Adyar Ananda Bhavan, Bangalore

A Sunday morning in Bengaluru means breakfast at one of the 'Sagar's or at any of those udipi joints for me. But this time, my friends suggested A2B or Adyar Ananda Bhavan to try out the Tamil flavors in breakfast. We all met at the A2B in BDA Complex, HSR Layout at around 9:00 AM in the morning, and believe me the place was brimming with hungry people! We chose to dine in at the service section which was relatively less crowded.

The staff brought us the menu the moment we were seated, and the first thing that was suggested to us was pongal. We went ahead and asked for a ghee dosa and a paper masala dosa as well. The pongal came first and it definitely had a nice taste to it. The ghee lent a good amount of flavor and it wasn't a slurry, rather it was drier than what I have had at a few places in Hyderabad. Apart from ghee, peppercorn was noticeable in it. I still wouldn't say it was a great one, just a decent one. It really didn't wow me to that extent.

The ghee dosa was quite average. Thankfully I did not have much expectations from it. The more prominent things on the plate were the three types of chutney and typical Madras sambhar(well, it wasn't quite Madras as I had expected, but okay). The chana dal-peanut chutney was the somehow below average, not really having any taste as such. The mint flavored coconut chutney had a good flavor but the other chutney(which I presume to be tomato chutney) was average again. The sambhar, though spicy, lacked the typcial Madrasi taste it ought to have had.

The paper masala dosa, was kind of better. The dosa was a really thin layer of crispy crepe, but the aloo masala had almost no taste apart from salt and turmeric. The crispiness of the dosa actually helped me along with the chutneys rather than the aloo masala. I still would say this item as a whole was better than the ghee dosa.

Filter coffee was undoubtedly better than the breakfast we had. Served in typical south Indian style in steel glasses over steel bowls, we spent a long time sipping our coffee!

Since this was a single visit to any A2B place in Bengaluru, it would be tough to say if this particular one was the best of all, or there are better places than this.

One thing which I couldn't taste was the pure ghee sweets they have on display. The sweets section was one of the fast moving sections and I did realize that they have their own brand of sambhar powder, ready to make pongal etc, nicely packed and on sale.

Ambiance - 3/5

Service - 3/5

Food - 3/5

VFM - 3/5