I know the title is very confusing but I will try to explain it.
Last night, AS and I were out and so we decided to eat out. We were discussing what to eat when we saw this South Indian restaurant. I like Indian food so it looked like a good choice to both of us.
We went inside and were given a six sitter table as they didn’t have any empty table for two. I didn’t know much about South Indian dishes expect Dosa so I asked AS as he had spent 5 years in South India.
Anyway, finally we decided to eat Chicken 65 and set meals. AS ordered Anjappar popular non veg meal which comes with Chappati, rice, chettinad chicken, mutton gravy, fish gravy, rasam, kootu, poriyal , curd and appalam. For me, I decided to go with Anjappar regular meals that comes with rice, chicken gravy, mutton gravy, fish gravy, rasam, kootu, poriyal , curd and appalam. I knew I couldn’t finish all that but I wanted to try the meal. We got extra chicken as AS told me, from his experience in India, that the meal would have only a few small pieces of meat.
While we are waiting for our food, one of the waiters came and asked if they could sit some other customers on our table too. Don’t get me wrong, I am all up for socialising but not when I am out with my husband trying to enjoy dinner together, I really didn’t want a total stranger on the same table sitting next to us listening to our conversation. So we said Sorry but we wouldn’t be comfortable to have others on the same table. I know it seems rude but they still had tables available in the restaurant but it seemed they didn’t want to use another six sitter table for just three people.
I was actually shocked to see that they even asked about it but AS told, me that it is common in dhabas in India but not in a proper restaurant.
I have eaten North Indian meals before so I was thinking this would be similar but I was so wrong. Firstly, the food was so spicy that I knew I couldn’t eat it all and to top it off, the chicken gravy, fish gravy and goat gravy were just that, gravy, no meat. When I was reading the menu, I had thought it meant chicken with gravy but, no it actually meant just gravy. I am sure I am not the only one who would be confused by the menu. It seemed quite funny to both me and AS. I was just glad that we had ordered a separate chicken dish which was good but quite spicy.
During the meal, one of the waiters came and tried to put some more dishes on the table. We told him that we hadn’t ordered any more food and he left. He was going around the restaurant and had no clue which table the food he was carrying was for. The tables had numbers but I guess because they put more than one customer in one table, the waiters were getting confused.
Seriously, they are running a nice looking restaurant in Sydney but it was a bit chaotic. AS was telling me that he felt like he was in India with loud South Indian music from the TV, the Bollywood music from speakers and waiters running around in every direction. But even if their idea was to create an authentic South Indian restaurant environment, they should have given a customer like me a choice to go for a medium spicy meal so that I could at least eat my food. Or maybe I am asking too much from them. I guess I will stick with my favourite dosa when I visit a South Indian restaurant. Anyway I ended up eating only around 1/3 of my meal as it was too spicy. I do eat spicy food but this was super spicy.
The other thing I observed while having dinner was the waiters. I saw one waiter dressed so inappropriately. Sorry I do not want to make fun of him but he is in a customer service business and he was wearing a Wallaby hat (bright yellow), multi coloured jacket and a sunnies while he served and the other waiter was wearing a black shirt with sequence embroidery as if he was going to a club. I seriously think they need a dress code so that the customer can identify the wait staff. I am not really judging people but the business definitely could have used some rules in place.
Please let me know what are some good South Indian dishes (not too spicy though), if you know any. I am always up for trying new food 🙂
Please share you different experience trying new food.
Have a great weekend everyone
XOXO
M from nepaliaustralian
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Pingback: South Indian cuisine | rattythegameworm
but I totally agree that service is really very important to me as we went to a very famous restaurant last weekend and the service was such a turn down there really…although dosa is one of my favourites but I can’t handle too spicy either
Service makes a big difference in dinning experience for sure.
that’s so true dear…I can very well relate to that 🙂
yummy..I have turned into non-vegeterian from vegeterian and this food looks yummy I can say 🙂
I wish I can too. ..
oh lord what an experience..Its such a turned down seems like everything was failed there – wait staff, food, service! Sharing table is such a weird concept esp when there is already table free even then I want to enjoy my meal and not make friends. I dont even want to comment on gravy situation. Hope you will have better experience next time. M not an expert on South Indian food except I love Idli and Dosas.
