Guide details

Tamil Nadu’s food is one of India’s great regional cuisines, and once you have eaten your way through even a few days in the state, it is easy to see why. It is built on a handful of humble staples used with extraordinary skill: rice in its many forms, lentils cooked down into sambar and rasam, coconut grated fresh into chutneys and curries, tamarind for its clean sour edge, curry leaves for fragrance, and that unmistakable tempering, or tadal, of mustard seeds crackling in hot oil with urad dal and a pinch of asafoetida. From this small set of building blocks comes a cuisine of enormous variety and, just as importantly, enormous contrast. On one hand there is the largely vegetarian tradition associated with temple towns and Brahmin households, refined over generations into the elaborate banana leaf meal. On the other hand there are the robustly spiced, often fiery non-vegetarian traditions of Chettinad, the coastal and Muslim culinary styles, and the Nadar communities of the south. Both sit comfortably within the same food culture, and both are essential to understanding Tamil Nadu at the table. Add to this the daily ritual of the tiffin breakfast and the near-sacred institution of filter coffee, and you have a cuisine that is not just eaten but lived.

The banana leaf meal (sappadu)

If there is one format that captures the spirit of Tamil food, it is the sappadu, the traditional meal served on a fresh banana leaf. Rice sits at the centre, and around it, in a particular order that regular diners know by heart, come sambar, a thin and peppery rasam, a vegetable kootu, one or two dry poriyal preparations, the mixed vegetable and coconut curry avial, a crisp fried appalam, a sharp spiced relish, a cooling bowl of curd, and often a spoonful of payasam to finish on a sweet note. The meal is eaten by hand, mixing rice with each accompaniment in turn, and there is a genuine etiquette to it, from the order in which items are served to the way the leaf itself is folded at the end as a quiet signal of appreciation. What makes the banana leaf meal such a treat for visitors is the generosity behind it. At the countless meals restaurants found in every Tamil town, servers move down the row of leaves with buckets and ladles, and rice, sambar and rasam are topped up again and again until you signal that you have had enough. It is unhurried, communal and enormously satisfying.

Breakfast and tiffin classics

Mornings in Tamil Nadu belong to tiffin, the term used across the south for a savoury breakfast or light meal, and the range on offer is remarkable. Idli, the soft steamed rice cake, is perhaps the most famous, often paired with fluffy pongal or crisp vada, the doughnut-shaped lentil fritter also known as medu vadai. Dosa, the thin fermented rice and lentil crepe, appears in endless forms, from the plain and simple to the spiced masala dosa filled with potato, and on to rava dosa made with semolina or the softer, onion-topped versions found at busy tiffin centres. Ven pongal, a comforting rice and lentil dish finished with cracked pepper, cumin and ghee, is a breakfast staple, as is upma, made from roasted semolina or vermicelli. Idiyappam, delicate steamed rice noodles also called string hoppers, and appam, with its lacy edges and soft centre, are especially popular along the coast, while poori served with a spiced potato masal is a hearty weekend favourite. Everything arrives with sambar, a trio of chutneys in coconut, tomato and mint, and often a spoonful of idli podi, the dry roasted lentil and chilli powder mixed with sesame oil that Tamils affectionately call gunpowder. Tiffin centres, whether grand old establishments or humble roadside stalls, are a genuine institution, busy from early morning through to the evening tiffin rush.

Filter coffee, an institution in itself

No account of Tamil food is complete without filter coffee, known locally as kaapi. Made using a traditional metal filter that slowly drips a strong decoction from coarsely ground coffee, it is then mixed with hot milk and sugar and poured back and forth between a tumbler and its accompanying dabarah, or wide bowl, to build up that characteristic froth. Served piping hot, it has a richness and depth that sets it apart from ordinary instant coffee, and connoisseurs speak reverently of degree coffee, a term rooted in the old practice of checking the purity of the milk. Filter coffee is far more than a drink here; it is a daily ritual, a reason to pause, and a fixture of both home kitchens and tiffin centres across the state.

Rice-based mains and everyday home food

Beyond the banana leaf spread and tiffin counter lies the everyday cooking that fills Tamil homes. Sambar and rasam appear at nearly every meal, alongside kootu and poriyal made with whatever vegetables are in season. Thayir sadam, or curd rice, is the great comfort food of the south, cooling and mild, often finished with a tempering of mustard seeds and curry leaves. Variety rices are equally beloved: tangy tamarind rice known as puliyodarai, zesty lemon rice, fragrant coconut rice and tomato rice are all popular for their portability as much as their flavour, making regular appearances in lunch boxes and on temple prasadam trays alike. Simple, quick and deeply satisfying, these rice dishes show a different, more domestic side of Tamil cooking.

Chettinad cuisine

Chettinad cuisine, hailing from the Karaikudi region, is one of India’s most celebrated regional culinary traditions, and rightly so. Known for its complex, freshly ground spice blends, it produces some of the most robustly flavoured food in the country, from fiery Chettinad chicken and mutton curries to the drier, intensely peppery pepper chicken and the spiced meatballs known as kola urundai. Traditional Chettinad cooking relies heavily on stone-ground masalas and sun-dried ingredients, techniques that were originally developed to preserve food for the region’s trading families and that give the cuisine its distinctive depth. It is not, however, purely a meat lover’s cuisine; Chettinad kitchens also produce excellent vegetarian dishes, built on the same foundation of carefully balanced spice.

Non-vegetarian and coastal flavours

Away from Chettinad, Tamil Nadu’s non-vegetarian and coastal traditions are just as rich. Madurai is famous for its no-nonsense non-vegetarian food, including kari dosai, a dosa topped with minced meat, alongside the city’s other great contribution, jigarthanda, a layered iced drink built from milk, almond gum, sarsaparilla syrup and ice cream. Across the state, parotta, the flaky, layered flatbread made by skilfully stretching and folding dough, is a beloved evening staple, usually torn by hand and dipped into salna, a thin spiced gravy, or a richer kurma or chicken curry. Biryani has its own distinctly Tamil character, often made with fragrant seeraga samba rice rather than the long-grain basmati used elsewhere in India, and towns such as Ambur and Dindigul, home of the well-known Thalappakatti style, have built their reputations on it. Along the coast, from Nagore down towards Kanyakumari, fish and prawn dishes take centre stage, with meen kuzhambu, a tangy tamarind-based fish curry, standing out as a true classic of Nadar and coastal Tamil cooking.

