Annapurna
- Price Range: $
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Kids: No
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
34 reviews
Sunnyvale, CA
"Oh my god... a little slice of heaven. I went in with an Indian friend who had never been here before but had heard good things. He ordered…" read more »
11 Reviews for Annapurna
Went to this place with an Indian co-worker. She was very impressed, mentioning it is like home style cooking. Refills came fast enough and often enough.
The food is fairly good, though you are served tiny portions only to be (slowly) refilled when you finish them. You are served the dishes of the day, the same that everyone else has, and it would actually be a great place for lunch... if they didn't charge $9! I left still feeling hungry, and upset that I was charged so much. I wonder if they charge some customers less?
This place is a RIP-OFF. For lunch you get a fixed thali (traditional Indian arrangement with an assortment of dishes) for $8.95. That's it. No menu, no buffet. Customers do not even get to see what's on that day, before it lands in front off you in a crappy white excuse for a thali (even the bento boxes at cheaper joints have much more aesthetic appeal).
On a recent visit with a friend we got cabbage, dal and some potato curry concoction (with no potatoes). This is crazy. Go to any decent Indian buffet and you can get substantial helpings of vegetables (not too mention decent dessert and non-veg). Dessert was cold milk with hints of cardamom and vermicelli. I guess that's their deplorable version of payasam (Indian dessert that can be very yummy).
Indian food can be a showcase for good vegetarian cooking, but fare and attitudes like this will turn off eaters with a more refined palate. The meager food we got was OK in taste; healthy, low in grease and non-spicy. Something we'd cook at home when no one wants to cook. How about charging $5.00 for this?
Did I mention that this place is a non-starter if you are looking for service, atmospherics or ambiance?
Kathleen dont know what good food means. Simple, but tasty. I would suggest K to go to India, stay there for couple of weeks and try simple food offered in mess, or vegetarian restaurants. Majority of the bay area Indian restaurants are not decent except for a few like thirupathi bhimas, milan, Annaporna, Amber($$$$). Either they are expensive andbad or cheap and bad food.
Food is as good as u eat in a mess in Bangalore. Only thing bad is they make customers to ask repeatedly, instead they coming and asking for second round. If u are like me who is not ashamed to ask for more, then it is fine. Good food for $8.95 (unlimited servings except poori/roti). Their sambar, rasam, subjis are very tasty. I would have given 5 star if they volunteered to serve without asking. Parking is scarce.
I would go there again for good food.
Sometimes There Are Reasons to Avoid Secret Restaurants in Office Parks
I'm all about the hard to find ethnic hole-in-the-walls where you can get great food on the cheap. Well, Annapurna definitely has the hard to find ethnic hole-in-wall part down as it's hidden in an office park jungle and only has six tables, but after my experience eating there yesterday I can see it needs to work a lot on the great food and the cheap part.
$8.95 gets you a vegetarian thali lunch. Unfortunately there's no description ahead of time to let you know what that day's offerings are. The thali includes two vegetarian dishes, rice, rice crisp and pappadam shards, several pooris, sambar, something that looks like Corn Pops, and a drink. Other reviews have mentioned that their meal included chutney pickle and a dessert. Mine included neither. Also, although the server did tell me to let him know if I needed anything else, I didn't take this at the time to mean second helpings, as I read now in other reviews are available for free.
Mung bean dal --- I only was able to eat two small bites. It had a strong sour taste.
Pea, potato, eggplant curry --- This was the best thing in my thali, but that's not saying a whole lot. It was too oily and had started to congeal.
Rice --- The rice was fine.
Poori --- There were four small pieces of poori which was pretty generous. However, they were all cold --- probably because I arrived at 1:45. If they're going to serve lunch until 2:30, I think all the food they serve should be the correct temperature. Given the calories of eating bread that's been fried, I only think it's worth it if it's warm, so I only ate one poori.
Sambar --- Since the mung bean dal was a strike-out, this was the second half of my meal. I thought it was slightly too ketchup-y tasting (not that it looked like ketchup; just that it was sweet in the same way), and wasn't one of the better sambars I've had. I will say that the spiciness level of the sambar and the curry was perfect.
Pappadam shards and rice crisps --- These were fine.
Puffed corn with puffed red/pink balls --- I'm not sure what this was (maybe this was the missing dessert) but it looked like Corn Pops mixed with my Smurfberry Crunch cereal from the 80s, and didn't taste all that far off. It was a little sweet and much too artificial tasting.
Drink --- It seemed to be a thin, salty yogurt-y drink, and I avoided it after a single sip.
Basically my whole meal was the pea, potato, and eggplant curry and the sambar, neither of which were all that good. If I came across them in a buffet I would have avoided them after a few bites. However, since that and some pappadam shards were all I had, that was my lunch.
I'm really surprised that this thali lunch costs $8.95, and from past reviews it appears the price was only $6 a year ago. Assuming the food was good (which it wasn't), $6 is more in line with what should be charged, even with multiple servings. For $8.95 I would have much rather had lunch at Mayuri where my $8.95 could have been spent towards a great, constantly restocked lunch buffet or at Kabab and Currys where for less I could have had exceptional chicken boti kabob or chicken tikka masala.
