From the kitchen of HSB

It is rightly said “the belly rules the mind” .Though I am not an eatomaniac but u can call me a foodie. From the day I landed Chennai aka Maa, i thought to have a typical Tamil thali. I got to know that there is a famous restaurant in Chennai called HSB i.e. Hotel Sarvana Baava. With this curiosity I Landed in HSB at the T nagar branch.

As soon as I entered in to the restaurant, I went through the the menu and I expected it to be like a typical southie menu…but to my surprise it had delicacies from all over India. right from lassi to pav bhaji to vada pav to paratha. Though thought to try dosa , but I choose to order Pav bhaji instead. Wanted to check how it tastes different from the one that I had in Pune or Nasik.

The waiter took the order via a Bluetooth device (introduced 2 yrs back) and as soon as he took the order it was taken up by the kitchen guys for preparation.By the time the order was placed I thought to have some water and chilled water was available, the glasses were clean. The ambience of hotel in general is very simple there is low cost of maintenance as it has simple furniture. By the time I was done with having water and observing the hotel (not more than 12 min) the pav bahji was ready.

 

Though the taste was not very much same as it is for a pav bhaaji at Nasik, Mumbai or Pune but the flavour was too good to taste. Pav were fresh with good amount of butter, fresh onion, and fresh bhaji .Considering that it was not a weekend and that the  pav bahji is not ordered so frequently as other dishes like dosa, ldli, chole bhature, the bhaji and pav were served fresh. The order did not took much time and the taste was just awesome

After that I pondered over the history of Sarvana bhavan i got to some facts.The hotel was started by Mr Rajugopal ,a sweeper ,in the year 1981 with an aim to provide best quality food service. The T nagar branch came in the year 1986 and the expansion went at the international level by opening first hotel in Dubai (UAE).It has been a great journey since then. With what started up as a small hotel and now it has expanded with 29 branches in India and 29 international franchisee. They have Customer care dept, HR dept and IT dept. In short they have an organised structure unlike other food chains.

Some key points that I observed were like:

1.)   It’s a Pure Vegetarian Restaurant

2.)   They have more international branches than national

3.)   They are in Chennai since 1981 and running the food chain successfully

4.)   Though being a Pure veg restaurant it has been able to maintain its brand

5.)   Located in one of the most happening places in Chennai

HSB’s USP’s:

1.)   Proper Resource management

2.)   Hygiene

3.)   Time management

4.)   High Food quality

5.)   Customer first attitude

6.)   Appropriate pricing

Some problems that Sarvana Bahavan is facing:

1.)   Labour issues.80% of labour is from Nepal.

2.)   Due to development of IT companies..Labour issues happens

3.)   Though the customer complaints have reduced..but still some small issues are existing

      Customer feedback: I managed to interact with Mr Raman, a 55 year old man, living in Chennai for about 25 years, said that he is a regular customer to Sarvana and the main thing which has kept him coming to the same place is the food hygiene, taste and quality. Though the price is a bit more but customers are willing to pay. Overall the management and staff were very helpful. Tried some of the sweets like kaju katli ,maysore pak, rajbhog, pastry which were fresh and yummy.

Sarvana has expanded not only in the hotel business but they are into retailing , Sweets , ice creams and bakery food items as well .Its a big brand in Chennai city and I will advice everyone to at least pay a visit to any one of the HSB branch in Chennai for once. 

Nivedita M.Singh

(FT13450)