Snacks and street food

Tamil Nadu’s street food scene is a pleasure in its own right. Bajji and bonda, vegetables and lentil batter dipped and deep-fried until golden, are the classic evening snack, best eaten hot with a cup of tea. On the beaches of Chennai and other coastal towns, vendors sell sundal, a simple, spiced legume salad, from large baskets as the sun goes down. Murukku and other savoury snacks are made in households and small shops across the state, especially around festival time, while city street food scenes add their own contemporary touches, including dishes like atho influenced by nearby communities. For a proper introduction to this side of the state, the famous food of Chennai is a good place to start, since the capital brings together tiffin, street snacks, sweets and non-vegetarian specialities from across Tamil Nadu in one lively food scene.

Sweets and specials

Tamil Nadu’s sweet shops are an institution of their own. Mysore pak, a rich, ghee-laden gram flour sweet, and adhirasam, a deep-fried jaggery and rice flour treat traditionally made for festivals, are found in sweet shops throughout the state. Jangiri, a bright orange, syrup-soaked coil made from urad dal batter, is a festive favourite, while Tirunelveli is famous the country over for its wheat halwa, a glossy, chewy sweet unlike any other regional halwa. Srivilliputhur is known for its palkova, a milk sweet reduced slowly until thick and grainy, and Manapparai, near Trichy, has its own well-regarded style of murukku. Palani, one of Tamil Nadu’s important temple towns, is closely associated with panchamirtham, a naturally sweet prasadam made from a blend of fruits and honey, offered to devotees at the hilltop temple. And of course there is jigarthanda, Madurai’s iced speciality, which straddles the line between drink and dessert and is a must-try for any visitor to the city.

Regional specialities worth seeking out

Part of the joy of eating in Tamil Nadu is how closely food is tied to place. Madurai offers its bold non-vegetarian food and the refreshing jigarthanda, Tirunelveli its famous halwa, and Chettinad its stone-ground, richly spiced curries. Kumbakonam and Thanjavur, sitting in the fertile Cauvery delta, are known both for their own style of degree coffee and for the delta’s excellent rice and vegetable cooking, while Dindigul and Ambur have made their names through biryani. Along the coast, seafood dominates, with each fishing town bringing its own take on fish and prawn curries. Travelling through the state with food in mind is one of the best ways to understand its regions, since so often the local speciality tells you something about the land, the coastline or the trading history that shaped it.

Where and how to eat

Getting the most out of Tamil Nadu’s food is largely about knowing where to look. Meals restaurants, often simple and unpretentious, are the place for the banana leaf lunch, while tiffin centres handle breakfast and the evening snack rush with equal enthusiasm. Mess houses and military hotels, a name that has nothing to do with the armed forces but everything to do with brisk, no-frills service, are the traditional home of good non-vegetarian cooking. Street stalls and sweet shops round out the picture, offering everything from hot bajji to trays of glistening mysore pak. Eating with the hands is the norm for most of this food, and it is worth embracing rather than avoiding, since it genuinely changes how the meal feels. As with so much good food anywhere in the world, some of the very best Tamil cooking is found not in polished restaurants but in humble, long-running local places that have been doing one thing well for decades.

Tamil Nadu’s food cannot really be separated from its culture. It is generous almost by instinct, deeply regional in its pride, and built on centuries of tradition that show in everything from the tempering of a simple dal to the elaborate choreography of a banana leaf meal. Whether you are working your way through a tiffin breakfast, tracking down Chettinad specialities, or simply following the smell of filter coffee down a side street, eating your way across Tamil Nadu remains one of the great pleasures of travelling in this part of India.

The post Tamil Nadu Famous Food: A Guide to the State’s Iconic Dishes appeared first on Chennai Life.

Guide details

Biryani in Chennai is an everyday meal as much as an occasion. You will find it at a plain roadside kitchen with plastic chairs, at a decades old hotel near the beach, and at air conditioned chains with branches in every neighbourhood. Ask ten people where to go and you will get ten firm answers, usually delivered with some pride. That is part of the fun, and it means there is no single right choice.

The first thing worth clearing up is that Chennai biryani is not Hyderabadi biryani. Hyderabadi versions lean on long grain basmati, a heavier use of yoghurt and saffron, and the dum method where raw marinated meat and rice cook together under a sealed lid. Tamil Nadu biryani tends to be lighter in colour, cooked so the rice and meat come together in one pot, and built around a different grain altogether. If you arrive expecting the Hyderabadi style, you may be surprised. We think it is worth meeting the local version on its own terms.

What makes Chennai biryani different

The signature ingredient is seeraga samba, a small, short rice named for its resemblance to cumin seeds, or jeera. It does not have the long, separate grains of basmati. Instead it soaks up the meat stock and spices and turns soft and fragrant, so every mouthful carries the flavour rather than sitting alongside it. Not every Chennai biryani uses seeraga samba, some kitchens and chains use basmati, but the rice is the clearest marker of the regional styles.

The spicing is also different. Tamil Nadu biryani usually keeps the whole spice list shorter and lets ginger, garlic, green chilli and fried onion do the heavy lifting, with less of the sweet, perfumed edge you get further north. The result is savoury and direct. Two regional styles dominate the conversation in Chennai, both named after towns in the state, and both worth knowing before you order.

Ambur biryani

Ambur is a town in the Vellore area with a long biryani tradition tied to its old Muslim community. Ambur biryani is typically made with seeraga samba rice and is known for being relatively restrained, the meat flavour clear, the chilli present but not overwhelming. It is often served with a thin, tangy brinjal gravy called dalcha and a simple onion raita, which cut through the richness nicely.

Several Ambur style outlets operate in Chennai, and Ambur Star is one of the names you will see. Portions are usually generous and prices tend to sit at the everyday end rather than the premium end. If you want to understand what the fuss over seeraga samba is about, an Ambur plate is a good place to start.