Gosh. Inappropriate dressing and spicy food, you lost me there.. but did you say South Indian music too?! Poor you! But try Saravana Bhavan, I don’t know if they are in Sydney, but they are pretty much all over the globe and they do decent South Indian. My mom loves Idlis so we usually pick SB. 🙂
I found Saravana Bhavan in Sydney, I am going to try, thx gal…
You should! 🙂 Also I’m not sure how their thali operates but I think gravy does mean gravy, but service wise they are very good. I’ve tried them here, in London and Scotland and they got tick marks. hehe.
Hi M,I am from South India.While reading this post it made me to smile.Most of the dishes In South India are spicy.You can check about some dishes which are made of rice like kolukkatai,Paniyaram,Ven Pongal and sakkarai Pongal.Let me know once u try the dishes.
I am going to find another SI restaurant in Sydney and will be trying more food for sure. I just have to remember to ask how spicy those food goona be 🙂
I so can’t eat spicy food. 🙂 But that restaurant certainly sounded a little different! Lol Hugs Paula xx
It was 🙂
I will do a post on it 🙂 🙂 🙂
and I have read Shuv comment above and I am fuming inside 😦 the color of sambar will always the same, oil adds taste and the look of the food is perfect and my mouth waters for the picture! Comparing to road side Dhaba is poor, the food is quite good.
It happens eh!! People who are used to eat north Indian food will not be happy enough with south Indian, the gravy doesn’t contain pieces because we SI use to mix the gravy with the rice, so 90% they will skip the meat. and coming to this point, anjappar is always spicy!!!! they are known for the spice ingredient they add 🙂 🙂 🙂
Looks like I need to learn lot more about SI food before I try it again 🙂
When I was in South India, I couldn’t bear the smell of curry leaves and coconut in each and every food. Even Dosa and Idlis were too much of curry leaves for me. But with time, I came to appreciate the taste. Like you said, South India offers a large variety of Dosas which are very good along with different kind of curries for Idli other than the traditional Sambar.
The South Indian non-veg is very spicy especially the Chettinad cuisine. South India is a different cultural experience altogether :). I went to wedding party there once, it was nice that they served traditional South Indian food on banana leaves over a dinner table and the surprise was that we were expected to eat with hand which could’ve been fine too but the sight of all that Sambar and Rasam dripping from hand while our fellow South Indian friends enjoyed the wedding feast was something to remember :).
My husband just hate coconut anything and imagine his horror when he first started living in South Indian. He never got used to it and still avoid it. He said they put the coconut oil in everything and also on their hair :). I have seen pics of food from South Indian weddings, they look so different from ours but will love to try typical South Indian food ..
Yes he’s right coconuts e’where….it took a long time for me to appreciate it, I got around to like it coz my South Indian friends treated me with home food which is much much better 🙂
Hey! I have never been to Sydney but having stayed a good decade in India, the food from the pictures look bad. The layer of oil and the color of Smabaar and Chicken Curry looks sad too! Even the worst of the Dhabas on the highway could do better than this. Probably it’s the Indian taste that I carry now, but Nepal does not have it’s good share of South Indian restaurant either.
In Nepal, the only thing South Indian I know is dosa. May be I need to go to India to try good South Indian food 🙂
Ohh!! that was really a bad experience M.. I am vegetarian so the only choice I get in south-Indian food is Dosa and idlis. They do have some veg curries but I have never tried. Actually I have heard people saying that there is no good south-Indian restaurants in Sydney, North Indian restaurants are plenty!!
My experience in Sydney with Indian restaurants have been good so far and they were all North Indian restaurants.I love trying new food but that was a fail last time 🙂 I am sure you are a great cook too 🙂