I always spend way too long perusing the menu before I head to any restaurant. I mean, it’s my job. When I arrived at Saravana Palace in Fairfax, though, my carefully laid plans were thwarted in a wonderful way. I was faced with my first buffet since before COVID changed the world.
Was I ready? When confronted with a hotel pan full of yogurt rice and bottomless mango lassis, I forgot about any potential misgivings. To give this a little context, I list “Indian buffets” as my religion on Facebook. It is, after all, how I spent my Sundays growing up.
Saravana Palace is a fully vegetarian restaurant, and a number of the items on the buffet exclude onions and garlic, also. Among those the day I had lunch at the buffet were samosas, made with some of the lightest, crispiest dough I’ve ever experienced off of a buffet table. The absence of alliums did nothing to diminish my ardor for the potato-and-pea pastries. I paired mine with a Styrofoam cup of mango lassi, which tasted more of fruit than yogurt.
Another pleasant surprise? A server delivered a pair of dosas, also filled with potatoes and peas, directly to my table. The crisp pancakes lacked the tanginess that I look for in dosa dough, but crunched rewardingly around their filling. Chutneys and sambar awaited on the buffet to provide dips for the dosa.
Other highlights when I hit the buffet included gobi 65, Indo-Chinese cauliflower in a shattering jacket, with a satisfying burn of spice. You may be sensing a theme, or rather a lack of one: The fare at Saravana Palace isn’t limited to a single region of India, as evidenced by the fact that I ended up dipping Southern rice pancakes known as idli into paneer butter masala, which originated in Delhi.
I can never turn down a sweet ending, so I scooped up both available desserts. The gulab jamun were stiffer than they should be, too unyielding to cut with my spoon. But the semiya payasam, a warm noodle pudding, was a comforting finish. Even after delving into the menu, I couldn’t have planned a feast like the one I enjoyed on my return to the steam table.
11725 Lee Hwy., Ste. A15, Fairfax
Feature image by Alice Levitt
For more restaurant reviews, subscribe to our Food newsletter.
