollers.

hot idly

Aarti went on to order two plates of sides to share between the two of us (three would have been too much after those large first plates) of which she assured were, like the dosas, typical of the south Indian cuisine. The first of these were two pieces of medhu vada - fried lentil flour doughnuts served with a coconut chutney and sambar (curry made of pigeon peas). While these were a little dense and dry on their own, the delightful dips still rendered them completely enjoyable. The second plate consisted of three pieces of hot idly - steamed rice and lentil patties with a wonderful texture served with the same variety of chutneys and sambar as the dosas, and a sort of chilli paste which was my favourite dip on the table. Grainy, savoury and hot.

medhu vada

To help cool off our tongues, Chris and I ordered a pistachio and malai flavoured kulfi respectively - a frozen dairy dessert served in a plastic cone and popular in the Indian sub-continent. One of the waiters noticed us struggling to extract the very cold and solid ice cream from the plastic and swiftly stepped in to assist. He popped it in the microwave for a few seconds and returned it upright on the plate. The malai flavour to me seemed to be the intense flavour of milk and was certainly the better of the two and a fantastic way to wrap up the meal. Aarti's choice for dessert was a large glass of almost luminescent passion fruit juice.

kulfi

Whilst the façade of Saravanaa Bhavan leaves quite a bit to be desired, the interiors do not reflect the same sentiment - modern, clean and slick with very accommodating waiters. The food we ate was all delicious and filling whilst being reasonably healthy - almost all dishes low in saturated fat.

I'm really pleased Aarti suggested this place because it's great. They have a few branches in London but this one is only a five minute drive from where I live and between my work and home. Handy, that. It won't be the last they see of me.

Chris and Aarti

Liked lots - the food; the obscenely low prices; close free bay parking in the evenings; food is low in fat; clean and modern interior; the staff; the chutneys
Liked less - it's close, but not outside my house - dammit
Good for - vegetarians; a healthy curry; traditional South Indian food; families and friends

The bill

Me 

rava masala dosa £3.45

medhu vada £1.45

kulfi £1.50

Total £6.40

Chris
kara dosa £3.45

hot idly £2.45

kulfi £1.50

Total £7.40

Aarti

rava masala dosa £3.45

passion fruit juice £2.75

Total £6.20

I believe that's a three course meal in London for under £8 - done.

Alfiyet olsun.

grand hotel (stockholm) smörgåsbord - review

the seating area in the Bolinder Palace

A smörgåsbord is typically Swedish and is a meal served buffet style with multiple courses of both cold and hot food. I was keen to indulge in one reasonably blow-out meal in Stockholm and trying out the smörgåsbord at the Grand Hotel is reputedly the best way to fully appreciate the experience in the city.

They've provided a little excerpt on their website titled 'The art of enjoying a smörgåsbord' to whet your appetite:

• Everything is delicious, but start with your favourites. It’s easy to overdo it
• Make sure to make room for all the courses. Make several trips to the table, taking a clean plate each time
• Start with the herring dishes, traditionally served with hot new potatoes, crisp bread and cheese. Accompany it with the perfect libation, a cold beer or home made snaps
• Then it’s time for the gravlax with hovmästare sauce. Don’t miss the smoked salmon with pressed lemons
• Now sample the salads, egg dishes and charcuterie
• On to the hot dishes! Don’t miss our home made meatballs with lingonberry jam
• For dessert we recommend a little of everything, but he fruit salad is a must. Finish off with a cup of coffee and an ice-cold punsch. Skål!

the buffet area

The smörgåsbord is usually enjoyed in the Veranda restaurant but as it is under renovation between February – September 2013, we were instead served in the Bolinder Palace. And I think we were all the more fortunate for it – an opulent and spectacular setting for a lunch with the sun shining through heavily dressed floor to ceiling windows, seated on red velvet chairs and gazing up at frescoed ceilings.

The Grand Hotel has provided five star luxury since 1874 and is situated on the waterfront overlooking the Royal Palace and Stockholm’s old town, Gamla Stan. The Grand is also home to Mathias Dahlgren’s Michelin star restaurants one of which was my initial first choice, but even the lunch time menu prices were well out of reach of the budget I was willing to spend, and far greater than the cost for a London Michelin lunch in comparison; this is Stockholm after all.

