If it is speed of finding a seat during crowded lunch hour and being served ten dishes then this place takes the cake.
As the name suggests the canteen is co located with Andhra Bhavan on Man Singh Road quite close to the BJP national office. It has a separate entrance and hence we were not subjected to the standard security check. We were there during lunch hours and found the place quite crowded. Crowd control was quite effective with this gentleman positioned outside, politely repeating ‘five minutes sir’ every two minutes. Sure enough, within five minutes he had three seats vacant for us.
This is a typical ‘thali’ joint where within minutes we were served a south indian unlimited thali. Looking at the crowd and the environment we just wanted to finish our meal to make place for others who were waiting in the queue. We were attracted to Andhra Bhawan Canteen for the spicy food we had enjoyed here a couple of years back. Finding ourselves in its vicinity the other day we decided to repeat the experience. However, this time the the typical Andhra spicy flavour was lacking, the place too crowded and the food wanting. Apart from the unlimited thali, we also ordered chicken, meat and fish dishes at Rs 70/- a plate. While the price was quite good, only the fish curry was up to the mark.
If you are the kind who likes to hop from from one eating place to another you may give this place a try but only for vegetarian food, otherwise avoid it.
Well Rajeev, I will not totally agree with your line “hence we were not subjected to the standard security check”. Just few days back we had a very bad argument with the security guy over there.
We were at the canteen around 9:40 pm and there was one constable and a private security chap. He was checking even ladies handbags, so I had enquired why they do not have a woman guard to check the bags and had a very bad argument, where the constable had even claimed that he can stop me from entering Andhra Bhavan forever, and AB canteen was not for public and was only for people within the Bhavan(?).
So on the security, you are right that there is minimal (X-ray scanner is off) and after that everything is – Ram Bharose!