anjappar chettinad

one of the nicestindianrestaurants i've been to in the bay area. authentic northindianfood starting from appetizers, main course and the desserts. their paneer tikka is a must try. so is their navaratan korma. the service is tardy though, else this deserves all 5 stars.

very average and very ordinary value for money. they seemed extremely tentative in their service too.

portions are tiny. for 40+ usd for two people there are much betterindianplaces along el camino.

the quality of experience at any restaurant goes beyond just the food. it also includes the service, the ambiance, the other diners & the prices. that is why i think anjappar deserves no better than 1.5 rating.

but first the food. we came here during a weekday lunch & ordered 4 different "business meals" - 2 vegetarian & 2 non-vegetarian. the vegetarian meals were good, but not great. the garlic curry was the saving grace for both of them. non vegetarian was slightly better, but i felt it was more of raw spiciness rather than true taste.

now the other aspects of the experience. the ambiance is spartan & messy, like many of the low-endindianchain restaurants. but the behavior of the staff is just plain awful! we were made to wait 45 minutes for 4 business meals, which i'd always thought was the quickest item on a menu since there's less of cooking and more of clubbing items that are already in stock. but despite that the servers' responses to our queries on the status were more along the lines of "we couldn't care less about you. if you want, there are places around". but just as we were about to get up & leave they managed to clobber together our meals. and after that their response got even colder. towards the end the guy who gave us the bill was almost like "why don't you just get up & leave? we have people to serve". just a pathetic experience.

all said, i certainly don't understand the 3.8 rating this place holds currently, even if it were just for the food. nothing here is worth a second visit.

good place for tasty chettinad and very spicy food. place is always crowded with south indians and seating is very tight.i tried their mutton thali along with chettinad chicken masala, food was very spicy , tasty and oily. i had to drink liters of water and butter milk,though not good, to overcome the spiciness. 

i'd definitely go again to this place and try their huge menu. better go with a southindianfriend who can help you with the menu.

anjappar is a chain that originated in chennai and aims to bring you the cuisine of the chettiars from chettinad, in tamil nadu. well, times have changed and so must have the cuisine of the chettiars, for the menu is extensive and includes chinese-indian noodle dishes. it was one of the longest menus that i have seen and leaves no stone unturned. i had a vegetarian thali—a combination of various curries, dal, sambar, rasam, rice, roti, and a few limpid papads. the food was too spicy for my tastes, but this is the norm with this type of cuisine so one has to accept this going in. southindian2 meter coffee was authentic. the ambience was authentic, i could almost imagine a guy riding in his 2 seater bajaj vespa scooter with his wife on the pillion, helmet in hand. but those were the old days--i doubt anyone does that even in india anymore.

a recent vacation to the bay area found us at this excellent restaurant. chettinad cuisine is a type of southindianspeciality and restaurants featuring this cuisine are sparse. there are none in the seattle area and the only time we get to eat it is on our visits to india. ok, so we should try this one, we thought. we got there at 11:30 am. they had just opened and in no time the restaurant was filled with office goers. the ambience is very casual and makes it a great lunch spot. the waiters were very at