Sangeetha Vegetarian Restaurant

I realised I have not put up much about Indian food. And dare I talk about everythingasian. Sorry... My bad. Deepavali is coming, so I guess it is quite the right time to share some makan (Malay for eating) place with you.

This shop serves mostly Southern Indian food with some extension on Punjabi (Northen Indian)food. I find it interesting that the way the restaurant develop its menu is very much affected by the ethnic composition. You see, majority of Malaysian Indians are Tamils, Malayalese from South India, Ceylonese from Sri Lanka and the minorities include Punjabis, Gujeratis, Bengalis, Sindhis and etc mostly from North India.

Location: Lebuh Ampang, near Masjid Jamek, Kuala Lumpur
Review: Very good

Review
I've been to few Indian restaurants that have good ambiance (eg Madras, Annalakshmi, etc). This shop is another that offers you comfortable eating environment.

I don't really know where to start. How about drinks first. We ordered tea and pineapple lassi (yogurt drink). I supposed the tea is a nice complement to a hearty meal. I chose lassi because I believe lassi drinks served from Indian restaurants are more natural than the usually chemically processed yogurt drinks from the supermarkets.

I was rather hungry, so I ordered Sangeetha Special Thali (meals are generally called Thali in Indian language) that comes with a starter. We had difficulty identifying the ingredients of this soup. All I can say is that it is a vegetable soup garnished with 3 toasted bread. Not a very strong soup, but nice enough, especially with the bread.

Then it came... I didn't know my selection came with 1 bowl of rice and 1 piece of chappathi. The main dishes were accompanied by 10 other wet accompaniments (kuruma, kootu, potato masala, rassam, veges, dhal, sweets, etc) and 2 dry snacks (poppadum and dried salty chili).

I love the rice. It came hot and soft. Mixing it with all the gravies just enhances the impression. Love the overall mix.

Another friend ordered a Punjabi Thali that came with Naan, Pulao Rice and Pappad. The main dishes are also accompanied by Punjabi accompaniments like Raitha, Palak, Dhal and etc. The rice is more fragrant than briyani rice. Maybe because the rice mix in a lot of veges that increases the aroma and reduces the heaviness (I know this sounds stupid, but I can't recall the right word to encapsulate the effect). The drawback is that the naan was not hot, but it still has that chewiness texture.
The food looks so appetising, but I do not think I will be able to finish the whole set by myself. The menu actually requested that we do not share the set. What a waste.

My other friends ordered the Chennai Thali. This basically means South Indian/Tamil meals, as Chennai is a capital of the Indian State (formerly known as Madras). Anyway, the Chennai Thali comes with a choice of either chappathi made from atta flour (whole grain durum wheat) or white rice. The remaining accompaniments are quite similar with the Sangeetha Thali ( I have a feeling I have been duped to pay extra RM3 for Sangeethe Special Thali, heh heh).

Another friend ordered something more different. This is called onion rava dosai or masala or something. argh... the names are confusing me now. All I can say is that the dish looks appetising enough to induce me to come again an try it.

After all the hearty meals, just down a glass of sky juice and you can feel the bread and rice expanding. Extremely filling.