Dindigul Thalappakatti biryani

Dindigul, further south in Tamil Nadu, gives its name to the other major style. Dindigul biryani also uses seeraga samba and is generally spicier and more peppery than the Ambur version, with a stronger hit from green chilli and a slightly firmer texture. The Thalappakatti name comes from a founder known by his turban, and the brand has grown from Dindigul into a large chain with branches across Chennai and beyond.

Because it has expanded so far, quality can vary a little between outlets, but the house style is consistent enough that you will recognise it. If you like your biryani with more heat and a bolder edge, this is the one to seek out. The mutton version has a strong following.

Chettinad and the old Muslim hotels

Chettinad cooking comes from the Chettinad region and is famous across Tamil Nadu for its bold, peppery, deeply spiced food. Chains such as Anjappar and Ponnusamy built their reputation on Chettinad dishes, and their biryani sits within that tradition, robust and well spiced, usually served with a side gravy and a boiled egg. These are reliable, comfortable places, easy to find and consistent, and a sensible choice if you are eating with a mixed group who want more than just biryani on the table.

Running alongside the branded chains is the older bhai kadai tradition, the small Muslim run hotels and roadside kitchens, often busiest around the mosque districts and at their best in the middle of the day. These places rarely advertise. The biryani is cooked in big pots, sold until it runs out, and eaten fast at shared tables. Standards vary, so it pays to go where there is a queue of regulars, but a good bhai kadai plate can be the most honest biryani in the city and usually the cheapest.

Well known names to try

None of these is the single best, and local opinion shifts, but these are names that come up again and again and are easy to find.

• Buhari, a historic Chennai name on and around Anna Salai, long associated with the city’s dining history and worth visiting for the sense of place as much as the food.
• Thalappakatti, the Dindigul style chain, widespread and dependable for the spicier southern style.
• Ambur Star, for the milder, seeraga samba led Ambur style.
• Star Biryani, another established name in the Ambur mould with a steady local following.
• Anjappar and Ponnusamy, the Chettinad chains, good all rounders when you want a full meal.
• Your nearest well regarded bhai kadai, if you can get a local to point you to one at lunchtime.

We would treat any list as a starting point rather than a ranking. The best plate is often the one closest to you, cooked fresh that day.

Vegetarian options

Biryani in Chennai is mostly a meat dish, so vegetarians should set expectations accordingly. Dedicated veg biryani does exist, usually made with mixed vegetables and sometimes soya or paneer, and many of the chains and pure vegetarian restaurants offer it. It is a decent meal in its own right, but it is a different thing from the meat versions and rarely uses the same slow built stock. If you are vegetarian and want the fuller Tamil Nadu experience, a good vegetarian restaurant’s meals or a Chettinad style veg spread may satisfy you more than a plain veg biryani will. Do check, as some smaller Muslim hotels cook only meat biryani.

What to know

• Prices. A standard chicken plate commonly runs somewhere around Rs 150 to Rs 350, with mutton dearer and larger or family portions more again. Simple bhai kadai plates can be cheaper, air conditioned chains a little more. Treat these as rough guides, not fixed figures.
• Portions. Servings are usually filling. A single plate is often enough for one hungry person, so order an extra portion to share before doubling up.
• What comes with it. Expect a boiled egg, onion raita and a spicy side gravy such as dalcha or a meat curry as standard. These are part of the meal, not extras.
• Spice. Dindigul and Chettinad styles run hotter, Ambur is gentler. If you are unsure, ask, and keep the raita close.
• When to go. Biryani is a lunch dish here. Fresh pots are ready around midday and the best kitchens can sell out by mid afternoon, so earlier is safer, and weekends are busiest.

The honest advice is to try more than one style before deciding what you like. Have an Ambur plate one day and a Dindigul one the next, sit at a busy bhai kadai for a weekday lunch, and pay attention to the rice. Once you notice what seeraga samba does, ordinary long grain biryani will never feel quite the same. That, more than any single restaurant, is what Chennai biryani has to offer.

Keep exploring Chennai

• The Best Restaurants in Chennai: Where to Eat Well
• Chennai Famous Food: The Dishes You Have to Try and Where to Eat Them
• Where to Eat in Chennai: From Filter Coffee to Fine Dining
• The Best Cafes in Chennai: From Filter Coffee to Third Wave Brews

The post The Best Biryani in Chennai: Styles, Spots and What to Order appeared first on Chennai Life.

Guide details

Chennai does buffets properly. On any given Sunday you will find families queuing at the big hotel restaurants, office groups filling up at mid range multi cuisine spots on a weekday, and a steady crowd at pure veg buffets where the value is hard to beat. It is one of the easiest ways to eat well in this city, whether you want a quiet weekday lunch or a long, lazy weekend blowout.

The trouble is that buffet quality and price vary hugely, and the same restaurant can feel very different on a Tuesday afternoon than on a Sunday morning. So we have laid this out honestly by type, from the five star brunches people search for down to the friendly standalone spreads, with rough price bands to help you plan. Prices in Chennai move around a fair bit, so treat the numbers here as a guide and always check current rates before you go.

The five star buffets and weekend brunches

This is what most people mean when they search for the best buffet in Chennai. The city’s luxury hotels all run all day dining restaurants with generous buffets, and their weekend brunches are something of an institution. They are not cheap, but for a special occasion or a group treat they are hard to beat on variety and comfort.

ITC Grand Chola is the giant of the lot. Its all day dining restaurant runs large international spreads, and the hotel is known across the city for the scale of its weekend brunch. Expect long live counters, plenty of seafood and a serious dessert section. It sits at the premium end on price.

Taj Coromandel keeps things a touch more classic. Its all day restaurant is a reliable choice for a polished buffet lunch or a weekend brunch, with strong Indian and Continental sections and the service you would expect from a Taj property in the heart of the city.

The Leela Palace has the sea on its side. The all day dining room here draws people as much for the setting as the food, and the Sunday brunch is popular, so book ahead. It is one of the pricier options, in line with the address.

Park Hyatt runs a well regarded spread at its all day restaurant, often with a lighter, more contemporary feel to the food. It is a good middle choice among the five stars if you want quality without the sheer scale of the very largest brunches.

