chennai cafe

let's just make this clear - i hate having indian food - any part of it when abroad (barring the occasional bengali food cooked at home!) ... but this was an undeniably sweet or rather 'spicy' intervention to that! a quite spacious place with golden lights and culture oriented stuff - but basic.the interesting about the place - run by this simple south indian- whose a comp. sc professor in the state university by the day and manages this successful space at night,all along with his wife and a handful of his own students reaping employment benefits for them too!over all that - all the dishes - equally tangy, spicy and tasty! won't be good with the names - except the chettinaad curry, and all the other spicy marked chicken gravy's , and of course the shrimp vindaloo - goa relived here! the appetiser chicken madurai - a version of darker and spicier chicken 65 maybe but did overdose on that! and yes someone did also order an onion cheese uthappa - turned out to be so tasty - that finalised the whole along the tasting of others too!
just my suggestion here - do top up every curry with lemon juice on top, and the green chilly bites elevate the taste even more!
ps- the music - all native but such amazing beats and a roll to it! :d

authentic in taste and the wait time. i've read the reviews where others had food that wasn't good. the time i went, the food was excellent. having lived in a couple of cities in india, the food at this place is the closest i've come in the usa to what you'd find dining in someone's home in india. i enjoyed the thali meal, of which there are both veg and non-veg versions. it's fairly close to what i had in bangalore. the sambar could use a bit of improvement but still was pretty good. it's sort-of an unwritten assumption that you can't find authentic indian food outside of the home, but this restaurant comes pretty close.
that said, just as in india, service takes a long time. they recently expanded their dining space, but don't seem well organized yet to run a larger operation. i hope things settle in. lunch takes far too long, and that means it's not feasible to go during work hours. unfortunate. perhaps they should consider offering a lunch buffet so people can get in and out quickly.
in summary, people accustomed to dining in america will want more consistency with the service. but for someone seeking the closest to authentic food outside of a private home, this place should be on your list.

there native briyani of dindukal is there speciality here. one will get a chance in us to taste thalapakattu anywhere like they make one fri say andy sun days. other daily menu also good for veg and non-veg lovers. one special dish a day of they week. they rock!

poor service and food.. i stopped in to order some dinner to go. i was told a wait time of 15 mts, but received the dinner after 30 mts, that tool after a couple of reminders. i had ordered the chicken biriyani.

when i got home, i noticed a disproportionate amount of chicken compared to the rice. there were just 2 pieces, compared to large amount of rice.

i do not recommend this place. extremely slow server (typical of indian custom) and not enough meat.

awesome traditional south food. loved everything we ordered. just was disappointed with hara bara kebab, not upto to mark. but the best was appam with kitna which was too yummy. reminded me of home food. a must visit if you love typical south indian food.the place is huge and loads of seating place. very traditionally decorated.

i did not like at all it was below ok. the prices are not worth the food it's overrated by 1 million. don't go!!!!!!! if i were you i liked coconut express way better.

at first we did not have a pleasant experience. we went for dinner earlier and we the cuisine we had were really disaster. it's been around 1-2 years we thought of trying it again.
so we went for weekend buffet and we glad we have tried that. the buffet was absolutely exquisite and delicious. we had loads of options and even for vegetarians. the south indian touch in cuisines was delicious. tandoori chicken, goat curry, chicken curry, madurai chicken, crab masala which i tried for first time in my life and so many options. every dish was delicious and even they had kids menu options which includes spring roll, noodles, fries. i would say it very thoughtful to have kids options separate in buffet.
live dosa and uppam was nice and tastes great.
we were little disappointed with desserts especially carrot pudding (gajar ka halwa) which first feel like we are having authentic gajar is halwa. it feels like boiled carrots dipped in sugar syrup. this also same for other desserts as well
but we love you try their buffet again in future and it's worth your $17.99 money👍

amazing food. everything was amazing. one of the best tasting buffet i had in a long time. i tried almost everything starting from dosa, appam, batura, chole, nettali fish, chicken masala, biryani, country chicken curry, bhendi masala fry, daal, sambar, rasam, etc. just wow. friendly staff and place is well maintained. highly recommend this place over other indian restaurants. try the appam and coconut milk as the dessert. had the perfect taste and a perfect way to conclude the meal. they have a bunch of indian sweets and even masala chai.