A key factor to bear in mind before embarking on the journey that is this extended meal is to understand that it consists of several courses, so if you want to fully appreciate and sample everything on offer, you need to go in hungry. Very hungry. The buffet area was housed in a separate room just off the main seating area with tables laden with everything you could imagine and would want to put into your mouth – herrings served in more ways than you could envisage existing; salmon both cooked and cured waiting to be picked off large silver platters; numerous salads and egg dishes; an array of charcuterie and cold cuts; hot dishes including the ubiquitous meatballs; all of the sauces, dips, pickles and creams imaginable; and a separate table creaking under its own weight of desserts from cakes to compotes and marshmallows to bavaroise.

Matt thinking carefully
about his next plate

My plan was to attempt to on-board a very small piece of absolutely everything in order to sample all of the flavours on offer, and this started with a first course of herrings served eight ways. This included pickled, with mustard, in a terrine, with eggs and roe, cooked in sherry, curried, and with wild garlic. With a little pile of finely diced red onions and some rye (don’t fill up on the bread!), these were delightful. There wasn’t a single way of herring I didn’t enjoy - a very successful first plate.

First plate - herrings served eight ways

Next up were the salmon and fish cocktails - salmon terrine, hot smoked salmon, cold smoked salmon, poached salmon, gravadlax, a cocktail of prawns and scallops with mango and cucumber, eggs with prawns and aruga caviar, and likely a few more I can't recall. I had eaten so much salmon on this trip already (including a load for breakfast) that I decided to forsake trying all of these to save room for the rest of the buffet, and so my plate for this course was relatively conservative but with everything on it still being quite lovely.

cold smoked salmon

eggs with prawns and aruga caviar

Second plate - a conservative amount of
salmon and fish cocktails

Our third trip to the buffet bar had us reaching for the salads and cold cuts. You'll notice my plate tells a story forgoing salad for meat - a necessary decision when stomach capacity is quickly dwindling. On my plate I arranged slithers of veal carpaccio with parmesan; cold grilled chicken; smoked lamb self-carved from a whole leg; watercress cream encircled in Tvarno ham; cold roast herby lamb with a very garlicky cream; and a prawn, caper and egg cocktail that really should have been taken with the last plate, but who's watching. Quality meat is what it is and everything on this plate was very pleasing to the palette.

Third plate - charcuterie and cold cuts

By this point I had reached my fill of savoury dishes and was determined to reserve any remaining space for a coffee and the sweet-shop setting of desserts looking completely appetising - I had reached the point in a meal when it was now time to move onto the sweet options. I was pleased to see that Matt was still going strong and he happily launched into his fourth plate of hot dishes including chicken in morel sauce; roast veal with spring morels; grilled char with chive sauce, Janssons frestelse (a traditional Swedish casserole made of potatoes, onion, pickled sprats, bread crumbs and cream), hot asparagus with poached eggs, meatballs (of course), and prawn crepes which Matt particularly enjoyed.

Fourth plate - hot meat and fish dishes

Now I don't have that much of a sweet tooth, but I more than a little excited by the display of consumables on offer for this course. Almost every type of dessert you could possibly want to devour was up for grabs and I commend my own sterling effort to try as many of them as possible. These included: a sweet and tart rhubarb and strawberry compote topped with a light and soft meringue; pistachio and coconut marshmallows; tiny milk chocolate boats filled with ganache and with a shard of something sticky with sesame as a sail; crispy toffee popcorn; white chocolate buttons with yellow centres to look like eggs; milk chocolate Easter egg shrapnel sprinkled with pink sugar crystals; biscotti with nuts and raisins half dipped in dark chocolate and with the most incredible crumbly texture - one of my favourite things on this plate; dark chocolate tea cakes with a nutty base housing a wonderful light meringue; cubes of rocky road with green glitter balls; squares of fudge; dark chocolate cookies with soft middles; home made chocolate lollipops; a coconut bavaroise with mango salsa; and believe it or not, quite a bit more.

Fifth plate - a spectacular array of desserts

we all stole the cookie from the cookie jar

Top trouser buttons were discreetly undone about thirty minutes into the meal and by the end of this marathon session of eating, we were understandably fit to explode. The waiting staff were exceptional and the clientèle relaxed and in the throws of full enjoyment. The smörgåsbord is usually SEK 445 (£45) per person for lunch and SEK 475 (£48) for dinner. If you visit during a holiday and they have a certain theme for their smörgåsbord as we experienced (an Easter theme), then expect to pay the evening prices at lunch. Regardless, those prices for at least five courses of full plates is exceptional value in the city of Stockholm, considerating a plate of meatballs in any normal restaurant will set you back a good £20 on its own. So while this may initially look like a high-end lunch, you're getting a lot more bang for your buck than most places in town. And what a sublime way to enjoy the tradition of a smörgåsbord in all its splendour.

Alfiyet olsun.

The Grand Hotel, Stockholm