Restaurants, eat outs, signature restaurants and speciality restaurants in Chennai

[SVG]

Originally Posted by indiatraveller

Absolutely. Dosas at Adigas and CTR (Malleswaram) are the best I have had. 'Benne Masala dosa' is yummy. I don't remember one restaurant in Chennai that serves tasty crispy dosas. My mom makes dosas (10 dosas with a Rs 25 dosa mavu packet) that are 100 times better than the soggy, tasteless ones at Sangeetha and Saravana bhavan costing 80 bucks.

The sweet sambhar does not go well with rice, but for Idly / Dosa, it aint too bad.

I can think of the SAMRAT Restaurant in the CHALUKYA Hotel on Race Course Road in Bangalore. They had such mouthwatering masala dosas / Rava Idli ... Not sure if they are still there and if the dosas are as good as they used to be. I always missed such dosas in Chennai.

I am not sure why the Bangalore based chains are still hesitating to enter Chennai. They would have a huge market for the quality / price they offer.

Sorry if I am off topic on this thread.

[engineer.akash]

Originally Posted by krishnaswamy

When we talk about kayenthi bhavans,
Pavazhanthangal Bhavani (1 at the left side of the subway) , T.Nagar Brilliant tutorial opposite 1,
Anna Nagar (i think somebody has already mentioned about it) karthik tiffin center.

but bangalore darshini's coconut chutney is good. Try Basavangudi vidhyarthi bhavan, MTR. I always like Karabath(namma ooru Rava uppuma), Vada, Masala Dosa.

That vidyarthi bhavan standards has gone down my friends say....Karabath you get it good in Brahmin's coffee basavangudi off bull temple road.

Originally Posted by reswaran

But read an article sometime back that darshinis are closing faster for the simple reason that its very difficult to run a shop with just idlis and dosas considering the spiraling real estate rents, raw materials cost.

Myself and my friend have noticied that to keep their shops running they have limited the availability of cheap foods like idlis. In most shops its very difficult to get idlis beyond 7 or 8pm and they push for fried rice, rotis, naans with separate side dishes instead to increase their margin.

We are going the US way in our lifestyle and that will reflect in the evolution of these restaurants as well.

True man, I hate north indian oily crap,I never like to eat those heavy oily things especially during night. I will settle for a good south indian (preferably belgaum style) - Jowar roti/Wheat chappati,vegetables,rice and rasam.

Originally Posted by indiatraveller

Absolutely. Dosas at Adigas and CTR (Malleswaram) are the best I have had. 'Benne Masala dosa' is yummy. I don't remember one restaurant in Chennai that serves tasty crispy dosas. My mom makes dosas (10 dosas with a Rs 25 dosa mavu packet) that are 100 times better than the soggy, tasteless ones at Sangeetha and Saravana bhavan costing 80 bucks.

The sweet sambhar does not go well with rice, but for Idly / Dosa, it aint too bad.

That benne masala dosa you get it best in davangere, Bangalore chains are a fail compared to those davangere ones.

@sweet sambar

I just hate it man....Simply hate it....Love chennai sambar anyday.

Each one has their own liking,as a belgaumite I never liked this sweet sambar as we prepare sambar very different compared to old mysore region.

But I must agree in food sense Karnataka and Tamil nadu food joints have made a big jackpot. be it the Kamats,Adigas,Sagars,MTR,sangeethas,sarvana,Adyar anand bhavan etc etc...

Udupi hotels in mumbai/pune are a class apart run by kamats and pai types.. Their samabar is good.

Andhra is just ok, good for rice in Andhra mess once in a while, but kerala food is too bad(no offence please it is my opinion)

[engineer.akash]

Has anyone tried Hot chips in chennai adyar?

I liked their north indian food.

My hostel mess served the best pongal in entire chennai or say TN or world

Pongal mixture..Heard of it???

