Saravanaa Bhavan, Milpitas CA

Worst ever service I have seen. This restaurant used to be one of the best, but now I visited recently and low quality service.

Excellent taste! We ordered a Kara dosa and Khaima idly. The sambar/chutney that came with the dosa was fresh. Particularly, we noticed that the coconut chutney was made of fresh coconut scraping and not the frozen ones. The raitha that came with Khaima idly was so fresh and not sour in anyway. Even the onion salad that came along with it was so fresh.
We ended it with a madras coffee and was a highlight.

No Chana in Channa Batura curry except the masala. Channa batura is awful: flexing like a rubber tire. Peanut chutney for dosa is diluted with water. This does not live up to the expectations.

Food was very good and service was quick. Onion Rava Dosa was on point, just like how you would get in an Saravana Bhavan in Chennai.

Will give 0 if possible.
Worst experience ever! Called to place an order for one mirchi bajji. On the phone he clearly said 15 mins. We went there and waited for 45 mins and he still says it’s not ready. When asked what’s taking so long he said take it or leave it.
He clearly doesn’t care about customers. Never stepping foot here again.

Loved their Mysore masala Dosa. Vegetable uttapam had slightly big chunks of carrots and beans. Had they been properly chopped or carrots grated, vegetable uttapam would have been perfect too.

I love having onion rava masala dosa here. Sambar is amazing.

But last time aloo masala that they gave in side was really bad.
Raw potato was served.

No good chutneys and sambar.idly was not soft but very hard.no real taste these days.the quality of this place is going down.

Good south Indian food spread. We had Mysore bonda and Paper Dosa. Both were delicious. Dosa was crisp and perfectly fermented batter. Chutneys were good too. Due to pandemic was not very crowded. They followed good hygiene and mask mandate.

If you are going for Thali don't order any dosa or other items. You can't finish the Thali itself, it's quite heavy and sumptuous and very good too.

I ordered meals today and picked for having at home None of the curries had South Indian taste. Forget South Indian absolutely no taste. Entire curries we have to throw Horrible. After paying 16$ for each meals. Horrendous I must say.

Excellent food, no complaints on the quality of food. I recommend their filter coffee, we loved it. We also ordered idli-medu vada combo, sambhar was excellent in taste so as the chutneys. They give coconut chutney, tomato chutney and mint chutney along with sambhar as a side, all tasted fresh and amazing in flavors. The size of idlis and medu vada served is quite bigger and it’s more than sufficient to make you feel full. However, their service is terrible so if you are someone who can compromise on service to have quality food, I recommend you to visit this place. We ordered two filter coffees, they served one and second took forever to come after asking twice for it (by the time it arrived, i had finished my food). A tip in advance, if you love sambhar, order extra ones when they serve your food. They can also do better to maintain good hygiene, not all the staff members wore masks. It was surprising to see the person who brought our food didn’t have a mask on and was roaming around without a mask all the time while serving food to others, personally it’s something that I don’t look forward to seeing especially for dining in.

Really bad quality of the food. Ordered Mysore bonda and made it with medhu vada batter which is a blunder. Only sambar and rava kesari was good. All the chutneys were really bad. Butter milk didn’t taste as one.

Had been to Saravana Bhavan after a long time and was totally disappointed with the service and quality today. I stopped visiting their Fremont branch after a bad incident (Rightfully it was closed for more than a year due to hygiene issues) and will have to take the same stand for their Milpitas branch as well. Very average quality food (Not sure if the management or the cooks had changed) and the person at the front desk was so cold and un-interested.

I like most of the south indian items (pongal, upma, dosa, idly, poori) on menu here.
Their sambar (lentil soup) is the best I found in the bay area. Chutneys are mostly fresh, but there are occasions where they were served super cold out of the fridge (1 star down).

Delicious authentic south Indian cuisine restaurant. Do give Rava Masala Dosa a try if you visit the shop. Mini ghee idlis are another favorite at this spot

I was a loyal customer of Saravana Bhavan both in Chennai and here, but the experience last week put us off forever. They delivered our food to the next table instead (where it sat for good 10-15 minutes before the folks at next table pointed it out). Honest mistake, absolutely understandable. What makes it worthy of a 1 star review is their response to it. As soon as the folks at next table pointed it out, the guy (who looked like he's the manager) picked it from there and brought it to us. In these times of pandemic? Seriously? I politely and firmly told him. "I am sorry, please bring me another one". The (apparent) manager took it inside and started berating the cook and the other waiter - all visible to us through the glass window they have here. The cook then disappears towards the back for a few minutes before coming back and preparing my order afresh. It was plonked down in front of me without a word and for the remaining time we were there, they treated us like some hostile guests. The food certainly tasted off, leading me to think they have mixed some bodily fluids in there, but I have no way of confirming it. Wish I made a scene about it then and there, but I am not confrontational. Certainly not going back here.

The reason this place has 3.7 average reviews is mostly their service. Their food was delicious. We ordered madras filter coffee and Idli combo. Both were good. Sambhar flavors were good like home made but not sure what was exceptional about green and white coconut chutney. Loved tomato/ red chutney.

1. Even though we ordered two coffees they only brought us one.
2. We wanted to order onion rava dosa but they mentioned it will take awful long to get that order. So we had to change it.

Prices are okay but could be cheaper as they don’t provide exceptional service but only quality food.

This is a pretty good (one of the best) Dosa restaurants as far as variety and authenticity. (Based on my opinion and that of an Indian friend.) Their preparation of food is slow, and somewhat unpredictable, however the food is worth the wait. Everything we tried was good. Will definitely be going back again some day.

Stopped by at Saravana Bhavan for a quick grub with a bunch of friends. The plan was to have a couple of Dosas, some Idlies and rava khichdi. Upon reaching the restaurant, we were asked to look for spots and sit wherever we found ourselves comfortable and we complied.

Right off the bat we felt the need to go wash our hands right after ordering our meals (which took forever since we were told to wait a few minutes, a few times in a row whenever we tried to stop the server/waiter to request them to take our order) and we approached the restroom that was an ugly sight. The hand dryer was not working and as well there were no napkins to dry your hands after you have washed them. That was outright bad!

Coming back to the table our meals started coming along. We were a group of 4 and ordered an Idly plate, Rava Khichadi, Butter Masala Dosa, Mysore Dosa and an onion Chilly Utthapam. Idly and Khichadi were good though the Mysore Dosa turned out to be very soggy and didn't taste fresh as well.

RIght after wrapping up our meals we order 3 Teas and a Mango lassi. The tea tasted more like Kheer (sweet beyond comprehension) though the Lassi turned out to be just fine.

All in all a 2.5 to 3 stars!