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

Update: Ananda Bhavan East Ham has now shut operations.

Place: Ananda Bhavan 
Location: 240 High St N, East Ham 
Cuisine: Indian 
Meal: Dinner (with amma, wifey, and our lil one) 
On: Saturday, 23 July 2022

After a visit to the East Ham temple on the first weekend that amma (mom) was here in London, we were looking for viable dinner options. There was Adyar Ananda Bhavan right next to the temple, but for some strange reason, we decided to try this Ananda Bhavan opposite the temple. Soon we realized that this was a big mistake!

The restaurant is small and spacious, and we settled down at a table for four near the entrance. The menu was quite decent and we more or less decided on what we were going to have, but no one came to take our order for a long long time. And when they finally did, they said most of the stuff was unavailable; they didn’t have Thalis, no noodles, no tandoori items. After a long hustle, we finally ordered a portion of Veg. Spring Rolls as starters, an Onion Rava dosa for amma, Poori for the lil one, Veg. Kofta and a couple of Parotta for us. 

The Dosa was served in about 10 minutes without any sambar (which was eventually served after another 5 minutes when we asked for it). The dosa was cold, and portions of it were undercooked. I wanted to call the waiter and return it but amma was so hungry that she decided to eat it the way it was.

The Poori was served next alongside some aloo korma (no chutney). While the poori was alright, the aloo korma was very bland.

A few moments later, the Kofta and Parotta were served. These looked palatable, but unfortunately, didn’t taste great. While the kofta balls were decent, the gravy was undercooked and this meant that we could taste the tomato. Again, we were so hungry that we decided to eat it without any complaints. Thankfully, the parotta was flaky and good.

The Spring Rolls, which we ordered as starters, were served almost at the end of the meal, and they tasted terrible. Looks like they just bought a packet of frozen ones after we ordered for them. We couldn’t even eat a couple of them.

Given that the parottas didn’t fill our tummies, we decided to order a Veg. Biryani, which was served soon. This turned out to be decent with a lot of masala, but wish they added more vegetables.

Overall, a bad meal. But for the Biryani and Parotta, nothing else was worth mentioning. While the ambience was alight, the service was pathetic which made our experience even more miserable. I definitely wouldn’t recommend this place even for their South-Indian offerings.

Food: 5/10
Service: 5/10
Ambiance: 7.5/10
Meal for 4: £26.43

Verdict: 5.5/10

Place: Aladin Indian Restuarant  
Location:  Brick Ln, London 
Cuisine: Indian 
Meal: Dinner (with wifey and our lil one)
On: Sunday, 26 June 2022

On a lazy Saturday afternoon, we were in the neighbourhood to get our Indian groceries but were hungry as well, so we decided to hog first. Brick Lane is a street full of Indian and Bangladeshi food joints, with people calling out to you while walking on the street to try their restaurants. This was pretty late in the day for lunch (around 4:00 PM), so most of these eateries were empty. Not wanting to be the only patrons, we decided to walk into a restaurant that had at least a few tables occupied, and this turned out to be Aladin.

Located right opposite Brick Lane’s Food market (Upmarket) which houses some international food stalls, Aladin is a sizeable joint spread across two shops and is pretty much on the busy street so can be loud at times. We were led to a table of 6 where 2 seats on either side were already occupied by a couple of girls, and we were like, what? Then the guy separated the table to make it a 4+2 seater with little gap between them. We settled down uncomfortably, for I felt that we were intruding into their space. Almost all the tables were similarly placed, cramped next to each other. On the bright side, the place was brightly lit and looked spacious, thanks to the mirrors on the walls.

The entire staff seemed to be in a hurry which gave it an impression of a fast-food joint rather than a dining restaurant. One of the many guys came with the menus, and without even giving us any breathing space. asked if we wanted papad. I said no without thought, and he removed the pre-set plates from the table. We eventually asked for the papad while placing our order, and he got the plates back along with some condiments

For the main course, we ordered Paneer Pasanda/Korma, a Butter Naan, a couple of chapathis, and a Vegetable Biryani.

The food was served all at once in about 15 minutes. While the Paneer Korma was decent; the gravy was little on the sweet side and could have been more refined.

The Naan was full of butter, soft, and tasted good.

The Biryani was served alongside some Mixed Vegetable Korma. The Biryani, while good, could have had more vegetables and little more masala (and salt) for it tasted bland without the korma, which in itself was alright.

Still hungry, for the portions weren’t that great, wifey decided to get a portion of Garlic Rice which was served in a few minutes. This had a lot of garlic, yes, but was dripping in oil. Again, needed salt.

Overall, an average meal. The food was decent but the experience wasn’t great. The hustle around us was getting too much to handle. To add to this, a scribbled note was presented to us as the bill for a whopping 40 quid, which I later, after stepping out of the restaurant, realized was at least 7 or 8 quid more than what we should have been charged for what we ordered (and if I read the scribble right, we were charged £2.5 for the papad!). This place is apparently voted as “One of the World’s Best Curry Houses'” in London, but I highly doubt they can be anything with this pathetic service.

Food: 7.5/10
Service: 4/10
Ambiance: 6/10
Meal for 3: £39.75

Verdict: 6/10