The Best Restaurants in Chennai: Where to Eat Well

Chennai eats with quiet confidence. This is a city that measures its mornings in tumblers of filter coffee, that will argue happily about whose idli is softer, and that treats a plain banana leaf meal as something close to a birthright. Before you get to the fancy end of things, you should understand that the everyday food here is already very good, often cooked in places that have been doing the same few dishes for fifty years or more.

And then there is everything else. Fiery Chettinad chicken, biryani that people cross the city for, prawns from the coast, tandoori and dal from the north, and a serious fine dining scene tucked inside the big hotels. We have tried to lay this out by what you actually want to eat, so you can pick a meal rather than scroll a list. One honest caveat up front: menus, timings and prices in Chennai change, so treat everything below as a guide and check before you set off.

The great South Indian institutions

If you eat one kind of food in Chennai, make it this. Tiffin is the local word for the light meals eaten at breakfast and in the evening, and the classics are idli, dosa, vada, pongal and uthappam, all served with sambar and a row of chutneys. A good idli should be soft enough to barely need chewing. A good dosa should be crisp at the edges and smell faintly of the pan.

Murugan Idli Shop is the name people reach for first, known across the city for idli that arrives soft and steaming with a generous spread of chutneys. Ratna Cafe in Triplicane has built its reputation on one thing, the sambar it ladles over its idli, and regulars will tell you to just keep asking for more. Saravana Bhavan is the big, reliable, spotless chain that took Chennai tiffin worldwide, and it is a safe first stop if you are new to the food. For something older and rougher around the edges, Rayar’s Mess in Mylapore is a tiny, much loved spot that has been serving the same short list of tiffin for generations, while Karpagambal Mess, right by the Kapaleeshwarar temple, does a proper Tamil meal in unfussy surroundings.

The meals, said as one word, is the other half of this story. It is the midday plate, rice ringed by sambar, rasam, kootu, poriyal, curd and a sweet, served on a banana leaf and refilled until you press your hand over the leaf to say enough. Mylapore is full of places doing this well, and it remains one of the best value lunches anywhere. Wash it all down with filter coffee, poured back and forth between tumbler and dabara until it froths. Nobody here calls it a coffee culture. It just is one.

Chettinad and Tamil non vegetarian

Chettinad cooking comes from the Chettinad region south of Chennai, and it is where Tamil food turns bold and hot. Think dark, dry masalas built on freshly roasted spices, plenty of black pepper, curry leaves and dried red chillies, with dishes like Chettinad chicken, pepper chicken, nandu masala and kola urundai, the spiced meatballs. It is not shy food, and it is usually eaten with rice, parotta or dosa.

Anjappar and Ponnusamy are the two names most associated with Chettinad and Tamil non vegetarian cooking in the city, both with several branches and both a dependable introduction to the style. Beyond the well known chains, smaller family run kitchens across Chennai do fierce, satisfying versions, and if you like heat, this is the food to seek out. Ask for the pepper chicken. Ask how spicy before you commit.

Biryani

Chennai loves its biryani, and the local versions lean towards the fragrant, seeraga samba rice style rather than the heavier northern kind. Dindigul Thalappakatti is the household name, built on that short grained seeraga samba rice and a distinctive spicing. Buhari is an old Chennai institution, and the Anjappar and Ponnusamy kitchens turn out their own well liked plates too. This is a deep topic and we have given it a page of its own, so for the full run through of styles, the big names and where to go, see our dedicated Chennai biryani guide.

Seafood

Chennai sits on the Bay of Bengal, and the coast shows up on the plate. Fish fry, prawn masala, crab and the day’s catch turn up everywhere from tiny stalls near the fishing harbours to smarter sit down restaurants. The Chettinad kitchens do excellent seafood, meen kuzhambu and pepper prawns among them, and many multi cuisine places along the coast road keep fish and prawns on the menu. If you want it simplest and freshest, look for places that fry the catch to order rather than holding it. Along the East Coast Road you will find seafood spots that make a proper afternoon of it.

Fine dining and five star restaurants

Chennai’s serious fine dining mostly lives inside its luxury hotels, and a few of these restaurants are genuinely worth planning a trip around. The ITC Grand Chola is the heavyweight, home to Peshawri, the north west frontier grill known for its tandoori meats, dal and blackened whole prawns, and to Avartana, a modern South Indian tasting menu restaurant that has drawn a lot of attention for reworking regional flavours into small, precise plates. If you only do one fine dining meal in the city, Avartana is the one most people talk about.

