Pavani Express

I used to go there before for their dosa. Their chutney and sambar are awful. I do not know why they don’t realize it.

This place is infested with roaches! As I was placing the order, I saw couple of roaches behind the counter! I pointed it out to the cashier (hispanic lady), she goes, Oh! Then says something to another person in the back in Spanish. DO NOT EAT HERE! Its filthy and nasty!

If I had to rate this place just for the taste or the value for money, I would be so tempted to give it a 4 or even 5!
But right now they are just too shoddy in terms of cleanliness, and I really hope they take it seriously and improve upon it! I don’t expect them to improve the ambience, but the least they could do is promptly clean up the tables and the thrash regularly!

The food was tasty… but the place was so frustating… and costumer service was poor… three star is just for food…

Worst décor. worst customer service. I have given 4 stars for the taste of the food. Every item, every bite is very very tasty. Probably the best dosa, idly and chutneys

I had a horrible experience at this restaurant today. I ordered Uthapam and while I was eating, I found a cockroach in the sambhar!!! It was so shocking !! I decided to immediately report it to the waiter. The waiter did not accept his mistake and said its pretty normal to find cockroach in food!!! Asked me to stop making a scene. Hotel manager was not present at that time… Meanwhile I was asked not to come to the restaurant if I cannot tolerate cockroaches in food… It was unbelievable to hear this after someone has been served u food with cockroach. I would not recommend anyone to go to Pavani express as it is one of the most unhygienic Indian restaurant. Their kitchen is also dirty and staff is very rude… Swear never to go to this place again. Very bad experience

I became vegan 15 months ago. Finding good vegan food in San Antonio is a little frustrating but the owner of Pavani (Reddy) has introduced me to a new world of flavors as he guides me through the extensive menu cooking only the ones that are vegan. They are all vegetarian.
So far I’ve tried 3 different types of Dosas, Lemon Rice, and the Gobi Manchuroan Dry. They have all been excellent, the portions are huge. The soup served with many entrees is call Sambar, and it’s made with crushed lentils, tomatoes, and potatoes. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself licking every last drop from the styrofoam bowl that it’s served in.
My wife is a bona-​fide meat eater, but loves the vegetarian dishes here. This place is a must try foor plamt based diet folks.

We order Mysoor Masala Dosa and Andhra spicy Dosa and Pori with Vegetable Korma. — My Mysoor Dosa it was so spicy — I can only imagine what my husbands tasted like. My mouth was on fire. I can normally handle spicy food. If we lived closer we would come back. The food was delicious. My son really like it too.

Small, hole in the wall, dive type place. Sort of like an Indian version of a cheap taco shack.
AC wasn’t very cold on a hot August day, so the interior was a bit on the warmish side. The cashier didn’t speak English very well, and the place isn’t exactly sparkling clean.
But the food is pretty tasty. I was shopping next door and just stepped in for a quick bite. I tried their samosas and was very happy with them. The best part may have been the chutneys — they had a tamarind chutney that was really tasty, and also an intriguing cilantro chutney/​mystery sauce.
The meals are served on styrofoam plates and the water is self serve. Not a big deal unless you’re an spoiled princess type.
Price are very reasonable and the food is good. I wouldn’t go there on a date night, but for a low key meal it’s not bad at all. I hope i get back to that side of town soon so I can try some of their other dishes.

Our last stop before we left back for our home city. The entrance and the ambience of the place might want you to leave the place and try something else, but wonders the food would make you overeat like we did. We ordered Andhra spicy dosa, it was delicious and we ended up ordering another just because it was so good. We also had Lemon rice which were a brilliant job again. The sambar and the chutneys are super yummy. The price for the food is so good, i would rather pay $$ for the food than $. Something commendable was that we entered during the noon hours and there was just a cashier and a man back at the kitchen. The customers were about 10 and this man without delaying, delievered all the orders of all the tables. Amazing!!. I highly recommend this place. A 5 star for the food but a 4 star for me only because of the restuarant aesthetics.