I got back to my car after eating at Annapurna and thought, "I just spent 10 dollars on a lunch I half-heartedly picked at, and I'll probably be hungry in two hours."
UPDATE:
I just wanted to specify that I was wrong when I said the puffed corn with reddish pink puffed balls resembled Corn Pops mixed with Smurfberry Crunch cereal. I mean to say they resembled Corn Pops mixed with the Crunchberries from Captain Crunch. That is all.
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My indian friends and I go there for lunch 4 days out of the week. Down to earth food that is good, not oily, not overly spiced and simple. Lunch is $6 with unlimited helping of rice, chapati, 2 vegetable choices, dal, pickles, dessert and buttermilk. I even like the dal, which is more soupy than other dal and I am usually not a fan of lentils.
Located in a office park, so parking can be difficult. We prefer sitting in the small "lobby area" as it is more pleasent. The larger dinning area in the back make one feels like one is eating in a warehouse...which it probably is at one time:)
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My brother and I took away some food fom this place for dinner. Good taste and decent service.
I always have an amusing time when I go to a set menu South Indian place. The first time I went ( Komala Villas) the counter guy just pointed at a table and said nothing. No menus, no hello, food is just plopped down in front of you. Pretty whacky since I like the interaction of ordering but this time I was better prepared.
So my co-workers and I start looking for the address and we're somewhere in a 70's office complex. We see the sign and pull in. My driveway has more parking than this place has. Don't even try and park here. There's 4 spaces and one's handicap. I'd say just park on the street and walk . When you fist step in you realize that you are indeed in someone's old office building. There's a reception area and a warehouse in the back where they've ripped out the desks/cubes and put in tables for you to dine on. When I was last here I sat in the reception area next to a taped off door (which I think leads into the office space nex door) with a huge hole in it that looked like someone was trying to kick it down. Now this would scare most people off but if I hear the food is good I'll usually stick around and give it a go.
After an initial 15 minute wait (the place is small and I imagine there's only one cook) we sat down. We waited a few more minutes and the food came out. Curried green beans/cauliflower, daal, a slightly dense (more than Im used to) naan, and sambar. With this they give you an infinite supply of rice and papadum shards. There supposedly was a second vegetable dish but they had run out already. We also got buttermilk to drink along with some lukewarm water. Everything was pretty good but I had wished we came earlier because it was probably a bit fresher and I would have gotten another item. But for $6? Definitely a solid meal on the cheap.
In looking at their catering and online menu (http://www.annapurnacu...) they seem to make a quite a few items that you can't get at lunch. That unfortunately was one less star because there's nothing worse than the idea of being able to order something but not actually being able to get it. I definitely recommend giving this place a try if you want a new arrow in your South Indian quiver but it might be better to cater it (light bulb turns on) to get more of a selection and not have to deal with the parking and wait. Interesting experience nonetheless.
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I just tried Annapurna and liked it. You get a decent amount of food for $6 and it is tasty. It is a no frills operation (they mainly do catering) and its strictly vegetarian. You sit down and they bring out whatever the meal of the day is. I'm not sure if they always do this, but the guy brought us second helpings.
If you're in the area and want good cheap eats, this would fit the bill.
==update==
They increased the price to somewhere around $8 bucks. That puts it on the high end of "cheap eats" and it shows since the place is no longer packed during lunch.
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I am talking about the Annapurna on El Camino. Maybe it is the same one and it has moved.
Ambiance - terrible
Food - average
Staff - waiters were kind, however, the cash register lady makes you want to go home and eat bread rather than eat at the restaurant.
Prices - low, for what you get
Value for money, but since I don't like the food, I gave it one star.
Alright, this review is coming from someone Indian who misses homecooked Indian food...
I loved it. The owner of the place was quite welcoming and it was a little slow (came early to beat the lunch crown), so he took the time to chat a bit and tell me about the place.
The staff was helpful and pretty quick with getting me re-fills on anything i desired.
The place is not as small as the reviews implied...i guess my expectations were low, so i was pleasantly surprised that there were plenty of open tables...again, I was early.
The food - the day i went, they had pretty authentic Gujrati food. Very tasty, two sabzi's, poori, khadhi, papad, gulab jaman, rice and chaas (butter milk drink). If you like the creamy, heavy, oily stuff at Shivas...that's not what you'll find here. This stuff is really home food.
I do agree with one of the other reviewers, that $8.95 is a little steep. Esp when you can get a pretty good thali or meal at other indian restaurants for a couple bucks cheaper.
Other things to help set your expectations: you don't get to order what you want. If you want to know what's on the menu, you can call in advance, but half the fun is going to see what they'll serve up. There's no ambiance...but that perfectly fine with me. I was there simply for the food.
By the way, the review Nita wrote is for a different restaurant. The one on Elko is the one and only. The folks who own this restaurant apparently cater heavily and so don't have time to open another restaurant. So if you've been to the El Camino one...that's a totally different restaurant.
Others mentioned the parking already, but it's challenging enough to mention again. Park across the street (or some place else) and walk.
Hope you enjoy...
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