Hyatt Regency on Anna Salai is a long standing favourite for buffets, both the weekday lunch and the weekend brunch. It tends to sit slightly below the very top tier on price, which makes it a sensible pick if you want the five star experience without the highest bill.

Sheraton, at the Sheraton Grand near the airport end of the city, is another dependable option, with multi cuisine buffets and a brunch that suits families. It is worth considering if you are staying or based in that part of Chennai.

As a general rule across all of these, the weekend brunch costs noticeably more than a weekday lunch, alcohol packages push the price up further, and taxes are added on top of the headline rate. The food is genuinely lavish, but you are also paying for the room, the service and the occasion.

Standalone and mid range buffets

Away from the hotels, Chennai has a healthy spread of standalone and mid range buffet restaurants, and this is where everyday value lives. These places typically run a multi cuisine buffet covering North Indian, Chinese, a little Continental and often some South Indian dishes, at a fraction of the five star price.

You will find them in areas like T Nagar, Nungambakkam, Velachery, OMR and Anna Nagar, tucked into malls, standalone buildings and smaller hotels. The lunch buffet is usually the best deal, and many spots run brisk weekday lunch trade with office crowds. Quality varies restaurant to restaurant, so it is worth reading recent reviews rather than trusting a single old recommendation, since these places change hands and standards more often than the big hotels.

What you get for the money is generous rather than refined. Expect a solid range of curries, a live counter or two, a decent dessert table and unlimited soft drinks in some cases. For a family lunch or a group catch up without a big spend, these are the workhorses of the city’s buffet scene.

Vegetarian buffets

Chennai has a strong vegetarian eating culture, and the pure veg buffet is a category in its own right. These spreads tend to offer excellent value, partly because veg pricing is almost always lower than non veg, and partly because the standalone veg restaurants compete hard on lunch deals.

You will find everything from South Indian meals style buffets, heavy on rice, sambar, poriyal and rasam, to broader multi cuisine veg spreads that add North Indian, Chinese and chaat counters. Several of the five star hotels also run pure veg sections or dedicated veg buffet options, particularly around festival times. If you eat vegetarian, you are genuinely spoilt for choice here, and the price advantage means you can eat very well for less.

Lunch buffet versus weekend brunch

These are two quite different things, and it helps to know which you are booking. A weekday lunch buffet is the everyday format. It is quicker, cheaper, and aimed at people eating on a schedule. The spread is good but not extravagant, and you are usually in and out within an hour or so.

The weekend brunch, especially the Sunday brunch at the big hotels, is an event. It runs longer, the spread is much larger, there are more live counters and specials, and there is often an alcohol package on offer. It costs a good deal more, and it is meant to be lingered over. If you want the full five star experience, go for the weekend brunch. If you just want a good meal without the ceremony, the weekday lunch is the smarter buy.

What you pay

Rough bands, and only rough, because Chennai prices shift and taxes are added on top. At the budget and mid range standalone end, a lunch buffet often lands somewhere around Rs 400 to Rs 800 per head, with veg on the lower side of that and non veg higher. Better standalone and four star spreads climb into the Rs 900 to Rs 1500 range.

Five star weekday lunch buffets typically run from around Rs 1800 to Rs 2800 plus taxes. The premium weekend brunches at the top hotels sit higher again, commonly in the Rs 2500 to Rs 4000 plus band, and more once you add an alcohol package. Across the board, veg pricing is lower than non veg, weekends cost more than weekdays, and the quoted price rarely includes taxes. Please check the current rate when you book, since these numbers drift over time.

How to choose

For the best splurge brunch, the big five star Sunday spreads at ITC Grand Chola, Taj Coromandel or The Leela Palace deliver the scale and the occasion, if the budget allows. Book ahead and go hungry.

For the best value, a weekday lunch buffet at a good standalone or mid range multi cuisine restaurant gives you the most food for the least money, especially if you skip the weekend premium.

For the best veg, a pure vegetarian buffet is the clear winner on both price and choice, whether that is a South Indian meals spread or a broader veg multi cuisine buffet.

Good to know

• Book weekend brunches ahead. The popular five star Sunday brunches fill up, especially for larger groups.
• Lunch buffets usually run from around noon to 3pm, brunches a little longer, and dinner buffets are less common outside the hotels. Confirm timings when you call.
• Always check current prices. The bands here are a guide only, and taxes are added on top of the quoted rate.
• Ask about alcohol packages if that matters to you. At the five stars these are priced separately and add a fair bit to the bill.
• Weekday spreads are smaller than weekend ones at the same restaurant, so pick your day to match what you want.

Whatever your budget, Chennai gives you a proper choice. Go big with a five star Sunday brunch, eat smart with a weekday standalone lunch, or lean into the city’s veg strength for the best value of all. Just book the weekend ones ahead, check the current rate, and turn up ready to eat.

The post Best Buffet in Chennai: Five Star Brunches to Value Spreads appeared first on Chennai Life.

Venue details

Long before South Indian fine dining became a phrase hotel groups reached for, Dakshin was already doing it properly. Tucked inside the Sheraton Grand Chennai Resort and Spa on Cathedral Road, it has spent years building a reputation as one of the few restaurants in the city that treats the cooking of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh as worthy of genuine culinary craft rather than a buffet afterthought.

A restaurant built around four states, not one

Most South Indian restaurants in Chennai lean heavily on Tamil food, understandably, and leave it there. Dakshin’s approach has always been broader. The kitchen draws on the Chettinad tradition of inland Tamil Nadu, the coconut and seafood heavy cooking of Kerala, the tangy, chilli forward dishes of Andhra, and the milder, more subtly spiced food of Karnataka, presenting them as a coherent, researched menu rather than a random assortment. This has been part of the restaurant’s identity since it first opened, and it remains one of the reasons it is still spoken about alongside Chennai’s best hotel restaurants years later.

What to order

• Chettinad chicken or the pepper based Chettinad preparations, for a taste of the region’s fiery, roasted spice character.
• Kerala style seafood, particularly fish or prawn preparations cooked in coconut and curry leaf, if it’s on the menu that day.
• Appam with stew, a gentler, coconut milk based dish that balances out the spicier plates well.
• Andhra style dishes for those who want real heat, they don’t hold back on chilli here.
• A South Indian thali or tasting menu is worth considering on a first visit, since it lets you sample across all four states in one sitting.

