It seems that a lot of reviewers have already shared their strong feelings on the flavor (or the lack thereof) of Saravanaa Bhavan. To be honest, it's not terrible like some of the reviews would have you believe. But it's not particularly amazing either. Maybe if we had ordered from the menu, it would have been better, but we opted for the buffet option, and it was all... one-note... Not bad. Just not mind-blowing. It was food stuffs that helped fill our bellies before we left town. It's closer to a [*][*] experience in that "I've experienced better" but a lot of the [*] reviews are unnecessarily harsh.
I didn't touch the sambar. Sambar is one of those things that varies quite a bit even between two people from the same part of India. Personal experience has taught me that ingesting sambar (especially sambar that you've never had before) before a long road trip (or in my case, a long road trip and then a long plane trip) is asking for trouble and shaky leg syndrome.