Andhra Bhawan Canteen

Andhra Bhawan Canteen at last - after living for more than 10 years in Delhi.

But as it is said - there is always a right time for everything. So, mine happened on one Saturday in early September when I finally reached for a lunch at Andhra Bhawan Canteen. First thing which I noted is lack of proper parking - one has to park on the road alongside. After driving in circles for two times, I decided to park in the free parking lot of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, just across the road. This looks like a good and more secure way of parking.

On reaching at the canteen,there were people already waiting. For a second, we thought of turning back but then I remembered that their management is efficient and one does not have to wait for too long. Good that we stayed for the experience - we had to wait only for 4 minutes or so.

They serve breakfast from 7:30 to 10, lunch from 12 to 2:45 and dinner from 7:30 to 10. Ordering is simple as there are fixed menu option. Breakfast has idli + dosa + vada along with tea/coffee while Lunch & Dinner has two veg. curries, plain rice, dal pappu, sambhar, rasam, curd, sweet, papad, pickle, and puri (lunch) or phulka (dinner). They serve Hyderabadi Dum Biryani on Sundays only. Plus you have options to take non-veg side dishes like chicken curry, chicken fry, mutton curry, mutton fry, fish curry, fish fry or prawn curry as an add-on.

Pretty simple for someone to make a choice. Prices are just too low to be real. Pay, take a token and then wait for your turn. And while you wait, do make sure to take a note of the efficiency of managing such a place. Place is just a simple-no-frills setup, do not expect fine dinning here. And take a note of the guy managing the show - an amazing guy who calls out the token numbers in such an interesting way, alternating between English, Hindi and Telgu. Just amazing.


Sitting could be shared - although we got lucky with a full table to ourselves. As soon as one we were seated, thali was served, and then there were always servers running around shouting "currrrry", "riiiiice" and so on. Dal Pappu was amazing - I could just have taken the full thali only for that Dal Pappu. Rest of the stuff was also fine - but nothing that amazing. Chicken Fry was typical though and loved it a lot.

Overall, the experience was over in less than 8 minutes. Phew!!! This is not the place if you are looking for any indulgence. This is basic canteen but the food is worth a shot. A must have (at least one)...

Average cost for two would be around Rs.300 - this is the best part.

Andhra Pradesh Bhawan
1, Ashoka Road
New Delhi

Kaustubh - Great India Place, Noida

Last evening, after not being able to handle the scorching heat of Noida, me and my family decided to spend some cool time by window shopping in Great India Place and increase the footfall in the mall by some numbers.

So, having gone through some shops specially Odyssey, we decided to have dinner in GIP itself. With my father-in-law opting for a Dosa, and me being not so excited nowadays for South Indian food, I thought why did I actually gave him the choice :) :)

But in the end, we decided to step into Kaustubh, a super specialty South Indian restaurant, on the third floor. Kaustubh is a chain of South Indian QSR (Quick Service Restaurants), which have now opened their branches in NCR region - one in Saket and another one in Noida.

And I must say that having South Indian food there was a different experience altogether. It was wonderful to see so many varieties and proper main course offerings. As a part of menu offerings, the restaurant offers a wider range from all the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. This is something hard to find in NCR since most of the South India restaurants either offer just the 'dosa-idli-vada' thing or include North Indian offerings in their menu as well.

But the food at Kaustubh is South Indian only. Although, they have 30 kinds of Dosas with them, I would suggest to go for more traditional cuisine like Chettinad or other local cuisines. The flavor is truly wonderful and the preparations speak of someone who knows the South India cuisine. They also have fixed meals and thalis to sample different items but most of them are restricted only to normal dosas, idlis, vada and do not include other specialty cuisine items.

Although the service could have been better for a QSR but overall a must go. Meal for two would cost something around 350-400 bucks.

Contact Information:-
Kaustubh
3rd Floor, Great India Place
Noida (U.P.)

Also at
D-2/5&6,
Southern Park Mall,
Behind Select City Mall,
Saket,
New Delhi-110017
Tel:44625611/22/33