Annalakshmi @ Temple of Fine Arts, Brickfields

Price Range	Depends on you, really
Type of Cuisine	Vegetarian (Indian)
Recommended For	Those trying to go vegetarian but cannot stomach the idea of a meatless meal
Catphobia-Friendly	Definitely!

We got to know about this place from our fellow foodie, Azz. She told us that the place served really delicious vegetarian food and had a nice, almost posh ambience. We have our days where when we’ve wolfed down too much meat, we feel the need to balance it back by upping our veges intake. A small attempt at being healthy, maybe. But either way, we were keen on Annalakshmi, so we asked Azz if the place was expensive. She smiled intriguingly and said, “You pay what you feel you should be paying.”

The sentence didn’t quite register in our brains, and even when we stepped through the doors of Annalakshmi two weeks later, we were still dumbfounded. But as we ate, we learned that the motive of this unique pricing structure is simply to provide selfless service to its patrons.

Upon entering the restaurant, we were greeted warmly by one of the servers. We were informed that there were no vacant tables, and did we mind sharing a table with another couple? Sacrificing our privacy is such a small price to pay in exchange for their goodwill, so, no, we didn’t mind.

The food here is served buffet style, and consists of such items as rice, vegetable dishes, gravies and pickles. There’s white rice available, but you will definitely want to try the Nasi Pulav. We love how you can taste all the spices that went into that rice in every bite you take. 

Pulav rice, with spicy spinach, stewed vegetables, stir-fried eggplants and Manchurian cabbage, accompanied by some resam and dhall, and of course, poppadom 

The vege dishes on offer may not be extensive, but it’s more than enough for a filling dinner. On the night that we went, they were serving spicy spinach, vegetable stew, Manchurian cabbage and some stir-fried eggplants. The vegetable stew was especially good: carrots and long beans cooked in a delicious creamy sauce.

Some soothing after-dinner drinks: coffee and masala tea 

On top of the food on offer at the buffet table, you can also place orders from the menu. They’ve got chapatti and all kinds of tosai, among others. They’ve even got an assortment of lassi drinks, with mango being the clear favourite. Fruit juices are also available from the menu. And the best part is that, whatever you order from the menu is not charged separately, but still falls under the pay-as-you-wish method. We can easily see how this act of goodwill can be misused and abused, so we observed the other diners with us that night, and found that there was no sense of greed among them. It was all so very... peaceful. And as our table was right by the cashier, we could see that most of them paid rather generously.

In short, this is a surprisingly great place for a meal. The food is absolutely satisfying. The ambience of this restaurant is classy and very comfortable. The service is also excellent. And you choose the price you pay. It can’t get any better than this! 

 Annalakshmi

116, Jalan Berhala
Brickfields
50470 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

T: +603 2274 0799

T: +6019 321 1434

GPS: 

3.129043, 101.688359

Parking: 

Quite hard to find parking here during lunch hour so it might help to go a little early. 

Or you could go for dinner, as it's a bit easier finding parking here at night.