Horrible food. Powder sambhar, bland dosa, oily upma, ketchup tomato chutney…
Dirty place with unclean tables …
Only saving grace: madras coffee.

If you care about appearances don’t come here. This is a little hole in the wall that probably scares people off the moment they walk in the door. The food is served on styrofoam plates with plastic utensils, but if you can get over all that, the food is amazing. I usually get the Saag Paneer while my husband gets the Chana Masala. We love this place. It’s hard to get good vegetarian food here in San Antonio.

So far I thought sambhar at Sarwanabhavan which is a franchise had the best sambhar.
But after having sambhar at Pavani I should say it is the best and authentic sambhar I have in US. Simple restaurant from inside but the food (specially south indian) with great taste. If you appreciate good food with good taste you should definitely go here.

I only come here for the Gobi Manchurian because it’s oh so good!
I found this place via my non-​vegetarian Indian friend. I gave him a funny look when he suggested getting vegetarian food because I’m a meat eater by default. But after one bite of the Gobi Manchurian, I was converted!
Gobi Manchurian is an Indian Chinese dish of fried cauliflower (gobi=cauliflower) florets that are sauteed with onions. At Pavani, the cauliflower is cooked to perfection and has never been mushy. The dish has a nice level of heat that keeps you craving more. Oh and they are very generous with the rice! You will leave here full and happy!
Expect to seat yourself, serve your own water, and clean up after yourself. Sometimes the food is slow to come out, but it’s worth the wait. If you would rather skip all that, place an order for pickup! Sorry no delivery.

I’m really hating that I didn’t have the awesome experience that multiple rave reviews and newspaper articles lead me to believe I would have. Like everyone else before me has stated, the gobi manchurian is awesome. Everything else? Meh.
First, the restaurant itself: its a tiny little place in the middle of a strip mall, and not a nice one either. When I walked in, I was a little shocked by how dirty the place was. There was literally one other couple in the restaurant, but every table was dirty. It was pretty gross. About halfway through our meal, someone eventually came through to clean, but there were food remnants on tables for at least 30 minutes before then. The other thing I really didn’t like was that everything was served on styrofoam plates. My inner hippie cringed each time a part of our order came out. So much waste was produced. I really wish they would invest in some reusable plates, or even maybe switching to a more environmentally-​friendly disposable plate if that seems to difficult.
Service seems to be non-​existent here. You want water? Serve yourself. Your order is ready? Be prepared to be yelled at by the guy behind the counter to go pick it up yourself. You order multiple things? Don’t expect them to come out all at the same time, or even near the same time.
For a better experience, I suggest ordering ahead and picking up food. We ordered the gobi manchurian, the mixed vegetable curry with rice and eggplant pakoras. The gobi manchurian was great and came out at the same time as the mixed vegetable curry, which was ok. The rice that was supposed to come with it came out several minutes later, and the eggplant pakoras came out about 30 minutes later. Those were just ok as well, not really worth the 30 minutes wait after eating most of our meal.
Honestly, with the notable exception of the gobi manchurian, I’d rather go to any other Indian place in San Antonio for food. I may have to order the gobi manchurian to go, since it was delicious, but everything else was the same as anything you could get at any other Indian place in town with much worse service. Not impressed.

Ultra dirty place. Reminded me of irani galli café in hyd. Lo mein for hot and spicy noodles. Gobi manchuria was over filled with onion garnishing. And the chunks were too big. Finally the vada. Was ok. Taste of all the above was ok. I would have given 3 starts if the place was a bit tidy.

The food was good. I had paneer tikka masala. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but it was good.
I cannot overlook the cleanliness of the place. I have worked in restaurants before (for years in college) and the place just smelled unclean. It smelled like old dirty grease and old dirty mop water. The smell was w the worst while we were at the register, so it was coming from the kitchen.
After watching several episodes of Restaurant Impossible, I think this might be one of those dirtier kitchens. My fiancé was a restaurant manager for years and he was unsettled.
The staff took off their aprons before using the restroom, which was great to see. We haven’t actually seen the kitchen up close, but the smell was quite off putting. It could just be in the nooks and crannies. We haven’t gotten sick or anything, but ALL restaurants need a thorough cleaning DAILY! My fiancé ’ restaurants he managed were impeccably clean and never smelled.
I wish I could rate this higher because the food was good, but I was grossed out by the dirty kitchen smells.