Pongal mixture = pongal + ghee + chennai sambar + vada pieces thrown in here and there,that was how i used to have pongal mixture :P Food in chennai is amazing!!!

[ranga]

Originally Posted by engineer.akash

That vidyarthi bhavan standards has gone down my friends say....Karabath you get it good in Brahmin's coffee basavangudi off bull temple road.




True man, I hate north indian oily crap,I never like to eat those heavy oily things especially during night. I will settle for a good south indian (preferably belgaum style) - Jowar roti/Wheat chappati,vegetables,rice and rasam.




That benne masala dosa you get it best in davangere, Bangalore chains are a fail compared to those davangere ones.

@sweet sambar

I just hate it man....Simply hate it....Love chennai sambar anyday.

Each one has their own liking,as a belgaumite I never liked this sweet sambar as we prepare sambar very different compared to old mysore region.

But I must agree in food sense Karnataka and Tamil nadu food joints have made a big jackpot. be it the Kamats,Adigas,Sagars,MTR,sangeethas,sarvana,Adyar anand bhavan etc etc...

Udupi hotels in mumbai/pune are a class apart run by kamats and pai types.. Their samabar is good.

Andhra is just ok, good for rice in Andhra mess once in a while, but kerala food is too bad(no offence please it is my opinion)

The best sambar i have tasted at Palimar hotel,Chennai and Pai restauarant at wilson garden Bangalore long time back.No sweet but appropriate karum and mouth watering.Many northies and Andhras simply sipped and some drank the sambar from the katoris.

[ranga]

[QUOTE=engineer.akash;97774498]That vidyarthi bhavan standards has gone
True man, I hate north indian oily crap,I never like to eat those heavy oily things especially during night. I will settle for a good south indian (preferably belgaum style) - Jowar roti/Wheat chappati,vegetables,rice and rasam.

Hot hot Jowari rotis along with aamrus is excellent.Many maharashtrians,Kannadigas from the Hyderabad karnataka regions lap it up in the mango season Small eating joints run by lingayats in Gulbarga dist and areas bordering Telengana regions of A.P serve hot jowori rotis and a black coloured spicy powder consisting of menthi,garlic,mustard (pounded together)tastes very good.

[engineer.akash]

Originally Posted by ranga

The best sambar i have tasted at Palimar hotel,Chennai and Pai restauarant at wilson garden Bangalore long time back.No sweet but appropriate karum and mouth watering.Many northies and Andhras simply sipped and some drank the sambar from the katoris.

True,kamat and pai + udupi restaurants serve good samabr. The ones in Bangalore are worst to say the least.Which idiot even taught them to add sugar

[karkal]

Originally Posted by engineer.akash

My hostel mess served the best pongal in entire chennai or say TN or world

Pongal mixture..Heard of it???

Pongal mixture = pongal + ghee + chennai sambar + vada pieces thrown in here and there,that was how i used to have pongal mixture :P Food in chennai is amazing!!!

Chicago Balaji Temple's Pongal + Vadai + Sambar is the best.

[strike2]

Originally Posted by indiatraveller

Absolutely. Dosas at Adigas and CTR (Malleswaram) are the best I have had. 'Benne Masala dosa' is yummy. I don't remember one restaurant in Chennai that serves tasty crispy dosas. My mom makes dosas (10 dosas with a Rs 25 dosa mavu packet) that are 100 times better than the soggy, tasteless ones at Sangeetha and Saravana bhavan costing 80 bucks.

The sweet sambhar does not go well with rice, but for Idly / Dosa, it aint too bad.

Maybe it is because I have been eating at those restaurants at Bangalore from a long time but when i recently visited chennai I really liked the taste of masala dosa at saravana bhavan [ mount road one I think dont remember the area ]

But the best dosa I ever had was at Annapoorna hotel in Coimbatore even though it was costly i still crave for it

I notice that hotels in TN serve different varieties of chutney which they dont do here

[engineer.akash]

I still wonder why Andhra has no big food names to itself?? All we see are those dingy andhra messes.