The experience

Dakshin’s dining room leans traditional rather than minimalist, with decor that nods to South Indian temple architecture and brassware rather than the stripped back look many newer fine dining spaces go for. On several evenings the restaurant features live classical music, often veena, which suits the setting and is worth timing a visit around if you enjoy that kind of atmosphere. Service is attentive and generally well versed in explaining regional dishes to guests who aren’t familiar with them, which is useful given how varied the menu is. This is a restaurant for a proper sit down meal rather than a quick bite, so allow a couple of hours if you want to do the food justice.

Location and how to reach

The restaurant is inside the Sheraton Grand Chennai Resort and Spa on Cathedral Road, a well connected part of the city close to Anna Salai and not far from Chennai’s Egmore and Central railway stations. Autos and cabs are the easiest way to reach the hotel, and there is parking on site for those driving. Given the hotel setting, it’s a straightforward stop if you’re already staying nearby or combining it with other errands along Cathedral Road or Alwarpet.

Practical tips

Reservations are recommended, particularly on weekends or if you want a table during a live music performance. Dress code leans smart casual, in keeping with the hotel setting. Prices sit at the higher end for South Indian food in Chennai, which reflects the setting and the quality of ingredients rather than the dishes being unusual or exotic. If you’re vegetarian, the menu handles it well, though it’s still worth mentioning any preferences when booking so the kitchen can plan accordingly.

Dakshin isn’t the cheapest way to eat South Indian food in Chennai, but it remains one of the more thoughtful ones, treating four very different regional cuisines with the same seriousness a diner might expect from any high end restaurant, regardless of what’s on the plate.

View Dakshin on the map →

More Chennai venues

• Murugan Idli Shop
• Southern Spice
• Avartana

Browse the full Chennai venue directory → · Read our guide to Where to Eat in Chennai.

The post Dakshin Chennai: Refined South Indian Fine Dining appeared first on Chennai Life.

Venue details

Ask any Chennai local where to get the city’s best idli, and Murugan Idli Shop comes up within the first couple of answers, usually before they’ve even finished the sentence. What began as a single tiffin counter in Madurai has grown into one of Tamil Nadu’s best known food names, and the Mylapore branch, tucked into the temple neighbourhood’s busy streets, is where a lot of Chennai residents first fell for the place.

A reputation built on one dish done well

Murugan Idli Shop didn’t become famous through a sprawling menu or fancy decor. It built its name the old fashioned way, by making the same handful of tiffin items consistently well, day after day, for decades. The chain started south of Chennai in Madurai and slowly spread across Tamil Nadu as word of the idli’s texture, impossibly soft, almost pillowy, travelled faster than any advertising could. Chennai now has several outlets, including this well loved one on North Mada Street in Mylapore, and each tends to draw the same steady mix of regulars, students, and visiting families who grew up eating here or heard about it long before they arrived.

What to order

The idli is the reason people come, and it is worth ordering it at least two ways.

• Ghee podi idli, soft idlis doused in ghee and a spicy, roasted lentil podi, is the dish most people associate with the brand.
• Plain idli with sambar and the two chutneys, coconut and tomato, remains the classic order and a good way to judge the idli on its own merits.
• Medu vada, crisp outside and soft within, pairs well with either.
• Filter coffee, strong and properly frothed, is the traditional way to finish the meal.
• For those wanting something beyond idli, the rava dosa and ghee roast are reliable, though idli remains the star.

The experience

This is not a place for a leisurely, drawn out meal. Tables turn over quickly, staff move with practised speed, and food is often served on a banana leaf in the traditional style, though steel plates are common too depending on the outlet and time of day. The Mylapore branch gets busy, particularly on weekend mornings and during temple festival season when the whole neighbourhood is livelier than usual. Expect to share a table, expect the coffee to arrive within minutes, and expect the idlis to be genuinely hot, which sounds like a small thing until you realise how rarely tiffin stalls manage it consistently.

Location and how to reach

The Mylapore outlet sits on North Mada Street, a short walk from the Kapaleeshwarar Temple and its tank, in one of Chennai’s oldest and most walkable neighbourhoods. Autos are easy to find from most parts of the city, and the area is well served by buses running along the main Mylapore roads. If you’re coming by suburban rail, Mylapore MRTS station is within reasonable walking distance, though the streets around the temple can be narrow and crowded, so allow a little extra time on foot.

Practical tips

Go early, ideally between 7am and 10am, or in the early evening from around 4pm, to avoid the longest queues. Parking near the temple is limited, so autos or a short walk are usually easier than driving. Card payment is generally accepted, though it’s worth carrying some cash as a backup at busier times. Portions are generous enough that two people can comfortably share three or four idlis plus a vada. If this branch looks too crowded, the chain has several other Chennai outlets, including T Nagar and Besant Nagar, that serve the same menu with a similar standard.

Murugan Idli Shop isn’t trying to be anything other than what it is: a proper, no fuss tiffin stop that happens to make one of the best idlis in the city. For a first taste of Chennai’s tiffin culture, it remains one of the most reliable places to start.

View Murugan Idli Shop on the map →

More Chennai venues

• Dakshin
• Southern Spice
• Avartana

Browse the full Chennai venue directory → · Read our guide to Where to Eat in Chennai.

The post Murugan Idli Shop Chennai: A Mylapore Institution appeared first on Chennai Life.

Venue details

Southern Spice has spent years near the top of most best restaurants in Chennai lists, and unlike some places that earn that reputation once and coast on it, this one keeps showing up on newer lists too. Set inside the Taj Coromandel in Nungambakkam, it’s built its name on taking the Chettinad and broader South Indian repertoire and cooking it with the kind of precision usually reserved for far more expensive, unfamiliar cuisines.

How it earned the reputation

Chettinad cooking, from the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu, is known for its layered use of roasted and ground spices, its love of black pepper and star anise, and its confident approach to chilli heat. Southern Spice built its menu around doing that cooking justice, alongside dishes from Kerala, Andhra and Karnataka, at a time when hotel restaurants often defaulted to safer, blander interpretations of Indian food for a broad audience. The restaurant chose the harder path of staying authentic while still working within a fine dining format, and that decision is a large part of why it has picked up so many industry awards and continued critical praise over the years.

