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 markedchickengravy's , and of course the shrimp vindaloo - goa relived here! the appetiserchickenmadurai - a version of darker and spicierchicken65 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

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 thechickenbiriyani.

when i got home, i noticed a disproportionate amount ofchickencompared 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.

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,chickencurry, 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,chickenmasala, biryani, countrychickencurry, 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.

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,chickencurry,chickentandoori, 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.

its rare that a restaurant surpasses my expectations completely, but chennai did. i almost never give 5 star ratings but in this case i had to.
we had been here before but only for the buffet. (its encouraging that the huge restaurant was so full then that we waited a long time for the buffet, and that clientele was so completely asian.)
we went on a tuesday evening. the inside is large and well decorated with indian art. its also nice to find a restaurant that doesn't have a large tv on every surface.
we had samosas, yellow dal, chappati, goanchickenvindaloo, and tomato soup.
the samosas were very good. i've had better crust, but the insides were flavorful with rich spices.
my tomato soup (i forget the indian name) was thinner than the american tomato soup, but the tomato was forward, and the rush of spices and peppers were almost overwhelming. i get tired of indian restaurants that tone down the spices and heat for fear of american tastes, and chennai doesn't. i like things hot and this was very hot.
sharon's dal, made mild because she doesn't like hot peppers, had very nice flavor and she was sad only that she didn't have any to take home.
i usually try a vindaloo curry in a new restaurant but here i decided to try one of the other curries that were unfamiliar to me. i asked the waiter for a recommendation and he suggested the vindaloo. this was perhaps the best curry i have ever had. it was at the limit of my tolerance for heat but the flavor was marvelous.
i only wish this was a few miles closer.

best place to have south indian food in dallas. period.

the ambiance is quite south indian with melodious south indian songs playing on the speaker. the place is huge and you don't feel overcrowded even with each table occupied. order anything or everything here, and it will be served authentic indian style and will tastes equally delicious. service is quick and awesome. 

do try:
*fresh fruit juices at the juice bar
*filter coffee
*chettinadchickenentrees
*chettinad fish curry
*dosa/wada/idli

no no a big no stay away. today we went here for lunch, we ordered non veg thali andchickenbiryani andchicken65.
even though we were hungry like anything it was worst food we ever ate. i can maximum give them may be 2 out of 10.chickenbiryani was like chcken pongal. stay away, waste of money even a simple restaurant like bawarchi is better than this one. only good thing is hospitality 6 out of 10 in indian style:)

amazing south indian food. wow...this is the place for south indian tradition food.... yummy and spicy ! amazing food...we heard about this restaurant and travelled form arkansas (around 350 miles) just to have food. but i would say it's worth tavelling 1000 miles for their food.

this is the only restaurant is us to get traditional south indian briyani (not in basmati rice)

some of the best foods i tried on their menu are,
1. naatu kozhi kozhambu
2. karuvadu kozhambu
3. meen varuval
4. thalapakattu biriyani
5.chickenkothu parrota

i m definitely coming back and do i need to say food is delicious :)

great service, but lacking chennai flavor. we really were treated well by staff and owners, and felt comfortable coming in our first time. everything was clean, even the restroom. we were really looking forward to an authentic chennai meal, but unfortunately it wasn't all that we hoped for. i ordered kothu parotta (parotta andchickencooked separately then mixed and fried); what i got was wetchickenwith parotta that tasted more like noodles. my wife ordered biriyani with chicken, and it was dry--the one good thing for her was the curry sauce with raitha server along with it (gave some good flavor). i hope these things get corrected, everyone there was excellent, but we go to restaurants for food.

great first experience!. i had never tried indian food before. my server, sakthivel recommendedchickenvindaloo. it was very good. just the right amount of heat. not too spicy to enjoy. i am already looking forward to my next visit.