In south, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu food joints rock man.I love south indian food.

[engineer.akash]

Originally Posted by strike2

I notice that hotels in TN serve different varieties of chutney which they dont do here

Yes even for idli you get Pudina+ ghee and shenga cutney The best part of it is ghee and groundnut chutney.
Loved this all time rush restaurant

[krishnaswamy]

Polymer hotel near that Gemini flyover is still there? i heard it was good.with that mindset, i tried chrompet Polymer. it is little bit disappointment.

talking about Pongal+sambar, I feel "Namma Veedu" Vasantha bhavan near Vadapalani bus stand is mouth watering.

[proprashanth]

Originally Posted by engineer.akash

I still wonder why Andhra has no big food names to itself?? All we see are those dingy andhra messes.

In south, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu food joints rock man.I love south indian food.

I guess Amaravathi is quite an established chain. Andhra Meals(T Nagar and Valasaravakkam) restaurant is not bad.

[proprashanth]

I have informed about both Spice market and BBQ nation to my friends as suggested by members here.
Any good restaurants for good turkish/arab food? Earlier 'Arabian hut' in citi center mall used to be good but now it's horrible. Even Sea shell at Anna Nagar has bad taste now. I wonder why these restaurants lose their authentic taste once they are well established. To control crowd?

[ranga]

Originally Posted by engineer.akash

I still wonder why Andhra has no big food names to itself?? All we see are those dingy andhra messes.

In south, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu food joints rock man.I love south indian food.

Have u tasted MLA peasarattu in vijayawada and babhai hotel potato bondas they taste different and are good.Taste kocchu venkayakura made of brinjal and oil tates excellent somewhat like Bagara bainghan of deccan.

[sridhar_n]

Andhraites love their chutneys especially the ghongura chutney. During lunch they first start with ghongura chutney saadam and then sambar saadam. Talking abt lunch, I just love the paruppu podi sadam of saravana bhavan. I once asked them if they would sell some paruppu podi, but they refused.

[engineer.akash]

Originally Posted by ranga

Have u tasted MLA peasarattu in vijayawada and babhai hotel potato bondas they taste different and are good.Taste kocchu venkayakura made of brinjal and oil tates excellent somewhat like Bagara bainghan of deccan.

Not been to AP much apart from Hyderabad that too just once.My tryst with andhra food is mostly in andhra messes in chennai whenever i skipped my mess lunch.

[iaafosc]

Originally Posted by sridhar_n

Andhraites love their chutneys especially the ghongura chutney. During lunch they first start with ghongura chutney saadam and then sambar saadam. Talking abt lunch, I just love the paruppu podi sadam of saravana bhavan. I once asked them if they would sell some paruppu podi, but they refused.

Why not buy it from Grand Sweets.......

[sridhar_n]

I have tried paruppu podi from grand sweets, ambika appalams and few other shops...but they didn't quite taste the same as what was served in SB.

[krishnaswamy]

there is 1 small Andhra mess behind Ashok leyland office. many times i had lunch there.
superb taste. they started in a small room, now expanded to 2 floors with AC.
T.Nagar Andhra mess also good.
what about Bhimas in Chennai(100ft road)? Bhimas in Bengaluru (near Brigade Road) is awesome.

[madrasi7777]

Andhra Food is big in Chennai. The National Lodge, Amaravati, Andra restaurant anna nager, Andhra Bhavan periamet, Andhar Ruchee in OMR, Andhra Spice Kodambakkam,Gongura, Karai Veedu, I can go on. even the so called famous joints of Chennai are owned by telugus.

In Vizag there is a restaurant called Sai ram. This is one hell of a place for Original Andhra meals (Veg).

Originally Posted by engineer.akash

I still wonder why Andhra has no big food names to itself?? All we see are those dingy andhra messes.

In south, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu food joints rock man.I love south indian food.