What to order

• Chettinad chicken or mutton, for the classic roasted spice profile the region is known for.
• Seafood specialities, particularly crab or prawn Chettinad style, when available, are a highlight for those who eat non vegetarian food.
• Meen kuzhambu, a tangy fish curry, for a more traditional home style flavour within a formal setting.
• A vegetarian banana leaf meal or thali, which brings together rice, sambar, rasam, and a range of vegetable preparations in one sitting.
• Filter coffee to close the meal, served properly strong the way it should be.

The experience

The dining room favours warm lighting, wood, and understated South Indian design touches over anything flashy, and the pace of service matches the setting, unhurried but attentive. This is a restaurant designed for a proper meal rather than a fast bite, and the staff are generally well informed about the regional origins of each dish, which is useful if you’re new to Chettinad cooking specifically. It attracts a mix of business diners, couples marking an occasion, and visitors who’ve read about the restaurant before landing in the city, so the atmosphere leans a little more formal than most standalone South Indian restaurants in Chennai.

Location and how to reach

Southern Spice is inside the Taj Coromandel on Mahatma Gandhi Road in Nungambakkam, one of Chennai’s more central and well connected neighbourhoods. It’s close to the Gemini Flyover and within easy reach by auto or cab from most parts of the city. Parking is available at the hotel, and it’s a straightforward stop if you’re already in Nungambakkam or nearby Egmore.

Practical tips

Book ahead, particularly for dinner on weekends, since it’s a popular choice for anniversaries and business dinners alike. Smart casual dress is appropriate given the hotel setting. Spice levels can be genuinely hot in the more traditional Chettinad dishes, so it’s worth asking the server to adjust if you prefer milder food. Vegetarians are well catered for, and it’s worth mentioning dietary preferences when booking so the kitchen can plan the tasting portions accordingly.

For a single meal that captures why Chennai’s food culture deserves more attention outside the state, Southern Spice remains one of the most consistent and rewarding choices in the city.

View Southern Spice on the map →

More Chennai venues

• Murugan Idli Shop
• Dakshin
• Avartana

Browse the full Chennai venue directory → · Read our guide to Where to Eat in Chennai.

The post Southern Spice Chennai: Taj Coromandel Fine Dining appeared first on Chennai Life.

Venue details

Avartana doesn’t look much like a typical South Indian restaurant, and that’s rather the point. Inside the ITC Grand Chola in Guindy, this is where South Indian cooking gets pulled apart and reassembled as a proper, multi-course tasting menu, the kind of format usually reserved for European fine dining, and the result has picked up serious international recognition since it opened.

Rethinking South Indian food, course by course

The idea behind Avartana, whose name roughly translates to repetition or variation in the context of classical dance, is to take familiar South Indian ingredients and techniques and present them as a sequence of small, carefully composed plates rather than the usual thali or a la carte format. A meal here might move through a dozen or more courses, each one built around a single ingredient or idea, plated with the kind of precision more associated with modern European tasting menus. It’s an unusual approach for South Indian food specifically, and it’s the reason the restaurant has become a genuine draw for visiting food writers and serious diners rather than just hotel guests looking for a convenient meal.

What to expect on the menu

• A tasting menu format, meaning you don’t order individual dishes so much as commit to the full sequence the kitchen has planned.
• Reworked versions of familiar South Indian components, idli, dosa batter, coconut, curry leaf, tamarind, presented in unexpected forms and combinations.
• Seafood and meat courses alongside vegetarian ones, with a full vegetarian tasting menu also available.
• Desserts that draw on South Indian sweets and flavours, reworked into something closer to modern plated desserts.
• Wine and beverage pairings are usually offered alongside the tasting menu for those who want them.

The experience

This is very much an occasion restaurant rather than a casual dinner spot. The dining room is polished and contemporary, service is formal and well paced through what can be a long meal, and portions are intentionally small, built for tasting rather than filling up quickly. Expect the meal to run two to three hours once you account for the number of courses, so it suits an evening set aside for the experience rather than a quick stop before or after something else. It’s a good fit for marking a special occasion, entertaining visiting guests who want to see what modern Indian fine dining looks like, or simply treating yourself to something different from the usual Chennai dining options.

Location and how to reach

Avartana is inside the ITC Grand Chola on Mount Road in Guindy, one of Chennai’s larger hotel and business districts, close to the Chennai Trade Centre and a reasonably short drive from Chennai International Airport. It’s easily reached by cab or auto from most parts of the city, and the hotel has ample parking for those driving themselves.

Practical tips

Reservations are essential, not optional, given the format and the limited number of tables the kitchen can serve properly each night. Book several days ahead where possible, more for weekends. Let the restaurant know in advance about any dietary restrictions, since the tasting format means the kitchen plans courses ahead rather than adjusting on the fly. Pricing sits well above typical Chennai restaurant meals, reflecting the format and the level of craft involved, so it’s worth treating this as a planned splurge rather than a spontaneous dinner.

Avartana isn’t for every meal or every mood, but for anyone curious about how far South Indian food can be pushed while still tasting recognisably South Indian, it’s one of the most interesting tables in the city.

View Avartana on the map →

More Chennai venues

• Murugan Idli Shop
• Dakshin
• Southern Spice

Browse the full Chennai venue directory → · Read our guide to Where to Eat in Chennai.

The post Avartana Chennai: ITC Grand Chola Tasting Menu appeared first on Chennai Life.

Venue details

Buhari’s claim to fame is one of those bits of Chennai food trivia that turns out to be true. This is the restaurant that gets credited with inventing Chicken 65, a dish that has since spread across India and well beyond it, and more than seventy years after it opened, the original spirit of the place, no nonsense, generous portions, proper biryani, is still very much intact.

