Annalakshmi Restaurant

Food was good. Ambience better, and concept excellent

Beautiful & peaceful place. I interacted with the reception lady who is very graceful unlike as mentioned by the 1star raters. Food is simple like home so can say home food away from home. Every business needs finances to run so what is wrong if expectations are there for payment. The ones who want free food shouldn't give poor ratings but must request to give free food instead of demanding it free. Introspection is required by such people with so low poor mental set. I myself saw 3boys paying only 5 dollars per person whereas they ate to their heart 's content & reception lady didn't disrespect or expected more money. Don't go on ratings and do visit if want to eat simple home food.

Great food. There was a special menu the day we had visited.

The Dahi wada was really tasty Also the two different Thalia we ordered The sweet dish of the day was out of the world (payasam) The ambience was lively and huge A must visit place as its based on concept of pay what you want Polite staff and totally vegetarian restaurant The spices added was also in proportion So for people who eat less spicy and want to try India food can definitely visit this one!!

I must preface my review by saying the volunteer staff are always humble and respectful of us guests. But the woman manager who mans the cash register is a rude and disrespectful money-grabbing creature that shames this establishment and its original founding guru, as well as the values it stands for. Just glance through the other one-star reviews here to see I'm far from the only person who thinks so. When you arrive at this place, two large, ornate carved wooden doors obstruct your way in. There are no windows inside. The feeling is one of unwelcomeness even before you enter, and claustrophobia when you are inside. The food is unremarkable and inconsistent. And you are obliged to pay a pretty penny for what you get. On both occasions, we paid more than what the food was worth, for reasons that are our own. On the second time I was here, the rude creature that resembled a woman pointed out a table to us, saying, "Table number 17. Move please!" Without so much as a glance to us. Oh, "move"? Are we cattle that are being herded? Even the cows in India are treated with more respect. When we paid and left, I handed her cash, which she snatched violently out of my hand as if the money might fly away if she wasn't quicker. Not a word of thanks was uttered, not a mention of "How was the food? Is everything alright?". She just said, "OK! Done." Yes, "done". On their website, they say: "Annalakshmi embraces the act of giving in more ways than one." Evidently, they do give in more ways than than one expects. And expect to reap that which you sow.

The casher lady got a lot of balls to ask customers to basically pay as much as possible, exploiting the fact that most people feel uncomfortable and guilt tripped when confronted to pay "as they feel like". We are on holiday and first time visiting Singapore. My bf hates indian food and it took me some convincing to try dosai for the first time. We googled good rated dosai place. The “restaurant” seemed very weird to begin with as there were no windows and no one could see inside from the street and it almost felt like some secret society going on or whatever as the staffs look very intimidated but we thought to give it a try as it has such good reviews. Even more weirdly, the”menu” did not indicate the price at all but we are on holiday and didn’t mind the price much as after all it seemed like a casual (and rather bizarre) Indian restaurant so didn’t bother asking specifically and we thought it was a courtesy. We just wanted a dosai each but the waiter pushed us to order more and so we ended up ordering two dishes each. Food wise, i thought it was okay and my bf hated it but everyone has different tastes so cant argue with that. Then we headed to pay then a scary looking indian lady came up from nowhere and demanded we pay however we feel like. We were rather shocked by her attitude as she was clearly not asking for altruistic/voluntary donation but giving the impression to pay “as much as possible you can”. We are no local and first time visiting Singapore and have no idea of what is the going rate for such food in this city. So we explained and asked for what would be the reasonable price range but she insisted with such a hostile attitude saying “no no no, you pay however you like”. We felt so helpless and awkward and didn't want to make a scene so we ended up paying 50 dollars for 4 very small portioned Indian street food. Then the lady became satisfied. Later we found out they charge 5 dollars for each dish we ordered for take away/delivery (funnily enough they do have price list for take away), which means we were completely ripped off. But the money was not an issue as we are fortunately from well off country but she could at least have a decency to let us know how much is expected per person to run this institution. Or the better way would have been informing us before we ordered not after we finished. The whole experience felt absolutely awful and left bitterness in our mouths because this place obviously takes advantage of peoples good heart and courtesy, especially tourists. I understand tourists often are expected to pay more however this place was the one of the worst experiences by far because the owner was trying to play some nasty mind game with patrons. They know too well that they can easily guilt trip people, sugar coating this scam as "conscience based payment system" while shaming those who do not pay as they want. How this elaborate scam is allowed to operate in modern country like Singapore is beyond us. The owner lady should be ashamed of herself, absolutely horrific and pathetic.

Food is as good as ever! Am impressed with how some dishes were change instead of just topping up. Flavours were on point. Varieties was good enough. Note that this place is fully vegetarian and run by charity basis. Indian food is usually around 10 bucks for a thali set in Singapore. If you are going for 2nds, do give at least $15. Will definitely visit this place again soon!

For lunch, only the buffet was available (price is up to the customer but $15 was expected). Found the buffet to be average overall. The sago dessert was too sweet. The variety of dishes could be better. The pilaf rice was not bad but the tomato rice dish wasn’t so great.