At the Taj Coromandel, Southern Spice is the long standing showcase for the four southern states, doing refined versions of Chettinad, Andhra and Kerala cooking in a grand room. Across the top hotels you will find similar signature restaurants covering North Indian, pan Asian and progressive Indian, along with the polished all day multi cuisine spaces the five stars are known for. These are the places to book ahead, dress up a little, and let the meal run long. Expect the bill to match the setting.

North Indian, Asian and multi cuisine

Away from the hotels, Chennai has a broad mid range and upmarket spread. North Indian restaurants doing tandoori, butter chicken, dals and breads are everywhere, and they are a reliable choice when you have had your fill of rice and sambar. Pan Asian food, Thai, Chinese and Japanese, has grown steadily, with plenty of stylish standalone restaurants in the central neighbourhoods. Continental and multi cuisine places round it out, the sort of menus that let a mixed table each order what they fancy.

Nungambakkam and its neighbours are thick with this kind of restaurant, from smart independents to well run local groups. Quality varies, as it does anywhere, so it pays to check recent word of mouth. But if you are travelling with people who do not all want South Indian food at every meal, this is the tier that keeps everyone happy.

Where the restaurants cluster

Mylapore is the traditional heart, the temple district where the old tiffin houses, meals messes and filter coffee live. Come here for the classics and the atmosphere. Nungambakkam is the central fine dining and smart casual belt, dense with independent restaurants, cafes and the kind of places you would pick for a nicer evening out. T Nagar is the shopping crush, and you eat here between errands, tiffin, meals and quick North Indian in equal measure. Besant Nagar, near Elliot’s Beach, has a younger, breezier scene of cafes and casual restaurants, good for an unhurried evening. And the East Coast Road (ECR) running south is where you head for seafood, weekend drives and restaurants with a bit of space around them.

What you pay

Rough bands, and please treat them as rough. A tiffin breakfast or a banana leaf meal is the cheapest and often the best value eating you will do, somewhere around Rs 60 to Rs 250 a head depending on the place and how much you order. Filter coffee is small change on top. Mid range restaurants, the Chettinad kitchens, the North Indian and multi cuisine spots, tend to land around Rs 300 to Rs 700 a head for a proper meal, more if you add drinks. Fine dining at the five star hotels is a different order of thing, with tasting menus at places like Avartana starting around Rs 2500 and rising well beyond once you add courses, wine pairings and taxes. As always, check current prices, because these move.

How to choose

Short version, for when you just want a decision. Best cheap eat: a plate of idli or a dosa at Murugan Idli Shop, or sambar idli at Ratna Cafe. Best meals: a banana leaf lunch at one of the Mylapore messes, Karpagambal or Rayar’s among them. Best splurge: the tasting menu at Avartana in the ITC Grand Chola, with Peshawri close behind if you want grilled meats. Best biryani: Dindigul Thalappakatti for the classic seeraga samba style, though our biryani guide has the fuller shortlist.

Good to know

• Many of the best veg tiffin and meals places are cash light operations, busy, quick and not built for lingering. Go a little before peak times, and do not expect table service to fuss over you. That is part of the charm.
• Book fine dining ahead. The signature hotel restaurants, Avartana especially, fill up, and walking in on spec often will not work.
• Chennai is one of the easiest cities in India to eat well as a vegetarian. Whole restaurants are pure veg, and it is the default rather than an afterthought.
• Watch the timings. Tiffin places run at breakfast and again in the evening, meals are a midday thing, and some of the older messes keep short, specific hours and simply stop when the food runs out.
• If you are unsure about spice, say so. Chettinad and Andhra dishes can be genuinely hot, and kitchens will usually adjust.

You could eat in Chennai for a week and only scratch the surface, moving from a Rs 80 breakfast to a slow hotel dinner and never once eating badly. Start with the tiffin and the meals, because that is the city’s own food and it is superb. Then follow your appetite outward, to the Chettinad heat, the biryani, the coast and the fine dining rooms. Wherever you land, order the filter coffee to finish.