To kick off the Nairobi Restaurant Week which started yesterday, the chance to sample of a series of South Indian dishes enticed our palates and we were not disappointed.
The strictly vegetarian Saravana Bhavan is located at Victoria Plaza along Parklands Road.
For starters, we had the tomato rasam, a lentil soup made to evoke your taste buds before the main meal. The first sip of soup was quite something, until it hits the back of your throat. The flavour of the ginger and tamarind, and the chilly makes the soup an ideal remedy for fever or hangover. If you are not a fan of chilli, then add a little salt as it makes the soup milder.
To ease our tongues, we were then served with kesari, a sweet dessert usually made during festive seasons and auspicious occasions. It is made of rava, sugar and nuts. The orange caviar-like sweet was so delicious, we forgot to take notes. It is served in a tiny silver bowl, and can be used both as an appetiser and dessert.
For the restaurant week, patrons have a two options to choose from for lunch or dinner. For lunch one of the options was mini tiffin, which included mini idles (steamed rice and lentil patties), mini masala dosa, (thin crispy rice and lentil crepe stuffed with spicy potatoes) and ghee pongal (steamed raw rice mashed with green lentils, sauteed with ghee and garnished with cashew nuts).
The second option is the Uthapam platter, which included plain (thick rice and lentil pancake), tomato and onion, tomato and capsicum and green chilli uthapam. They are served with coconut, tomato and coriander chutneys. One of our favourite from this array, was the tomato and onion uthapam dipped in the tomato chutney.
For dinner, we had the option of the Dosa dinner, which featured the mini masala dosa, mini paneer dosa, mini plain dosa and the rava dosa. The Mini masala dosa was my favourite as it came with a potato filling. I loved it especially with the sambar chutney, made of three roasted dal. The rava dosa was also quite filling though quite chilly.
The other dinner option was a combination of Adai avial (pancake made of pulses and lentils), Aapam (rice pancake that takes the shape of the dish it was prepared in) and onion upatham.
To quench our thirst, the quite informative waiter suggested we have the triveli, a South Indian juice made of ginger, grapes and pineapple. Was quite delicious. Try it.
All the meals are served in silverware and in large quantities...we had some of our food packed to go. The service was also on point, with our waiter, Selso taking us through the different meals and their ingredients.
Dinner will cost you Sh1500 while lunch will cost Sh1000.