A Chennai food landmark since 1951

Buhari was founded in 1951 by Ahmed Buhari on Anna Salai, then Mount Road, at a time when the street was becoming one of the city’s key commercial arteries. The restaurant built a loyal following on Muslim cuisine cooked properly, biryani, kebabs, and a range of chicken and mutton dishes, and somewhere along the way, according to the story most Chennai food lovers know, a spiced, deep fried chicken dish served at the restaurant was named Chicken 65, reportedly after the year or a numbered item on an old menu, depending on which version of the story you hear. Whatever the exact origin, the dish stuck, and Buhari’s name has stayed attached to it ever since.

What to order

• Chicken 65, obviously, spiced, fried, and worth ordering here if only to try the dish at its source.
• Chicken or mutton biryani, cooked in the Chennai Muslim style, fragrant rather than overly rich, and a fair benchmark against which to judge other biryanis in the city.
• Kebabs and tandoori style starters, a solid option if you’re eating with a group and want to share several plates.
• Rumali roti or parotta alongside a curry, for those who want something beyond rice.
• A simple dessert, when available, to round things off, though the main draw here is firmly the mains.

The experience

Buhari is a proper, functional restaurant rather than a place chasing atmosphere for its own sake. Expect straightforward seating, quick service, and a menu that hasn’t needed constant reinvention because the core dishes still work. It gets busy at lunch, particularly with office workers and families from the surrounding Anna Salai area, and the vibe is more about good, reliable food than any kind of dining occasion. Portions are generous, and it’s a comfortable spot to eat with a group without worrying too much about matching everyone’s preferences, since the menu covers enough range to suit most tastes.

Location and how to reach

The restaurant sits on Anna Salai, one of Chennai’s main roads, within easy walking distance of the Thousand Lights area and well connected by city buses that run the length of Mount Road. Autos are easy to find nearby, and it’s a convenient stop if you’re already exploring central Chennai around Anna Salai, Thousand Lights, or Gemini. Buhari has opened other branches around the city over the years, but the Anna Salai address remains the one most associated with its history.

Practical tips

Lunch around 1pm can mean a short wait for a table, so arriving slightly earlier or later helps. The food is halal and Muslim cuisine focused, so there’s no pork on the menu, and vegetarian options are limited compared with the meat dishes, which are really the point of a visit. Prices are reasonable for the portion sizes, making it a comfortable choice for a group meal without a big bill at the end. It’s worth going in hungry, since biryani and Chicken 65 together is a fairly substantial meal.

Whether or not you buy the exact origin story down to the year, eating Chicken 65 at Buhari feels like tracing a well loved Indian dish back to where it plausibly began, and the biryani alone is reason enough to visit.

View Buhari on the map →

More Chennai venues

• Murugan Idli Shop
• Dakshin
• Southern Spice

Browse the full Chennai venue directory → · Read our guide to Where to Eat in Chennai.

The post Buhari Chennai: Home of Chicken 65 on Anna Salai appeared first on Chennai Life.

Guide details

Chennai has always run on coffee, long before the word barista reached the city. For generations the day has started with a small steel tumbler of filter coffee, strong, milky and sweet, poured back and forth to cool. That habit is still very much alive, and you will find it in homes, in old Mylapore mess halls and in busy standing rooms where a coffee is finished in a minute and nobody lingers.

What has changed over the last decade or so is everything around that tradition. Chennai now has speciality roasters weighing beans on scales, dessert cafes with glass counters, quiet rooms full of laptops, and brunch spots where the eggs matter as much as the coffee. We think that mix is what makes the city’s cafe scene interesting. You can drink a Rs 40 filter coffee in the morning and a carefully pulled espresso in the afternoon, and both feel completely at home here.

Chennai and its filter coffee

Filter coffee is the foundation, so it is worth understanding on its own terms. The drink is made from ground coffee, usually blended with a little chicory, brewed slowly through a metal filter that sits drip by drip. The result is a dark decoction that is mixed with hot milk and sugar. In Tamil Nadu it is often called degree coffee, a name that points to good, pure milk, and it is served in a tumbler that sits inside a wider bowl known as a dabara.

The pouring back and forth between tumbler and dabara is not for show. It cools the coffee to a drinkable temperature and builds a light froth on top. You will find the best versions in old established coffee houses, temple side eateries and the many South Indian tiffin restaurants rather than in modern cafes, though some newer places do serve a respectable filter coffee too. It costs almost nothing, it is quick, and it is the honest baseline against which everything else in the city is measured.

Speciality and third wave coffee

Over the past several years Chennai has grown a genuine speciality coffee scene. These are cafes and small roasters that treat coffee as a single origin ingredient, talk about the estate the beans came from, and offer pour overs, AeroPress, espresso based drinks and cold brew. Much of the coffee is grown not far away, in the hills of Chikmagalur, Coorg and the Nilgiris, so there is a real regional story behind the cup.

The style of these places is calmer and more deliberate than a filter coffee counter. You order a flat white, a cortado or a hand brewed single origin, and you are meant to sit with it. Staff will often ask how you like your coffee and are happy to explain the roast. Prices are considerably higher than a traditional filter coffee, which is the trade for the sourcing, the equipment and the seating. If you care about coffee, these are the cafes worth seeking out, and Chennai now has enough of them that you are rarely far from a decent flat white.

Dessert, bakery and patisserie cafes

A large share of Chennai’s cafes are really about what sits in the counter. Dessert and patisserie cafes have multiplied, offering cakes, tarts, cheesecakes, croissants and increasingly ambitious plated desserts alongside the coffee. Some lean French, with laminated pastries and eclairs, while others are all in on brownies, cookies and thick shakes aimed squarely at a younger crowd.

Bakery cafes tend to be busiest in the evening and at weekends, when families come in for a slice of cake or a box to take home. The coffee at these places is usually fine rather than the main event, so go for the baking and treat the drink as a companion. Expect to pay more here than at a plain coffee spot, since you are usually buying a cake or pastry as well, and a slice and a coffee together can add up quickly.

Cafes to work or read in

One of the most useful shifts in recent years is how many Chennai cafes now function as informal offices and reading rooms. Remote workers, students and freelancers have made the work friendly cafe a fixture, and plenty of owners have leaned into it with reliable wifi, plug points near the tables and a tolerance for people who order one coffee and stay a while.

