Hotel Saravana Bhavan is one of the newer restaurants in Manhattan’s Curry Hill neighborhood. Its decor is simple. There are no silk prints of Mughal art. There are no large carved elephants. The tables are Lucite. The chairs and booths have beige padded vinyl. Nothing about the design panders to the nostalgia of the dozens of South Indian families who eat there every evening. Nothing about it evokes India, for that matter. But, as any patron will testify, Saravana Bhavan serves consistently outstanding food.
