Indian cuisine is one of the most popular cuisines in Britain and is often just referred to as 'having a curry'.
As vast as India and its culture is, every significant region has its own signature dishes and restaurants here try to offer many such popular items under one menu.
Saravanaa Bhavan (a global chain of Indian vegetarian restaurants) adheres to this special formula, but with a guarantee of authentic taste and quality of food. They have seven branches in the United Kingdom itself and in an interview with Asian Voice, one of the Executive Director of Hotel Saravanaa Bhavan, Mrs.Sasireka Vicky (Well known as Reka) told us how they have become one of the best family Indian vegetarian restaurants in London, serving more than 70,000 customers each month and dishing our more than 25,000 Masala dosas each month.
1) How does your restaurant blend in with the history of Southall?
The restaurant site that we took over was formerly a well known pub named ‘Glassy Junction’. We thought the Southall neighbourhood would enjoy our food, so we established ourselves here. We weren't doing well in the initial stages, but now we are serving about 25 to 30,000 people in Southall. It originally had 130 seating facilities which has now reached 200 as the demand is high.
2) What are the most popular dishes on your menu?
The credit definitely goes to the mix of food items on the menu. There are varieties of starters and main courses in our Indo-Chinese section, as well as we offer South Indian dishes. So if you ask me what attracts the Punjabi community to our restaurant, they definitely love the variety of dosas we offer, especially the crispy or ghee roast ones and Channa Batura. They also love the Indo-Chinese dishes, which has traditional Indian taste with a Chinese twist.
3) What sort of customers do you mostly attract?
Our customers are mostly of Indian-origin. I've often seen people getting absolutely addicted to our food, to the extent that they don't want to cook at home! There are so many compliments from customers, whenever I go and talk to them. Many students make social media videos about our food, which shows how much they like it. British Asians, especially youngsters, love our food and visit us frequently. Mostly our customers, take a view of a second home food, where they eat or take food home when they are not able to prepare food at home.
4) How difficult is it to maintain the quality and taste of your food across all the 7 branches?
Our skilled chefs travel from India to this country and they work in a controlled environment where they aspire to maintain brand taste and quality. .. We oversee the consistency and quality in the main kitchen, and our directors or operations managers visit each branch to sample the food to make sure it meets the necessary standards. This guarantees the same quality and taste in your food wherever customers visit.
5) Do you offer any gluten-free or any allergen-free food?
We do have Gluten free items in our menu and so are vegan options. However, as we always warn our customers that the possibility of cross contamination is always there.
6) How has the restaurant coped with the changing trends?
The menu has 200 dishes. Last time we updated our menu, we added pizza dosa and chettinad dosa. We have also introduced mocktails and cocktails, which are a huge hit among the customers. We have refurbished the interiors and also increased the seating capacity in the restaurants.
7) How would you describe the ambience of your Southall restaurant? What sets your restaurant apart from others?
We are mainly a family oriented restaurant, known for our quick service. Our service time is 30 to 40 minutes, which can be reduced to 25 on some occasions. The ambience is relaxed and family friendly.
Our portions are quite substantial and they are value for money. We offer unlimited chutneys and sambhar, so customers can order about four to five types of chutneys and sambhar, with just one dosa.
As compared to other restaurants, we have an open kitchen where customers can see their food being prepared. Due to seating capacity, our restaurant has a shorter waiting time, and customers can get a table within 10 to 15 minutes of arriving, even during busy times.
Our average price is about £11/12 per head, which is reasonable in this economy. We haven't increased the price of our dishes by more than 5% in the last three years. The volume of customers dining with us every day, helps us to keep the prices low.
Many people travel considerable distances (often two to three hours) to come and dine at our restaurant or grab a takeaway on their way back, after shopping in Southall.
8) Where do you source your ingredients from and how do you ensure they are fresh and meet the UK standards?
We source more ingredients from India, since we have to maintain the highest standards for ingredients. We have our own sources and storage facilities in South India. We ship the ingredients here and make sure that they are all freshly produced. We even import coconuts which add authentic taste to our chutneys. Many restaurants use desiccated coconut, but we don’t. We get two containers of ingredients every month, providing the required supplies to our UK branches.
9) What were the biggest challenges in your restaurant journey and how did you overcome them?
We require a minimum of five chefs in each of our restaurant branch to maintain the quality of food. The UK government's mandate that our chefs need to meet a specific level of English proficiency to come here, has been a challenging endeavour for them.
Our chefs are all highly skilled and experienced at culinary subjects; but apart from their own mother tongue, they mostly don't know any other languages. So, it has been difficult to persuade them to study English, pass the exam, and then obtain work visas to join the UK branches.
10) Do you have private dining or space?
We have a modest banqueting space for small gatherings.
The restaurants can handle large group bookings to celebrate special occasions, but we do not have private dining rooms for groups.
However, we have one private location, where the banqueting hall can seat around 250 people.
We also provide private catering services.
