Sagar Restaurant

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Sagar is a true South Indian restaurant – the menu is entirely vegetarian and has a fantastic range of Thalis (selections of small dishes served in a steel tray with lots of compartments).  I went to the Hammersmith branch but they also have restaurants in Covent Garden and Tottenham Court Road.  The simple décor belies the quality of the food, but the hard surfaces and generic prints do not create a great atmosphere.

The food strays far from traditional British sub-continental fayre – a speciality is their lentil pizzas (£5-7) of which they have 7 to choose from including tomato, coconut and masala.  To drink, I opted for the salt lassi which was sharp and creamy, cut with cumin and a great compliment to the spicier parts of my dishes – my friends also had this and said it was as good as what they had sampled in India.  The starters all seemed fairly standard except for something called Idli which is a rice dumpling.  My onion bhajis were crisp and fresh with crushed coriander seeds giving them a beautifully flat spiciness; they were softened by a light and creamy coconut sauce.

I sampled both the north and south Indian Thalis, which both come with rice and bread: the highlight of the south was a sharp, hot and dry potato and mustard seed curry.  The north Indian Thali had some slightly more familiar dishes – chana masala (chickpea curry) , spiced cauliflowers (aloo ghobi), paneer and vegetable kurma – these were all well cooked with a nice crunch still remaining in the vegetables.  The Thalis included a wonderfully sweet and sticky Gulab Jammun for dessert.

Verdict
If you love curry, but want to try something a bit different I would strongly recommend Sagar.

Food 4/5
Atmosphere 2/5
Service 4/5
Value 4/5

Just one word “crap food”

Given the 5/5 stars I came hoping to be blown away by delicious South Indian cuisine. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen.

Good points:
Clean, warm and welcoming staff

Areas for improvement:
Food was uninspiring, quite bland (except for the sauces), unimaginative (even though the 2 1/2 ft paper dosa drew quite a few glances).

I think my starter was deep fried lentil patties and main was paper paneer dosa.

Dosas by themselves are just fairly dry pancakes. They come with sauces on the side. Don’t understand any hype about them.

It’s a shame – this place has a lot going for it, but just needs a chef who is willing to try something a bit different and experiment a little.

The Sagar mini chain is great for all lovers of South Indian cuisine and happens to serve only meat-free dishes. Brilliant sambars and fried daal are served here, and the atmosphere is laid-back and friendly. I like this branch for dropping in after a hard day’s shopping, and tend to frequent the Covent Garden branch when doing post-theatre.

Go for one of the giant-sized fluffy bread dishes if you want to be impressed (or horrified!) at how much food a human stomach can engorge.

What a treat from the usual Indian curry houses. One of us is a vegetarian but we both throughly enjoyed the food. Try the Dosa. Staff were excellent and explained the dishes. Price was reasonable. Wish we lived in London so we could visit more regularly.

really great southern indian restaurant. i recommend the dosa's!

Love, love, love this branch of Sagar. The staff are friendly and attentive, the prices are amazing considering its central London location, and the dosa are delicious, especially the classic Masala Dosa.

went on thursday night, was slight surprised finding us as the only second table, as after reading various reviews was expecting much more business! opted for the south indian food (dosa & utthapam) food was good, but not lived to the expectations the review gave! a must visit, good service from the staff. But nothing fantastic to keep coming back to.

Another Qype find! For those not versed in southern Indian cusine it is very different from your typical curry house and well worth a visit. We went for the thali so we could try small portions of a number of dishes. None of them disappointed. Service was friendly & attentive and the decor bright, clean & modern. Thouroughly recommended.

I usually go to Tooting to feast on dosa, idli and other wonderful South Indian snacks, but since stumbling across Sagar I’ve found it’s far easier and only a little bit more expensive to go central once in a while.

The Percy Street restaurant is nice enough to have business lunches, friend lunches and dates in but it feels down to earth at the same time. They do really good weekday lunch deals and the staff will happily explain what things are on the menu. If in doubt try the mini thali, which has an array of dishes for you to test, but make sure you get a dosa too - a crispy lentil pancake stuffed with potato, paneer or various other things.

I think Sagar is brilliant, and both sets of friends I dragged along with me recently agree. It was only as I was paying the bill the last time and making idle chit chat that I discovered they have a whole separate vegan menu - I am asking for that next time!

Man alive! I've just been here for lunch and felt compelled to write a few words about how great it was. I've been to the one in Hammersmith for dinner a few times and the lunchtime specials are just as good as the evening meals. And a total bargain too. £22 for the three of us. The £5 lunch included popadums, deep-fried aubergine, and two different types of massala as a starter followed by three different curries, rice, raita and a sweet.

For dinner, the Thalis are a great way to sample a few different dishes. I think there are three of four to choose from.

I don’t normally think much of vegetarian restaurants but I didn’t notice the absence of meat here and could not find fault with any of the dishes I’ve sampled here.