A lunch in Chennai

Yesterday we went for lunch to a restaurant called Sanjeevanam... blazing mid day sun notwithstanding...

They dont take reservations, its only on a first come first served basis... we went in at about 12 noon, had had no breakfast, so was very hungry :), and there were tables available... we were 5 and had our meal at a table designed to seat 4, but that was alright...

Its a complete health food place, and the meal is quite elaborate... There are 26 items in all, and they are all to be eaten in a specific order only... and no water is served between the meal (which is good i dont have any either)

First Raw banana thinly sliced (3-4 slices) with just a hint of dessicated coconut
then 5 petit glasses, just 3 gulps big, of date milk, veggie soup, rice bran water, lassi and one more which i forgot... quite nice
The they put the banana leaf and serve 4 raw veggies, the raw mango salad was delicious... then you get four semi cooked vegetables, i loved the raw papaya and the petha sabjis and finally you get 4 fully cooked veggies, there was something to do with palak and amla which was quite delicious...
Then you are served the rice (unpolished v good for health red rice) with a paste of cooked moong dal, finally a choice of red and normal white rice with rasam and dahi kadhi (which has an unpronounceable malyalam/tamil name and was really tasty)
next buttermilk (v yummy) and payasam (made with jaggery)
Then a glass of hot jeera water appears when you have finished your meal to wash it down (had 5 sips)
Finally a spoonful of honey is poured into your hand and you slurp it signifying the end of the meal!!

All the food is cooked in bronze, copper or earthen ware, the kitchen was clean, the service a little slow but quite friendly... when extra portions were asked for they were given quite stingily :)

It was very nice food, very different... some of the sabjis were not hot (maybe they were not supposed to be, but i would have preferred them so)... the rasam was cold which was quite unforgivable...

Would i recommend this place?... yes definitely quite an experience, with mostly very tasty and really nutritious food... felt very light after such a long drawn out meal, though later in the evening i had almost no appetite for dinner... the ambiance could have been much better... thankfully there was no music, and you can properly focus on the food...

When we left there were quite a few people waiting in queue, so if you are planning to go, go a bit early, then you dont need to wait in the heat(waiting area is not air conditioned)... am pretty sure i would have left if i would have had to wait...

Would i go there again? Maybe once in every two trip to Chennai...

Bon Apetit!


PS Followed the lunch with juice in the fruit shop at greams road (thats the name, they have branches at a lot of place but still call it at greams road, we went to the fruit shop at greams road in spencer plaza, i am pretty sure it is something to do with the heat in chennai:))... really really yummy juices and milkshakes served here... if you goto chennai, please do go here and taste as many as you possibly can! :)
i had a flosberry flop (pineapple, lemon and mint), kavi had a pink panther (lemon, ginger and some other stuff to make it pink), Seema had a milkshake Ban the Banana (hint of banana with strawberry and milk and something else... they dont tell you its a secret), and we took home a sheik shake for dinesh (dates whirrled in with ice cold milk)...
many more really exotic juices and shakes to experiment with... my only complaint about this place is that they are not uniformly good... a juice on one visit will taste divine, on another terrible... but its far more likely to taste great than bad, so do go for it and if you have not too good an experience, give them one more chance :)
The other complaint: terrible loud music :)