This place is THE best place to get Indian food. I am not even a huge fan of Indian food, and I loved it! I’ve been to several Indian places, but this is by far the most authentic place I’ve been to. And, this place is also vegetarian, which is a new change of pace for me.
I actually came here with my sister, and we decided to share two dishes, so we ordered the masala rava dosa and the paneer tikka masala. The dosa is so incredibly huge, I can’t even describe… It’s basically has long as a subway footlong. They serve it on this tray, and it literally fills up the whole tray. And then, they have three yogurt base sauces that you can dip into. The dosa has a mix of curry and potatoes, and the outside is incredibly crispy and warm. This dosa is SO amazing.
The Paneer tikka masala was also good, I love that tomato basil taste, and it has tofu inside instead of the usual chicken. And it comes out with a huge plate of rice. Overall, I think this is the most that I’ve enjoyed Indian food. I will definitely come back here and probably re-​order the same thing, because it’s THAT good.
However, I do have to take off a star for sanitary purposes. The restaurant is a little old and I think it could use some redecoration as well as some cleaning now and then. But, a little dirt never killed anyone when you get to have food this good!

Based on all the reviews I’ve made 2 attempts to visit this restaurant. Both times walked away frustrated and without having tried the food. Customer Service and etiquette is 1 star at best. Times on the website and on the door are useless, because they actually only open when they feel like it. Stopped in for a snack most recently around 5pm on a weekend and one employee said they weren’t open (yet door was open). Another comes by & says they are and leaves to make a catering delivery, we attempted to order again and the 2 employees left look at each other with confusion and poor communication skills and say Not Making Food yet. Sign says open, door is open as well… so when will you be serving? Response: in a couple hours. Ridiculous! Update your signs then. This is beyond horrible IST (Indian standard time).
Not sure how they are managing to stay in business. Won’t be back to even try the food.

Two words: Gobi Manchurian!!! Get this dish and you will thank me later!
I am always hunting for good lunch eats that are close to work. After reading positive reviews on Unilocal about this Indian vegetarian place and learning that it is close by, I was determined to try it out.
Today, I stopped by Pavani for lunch with a foodie friend. Man, evers road does have some good restaurants. I frequent this area for Thai taste and phở hong phat but never knew Pavani was just right across the street. I read it was a hole in the wall place so I was afraid that it would be dirty and unpleasant. But the inside was actually much better than I thought. I guess a hole in the wall has different categories too. This wasn’t in the scary ass category for sure.
They don’t have servers here so you order at the counter and go get your own food. That’s OK with me but we didn’t get water to drink which was a bit out of the norm to me. We ordered masala rava dosa and Gobi Manchurian to share. Our orders were ready within a few minutes. The only complaint I have is that they serve food on plastic plates. But I knew I was eating at a hole in the wall so i was fine with it.
The dosa was huge! It is similar to a type of Chinese crêpe. It came with three different dipping sauce and a tiny curry bowl as a side. The Gobi Manchurian came with white rice. I did some research on this dish before hand. It is a stir fried cauliflower in spicy sauce with chopped onions and cilantro. It is a Chinese influenced dish.
I am not vegetarian but I am a big fan of vegetables including cauliflower. This dish was made to perfection, the cauliflower was not too hard or mushy. It was cooked just right with the right amount of spice! I had the same satisfaction just as eating meat, but much healthier for sure. Oh, sooo tasty!!! The dosa was good, not great. Guess I am not into the potato and peas fillings. Maybe I will try the vegetable spring dosa next time. Or I’ll just skip the dosa and get the Gobi Manchurian only!
Overall, I was quite happy with my new discovery. The price was reasonable too. Now the Pavani has been added to my lunch go-​to places!!!