Hotel Saravana Bhavan – Chennai

On a recent trip to Chennai, one of our breakfast stops was Hotel Saravana Bhavan. We had earlier had meals in this chain of restaurants in Kanchipuram. But the experience of having breakfast at Chennai is an experience we would love to repeat whenever we get a chance in the future!

The first round of snacks was a plate of mini-tiffins  and ghee-roast dosa. Yumm! The mini-tiffin was anything but mini. While each item serving was small, in all the dish was quite heavy. It included idli-sambhar, dosa, pongal, rava kesari (sweet dish) accompanied with 2 types of chutney and sambhar. The ghee-roast dosa was literally made with ghee, rather than using oil and topping off with ghee!

Mini-Tiffin

huge ghee-roast dosa

The next round was a simple plate of idli-vada, which we decided that we couldn’t leave Chennai without sampling. The idli size in this serving was pretty large, and extremely soft, so much so that it would melt in the mouth! A stiff competition to butter indeed :).

Idli-vada with podi and ghee, 3 types of chutney and sambhar

We topped the breakfast with coffee. Though we didn’t think to take pics by this time.. we were too busy enjoying the heady smell of fresh filter coffee. 🙂

In all, we would always recommend a stop at any of the Saravana Bhavan restaurants if one ever visits Chennai. It’s a pleasure not to be missed. The food is piping hot, and very tasty, a definite value for money!