anjappar chettinad

if you love hot and spicy food, anjappar chettinad is the place to go. i visited therestauranta couple of days back with friends and all of us loved it. although we had to wait for almost half an hour before we got a table, the food made up for it. but the service was a little disappointing. reminded me of the typical udupi restaurants back in india, where the servers are always in such great hurry and not too attentive.

we started with a masala dosa and the vegetable kothu parottas. the dosa was crisp and the filling was just perfect. the different chutneys and sambhar that it was served with were also pretty good. the kothu parotta was not what we expected (since none of us had tried chettinad food in the past) but delicious nevertheless. it is supposed to be a very famous street dish in south india. it's basically minced parottas cooked with veggies & spices and i enjoyed every spoon of it.

next came in the main course. the chettinad vegetable kurma was similar to the normal veg. korma but the chettinad masala is what made the difference and added that extra flavor. although it wasn't as spicy as i expected it to be. but what was spicy, was their poondu kuzhambu. its cloves of garlic cooked in an amazing curry made up of some really complex flavors. the rotis were soft and fresh too.

the veg. biryani was not the usual biryani either, i guess they used some unique spices of chettinadu to prepare this one. and it went very well with the raita served on the side. 
we wrapped up our meal with a round of filter coffee and it was just the perfect end to our meal. the coffee was brilliant and one of the best i've had in the bay area.

i'm glad i visited and would definitely go back to satiate my spicy food cravings.

the quality of experience at anyrestaurantgoes 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-end indian chain 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.

a recent vacation to the bay area found us at this excellent restaurant. chettinad cuisine is a type of south indian speciality 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 therestaurantwas filled with office goers. the ambience is very casual and makes it a great lunch spot. the waiters were very at

a good spicyrestaurantwith not that gud ambience. always crowded with ppl from near by offices. serving time is intolerable. need to wait & see if the food quality is maintained !!