Place: Anandha Bhavan
Location: 545 High Rd, Wembley
Cuisine: Indian
Meal: Dinner (with family)
On: Sunday, 30 June 2024
On a lazy Sunday evening, I was craving for some nice Italian food, but then, I thought about this new place in Wembley which served one of my favourite Indian dishes, so decided to head here instead.
It’s been a while since we came to Wembley for Indian food; the scene has changed a bit here, with a couple of new restaurants replacing old ones, and Anandha Bhavan (not to be confused with Ananda Bhavan or A2B) is one amongst the chain of Indian restaurants on the street. The place was neat (relatively new), and unlike most restaurants in the area, had people in it (which is always a good sign!). These guys have a huge menu offering specialities from every part of south India, so I was excited.
Mysore Bonda happens to be my (and now my daughter’s) favourite breakfast item, and there are not many places in London which serve this (the only other place I know of is Crispy Dosa in Hounslow). And this is what we came here for, so we ordered a plate right away.
Mysore Bonda is a fried snack made mainly with maida and hung curd, and to my utter disappointment, these weren’t what they were supposed to be. To add to the horror, when I cut into one, I found uncooked batter inside – they weren’t even cooked properly! I immediately called for the waiter and they agreed to replace them.
A new plate was served, and while these were cooked properly, they still were not the Mysore Bonda I came here for. Instead, they turned out to be onion rava bonda with a bit of maida. They tasted alright, but they were still not the authentic bonda I wanted. However, the lil one didn’t really care and savoured them.
We ordered a Dragon Paneer as a starter, and this was served while we were waiting for the bonda. This was a decent dish – the paneer was soft and fresh, and the masala was tangy with not much spice.
For the mains, we ordered a Raj Bhog Thali, Appam with Kaikari stew for wifey, and a Pesarattu for MIL.
The waiter did inform us that this won’t be the Pesarattu we’d be expecting, which we kinda figured out after the bonda debacle. But MIL didn’t care much, so we ordered anyways. It was served first and didn’t look appealing. They filled it with podi while a traditional Pesarattu is actually filled with onions. I had a taste and it was mediocre at best.
The appam and kiakari or vegetable stew came next. The appam was alright but the stew was too watery. We also couldn’t taste enough coconut in it.
The thali came with dal, channa masala, mixed veg curry, paneer butter masala, roti, biryani and a few other condiments. I asked for a butter naan instead of the roti and they obliged. On taste front, the PBM and dal were good, but other curries were passable. I’ve never seen broccoli in a mixed veg curry before this btw! The biryani was decent, on the spicier side, and the naan was soft.
Overall, a mediocre disappointing meal. I came in with a lot of expectations, especially for the Mysore Bonda, but soon realized they listed items on their menu without even taking the effort to cook them properly – there are tons of videos on what and how a bonda is made, couldn’t they have watched them? Same with pesarattu, and even the stew. Having a long list of offerings needs to be backed by a good chef who cook them, but these guys seem to be lacking there. To add to this, the service was super slow with just a couple of guys manning about seven tables. Unless they improve, expect Anandha Bhavan to be replaced by another joint.
Food: 6/10
Service: 6/10
Ambiance: 8/10
Meal for 4: £42
Verdict: 6.5/10