beware !! do not go to this place during lunch time , during weekdays !!!
coz, the buffet is so damn amazing you will spend a lot of time sitting and eating here and then once you are done you wont be able work coz you tummy is full !!!
5 stars to the staff !!

chennai cafe is a buffet restaurant with a wide variety of indian cuisines served as buffet. byob is a good option. there are variety of foods both south indian and north indian. the ambience is good and the staffs are friendly.

they have the best indian cuisine in the dfw area for sure as i have visited practically all indian restaurants in the dfw circle. nothing beats chennai cafe in taste of food and the ambience inside the restaurant is superb. their lunch buffet is extraordinary per se everyday and luckily they have a dinner buffet too on wednesday’s. i love visiting this restaurant every month as it’s close to my home in frisco. i hope they continue to remain this great in the future. i visited last week for dinner and found out that they have a dinner buffet too every day of the week. just keeps improving their quality. i believe 5 star is not enough a rating. another impressive improvement is that now they have a buffet for dinner everyday and something special for sunday too. keep going chennai cafe😊 last sunday, i had visited for dinner buffet but i didn’t find it as impressive as the other days. so, something to work on for the chennai cafe management.

chennai cafe is a buffet restaurant with a wide variety of indian cuisines served as buffet. there is ample variety of food available but i felt most of it tasted different from what it was supposed to be. mutton biriyani and some other non veg food were good. veg options did not taste like it should be. need to improve on the dessert section as well. the ambience is good and the staff is friendly. altogether a decent buffet restaurant to try different indian cuisines.🙂🙂

i lived in dallas for 18+ years and been to all the indian restaurants. i did go to this place before and it was not bad. recently (july 03, 2017) i went to this restaurant with my family and few guests came from california and this was my worst experience. really really bad service and worst indian food i ever had in usa. it was really as embarrassment and i repent for taking my guest to this place. i will never ever go to this place again or suggest any of my friends.

pretty lousy. not sure about the hygiene.
don't know why they try north indian stuff - it's just terrible :-(
dosas are just about ok.
idlis very hard.
rasam lousy too.
it can't be too difficult to make decent stuff - just no interest i guess

been meaning to visit 'chennai cafe', ever since i landed here. my friends promised me that this is the ultimate destination for anyone who is looking for some delicious south indian fare in and around dallas.

so i went along to see if the place actually deserved the positive word of mouth reviews that it had been receiving. it was the last day of spring break and i saw a signage at the reception, buffet lunch for 15.99 usd. free for kids. there was a big crowd at reception consisting of people who were waiting for a table. just when i was on the verge of giving a minus 2 for chaos, a lady in host uniform guided me to a nearby sofa and asked me to register my name on the waiting list and informed me that it might take atleast 20 minutes to get a table. being the brave soul that i was, i decided to relax and wait, how could i return empty stomach from the supposed mecca of south indian good!? in about 15 minutes, an elderly bearded gentleman took me to my table in a very gracious manner. must have been the owner of the place, not sure though.

i decided to take a tour of the mindboggling array of dishes first. saw a live dosa counter, samosa chaat counter, fish, chicken curry, chicken tandoori, mutton, paneer makhni, bhajjis, curd rice, rasam and what not. the desert spread was also good. gulab jamun, rasmalai, and dry sweets. couldn't taste everything obviously. fish was delectable and also the dosa. quality of food was definitely a 9 on 10. but the best part of the restaurant is the superb personalized service, the host coming upto our table multiple times to check if we needed anything else and the waiters filling up our glasses even before it was halfway down. i was pleasantly surprised and mentioned the same to the hostess. real time compliments are the best and i felt the restaurant deserved it. had fresh orange after the meal, paid extra for that as it was not part of the buffet menu. the juice was actually freshly squeezed as i could feel the pulpy strands in my mouth. overall, a great experience at chennai restaurant. bit pricey, but worth it.