Book cafes are a smaller but lovely part of this. A handful of places pair shelves of books with coffee and light food, and they tend to be quieter and slower by design. If you want to work or read, the same practical rules apply everywhere. Mornings and early afternoons on weekdays are calmest, weekends are not the time to hunt for a plug point, and it is only fair to keep ordering if you are settling in for hours. We have found the city surprisingly generous on this front, but a second coffee is the polite rent for the table.

Where the cafes cluster

Cafes are spread across Chennai, but a few areas stand out. Besant Nagar, near Elliot’s Beach, is one of the most cafe dense parts of the city, full of small independent places and a natural stop after a walk by the sea. Nungambakkam and the central belt around it hold many of the smarter, more established cafes, convenient if you are in town for work or shopping.

Adyar and Alwarpet both have a good spread, mixing neighbourhood coffee spots with dessert cafes and a few speciality names. Anna Nagar, further north and west, has its own lively cluster that serves the residential crowd around it. Out along the East Coast Road, or ECR, you will find larger cafes and cafe restaurants with more space and sometimes a view, which suit a relaxed drive out rather than a quick weekday coffee. If you are new to the city and want to cafe hop on foot, Besant Nagar is the easiest place to start.

What you pay

Prices vary enormously by type, which is really the point of Chennai’s range. A traditional filter coffee at a tiffin restaurant or coffee house costs very little, often somewhere under Rs 60 and sometimes far less. Step into a speciality cafe and a flat white or single origin pour over will typically land in the Rs 200 to Rs 400 band, depending on the place.

Add food and the bill climbs. A slice of cake or a pastry at a good dessert cafe often sits in the Rs 200 to Rs 450 range, so a speciality coffee and a cake together can easily reach Rs 500 to Rs 800 for one person. Brunch and continental plates push higher still. None of this is fixed, and menus change, so treat these as rough guides rather than promises. The useful takeaway is simple. Filter coffee is cheap and everyday, and speciality coffee and cake are a treat you pay a treat’s price for.

Good to know

• Opening hours vary by type. Many cafes open around 9am to 11am and run until late evening, while traditional filter coffee spots often open much earlier for the morning crowd.
• Weekends, especially evenings, are the busiest times at dessert cafes and popular brunch spots, so expect a wait or go earlier in the day.
• Cards and UPI are accepted almost everywhere in modern cafes. Small traditional coffee counters may prefer cash or UPI, so it helps to carry a little of both.
• Many cafes double as work and meeting spaces, with wifi and plug points, but it is good manners to keep ordering if you stay for hours.
• Air conditioning is standard in indoor cafes, which matters through the hot months. Terrace and beachside seating is far nicer once the weather cools.

The pleasure of drinking coffee in Chennai is that you do not have to choose a side. The filter coffee tradition is not being replaced by the third wave, it is running happily alongside it. Spend a day here and you can move from a steel tumbler in the morning to a slow pour over in the afternoon, and both will feel like the city being exactly itself.

The post Cafes in Chennai: From Filter Coffee to the Third Wave appeared first on Chennai Life.

Venue details

Ratna Cafe doesn’t do subtlety when it comes to sambar. Order the idli here and it arrives properly submerged, not just drizzled, in a bowl of hot, well seasoned sambar, a style the Triplicane institution has been serving for more than seventy years and one that regulars will tell you is the only correct way to eat idli in the first place.

A Triplicane fixture for generations

Ratna Cafe has been part of the Triplicane neighbourhood for decades, long enough that it’s less a restaurant choice for many locals than simply where breakfast happens. It sits in one of Chennai’s older, more traditional pockets, not far from the Parthasarathy Temple and Chepauk Stadium, an area with its own dense, unhurried rhythm that the cafe fits into naturally. The place has stayed largely unchanged in spirit even as the city around it has grown, and that consistency, rather than any reinvention, is exactly why people keep coming back.

What to order

• Sambar idli, the dish the cafe is famous for, idlis served fully immersed in sambar rather than with it on the side.
• Vada, either alone or dropped into the same bowl of sambar, which is how a lot of regulars prefer to eat it.
• Pongal, a softer, ghee rich rice and lentil dish, for those who want something milder.
• Rava kesari or a simple sweet, if you’re after something to finish on.
• Filter coffee, strong and served the traditional way, to close out the meal properly.

The experience

This is a working tiffin cafe, not a sit down restaurant, and the pace reflects that. Tables fill and empty quickly, staff know most of the regulars by order rather than by name, and the food arrives fast because it needs to, given how many people pass through during peak hours. It can get genuinely crowded on weekend mornings, with a short wait for a table not unusual, but the turnover is quick enough that it rarely feels like a long delay. The setting is simple, functional, and entirely unconcerned with looking polished, which is part of its charm for anyone who wants a real slice of everyday Chennai food culture rather than a curated version of it.

Location and how to reach

Ratna Cafe is on Triplicane High Road, in one of Chennai’s older residential and commercial neighbourhoods, close to Wallajah Road and a short auto ride from both Chepauk Stadium and Marina Beach. It’s well served by local buses, and autos are easy to flag down from the main road. If you’re combining the visit with a walk along Marina Beach or a stop at the Parthasarathy Temple, it fits naturally into that part of a Chennai day out.

Practical tips

Go early, ideally before 9am, or later in the evening, to avoid the busiest stretch of the morning rush. Cash is still the more reliable option here, though this can vary, so it’s worth carrying some just in case. Seating is basic and shared tables are common, so this isn’t the spot for a private, lingering meal. Portions are modest but the price makes it easy to order a bit extra without worrying about the bill. If you want the full effect, ask for the idli properly drowned in sambar rather than sambar on the side, that’s the version the cafe is known for.

Ratna Cafe won’t win any awards for decor, and it isn’t trying to. What it offers instead is a genuinely old, well loved version of Chennai tiffin culture, served fast, cheap, and exactly the way generations of Triplicane residents have always liked it.

View Ratna Cafe on the map →

More Chennai venues

• Murugan Idli Shop
• Dakshin
• Southern Spice

Browse the full Chennai venue directory → · Read our guide to Where to Eat in Chennai.

The post Ratna Cafe Chennai: Triplicane’s Legendary Idli appeared first on Chennai Life.