Sarovar

Following a reference here to a new Indian restaurant on Burnet, I ended up at Sarovar.  Going south from 183 on Burnet, you will see Sarovar on your right very shortly.  They have a web-page if you need more info-- www.sarovar.com--and their phone number is 454-8636.  They just opened last Friday.

The lack of a decent Indian restaurant in Austin has always been an annoyance to me.  Sarovar goes a long way to filling that niche for me. Ulla and I had a really good dinner tonight at Sarovar.

Sarovar features South Indian and North Indian cuisine.  South Indian cuisine, to me, means dhosa, which I have a real fondness for.  A dhosa is a kind of rice crepe and can be stuffed with a variety of fillings.  The menu offered several choices for dhosa, including Masala Dhosa (stuffed with a spicy vegetarian filling), which is what we had.  It was excellent. It came with a sambhar (a lentil vegetable soup which turned out to be deceptively spicy), a coconut spread, and another sauce which we have never seen before and couldn't identify (should have asked, but was too busy consuming the dhosa).

If you are a party of one or two, and you decide to order dhosa as an appetizer, and I highly recommend it, don't get another appetizer.  Dhosas are quite large, and can almost be a complete meal for one.  If you haven't tried dhosas before, try one.  They are actually a breakfast dish, and in India you can be hard-pressed to find dhosas after 10 in the morning.

For entrees we had Chicken with Spinach and Lamb Vindaloo.  We also ordered Garlic Naan (bread).  Entrees come with rice.  The chicken dish was not hot (wasn't supposed to be), but it was spicy.  The effect of the spices were not obvious immediately, but after a few mouthfuls had built up slowly to a nice, wonderful burn.  I really liked this dish.

Vindaloo is supposed to be very hot and spicy, but it was not hot.  When I have it again, I'll ask for it to be made hotter and see if that works. Generally, I've found Indian restaurants tone down the heat in the Vindaloo since most customers can't handle it, and you have to ask them to make it the way it ought to be.  The Lamb Vindaloo at Sarovar was certainly tasty, although not hot enough and bit too tomato-flavored for me.

For relief from the burn, I recommend the Lassi.  Ulla had a mango lassi and I had the sweet lassi.  This is a yogurt-based drink that is marvelously effective at relieving the pain from spice-induced burn.  It's far more effective than drinking water (which is almost completely ineffective actually).

We did not have dessert.  Ulla has a really hard time with Indian desserts, which she thinks are overly sweetened.  Indians, of course, think the whole point of desserts is to be overly sweetened.  Anyway, with a dhosa, two entrees, the garlic naan, rice and lassi, we were too stuffed for dessert.

Sarovar serves a lunch buffet.  They will also make dhosas for lunch.  I certainly intend to go back, and can recommend this place.  If you are interested in a real South Indian experience, try the dhosa and the idli sambhar.  One of the other patrons were making a dinner of that.

Service was efficient and prompt.  I did however have to signal a waiter to get water.  That isn't a serious criticism, but after my recent experience with service at Tocai, I've started noticing these things.  However, the restaurant was mostly empty, and I'll have to see how the service is when the place is full.

rajat

Someone wrote:

> Okay, now I'm real curious. I read a review online taken from Texas
> Monthly, which says they have "inexpensive" lunches and "moderate" dinner
> prices, but I couldn't find a key to the terms . . . grr. The reviewer sure
> liked the chow, though (and the dishes ordered are very much along the
> lines of what I'm looking for). They apparently have a lunch buffet, too.
> Anyone out there have a personal review they'd care to post?

I can say that I was not particularly impressed with the lunch buffet. The variety was not what I have experienced at others here in town, and the spice level on the 'spicy dishes' was on the mild side.  Am also a big fan of the Saag Paneer and on the buffet, it was, IMHO, too runny and somewhat tasteless.

HOWEVER,
we went back and hit the dinner menu a couple weeks later and I was very happy.  The meals are moderately priced ($8-15) and very generous portions, and were accompanied by several small side dishes.  The Saag Paneer was much better, consistancy and flavour wise, than on my previous buffet visit, and my friend's meal (random choice of a chicken curry dish) was very good as well.

One complaint/comment:  The menu is divided in two sections, northern and southern Indian, and then all the meals are listed my name, but no descriptions of what those are... I am a relative novice in the field of Indian foods, and so much of the menu is non-sense to me.  The waiter was very helpful in helping my friend select a meal, but it seems it would be much more helpful to have brief descriptions of what the dishes are, on the menu itself.

mandi

In article , "S. John Ross"
Someone wrote:

> Anyone out there have a personal review they'd care to post?
>
One can be found at:

http://www.realtime.net/~stainles/log0298.html#021498

On 15 Dec 1998, John R. wrote:
>
> Okay, now I'm real curious. I read a review online taken from Texas
> Monthly, which says they have "inexpensive" lunches and "moderate" dinner
> prices, but I couldn't find a key to the terms . . . grr. The reviewer sure
> liked the chow, though (and the dishes ordered are very much along the
> lines of what I'm looking for). They apparently have a lunch buffet, too.
> Anyone out there have a personal review they'd care to post?
>

Their Lunch Buffet is $6.95. Their dinner prices depend on what you want (about $10-$15 each). Their food IS good, or at least that's my friends tell me. If you are interested you can find coupon for complimentary appetizer  www.coupon200.com/sarovar/ (with the purchase of 2 dinners).

Though their website doesn't mention this, I belive tier Lunch Buffet is only available on weekdays. Check www.sarovar.com for details. They have their whole dinner menu (with price) there.

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