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 thetasteeven more!
ps- the music - all native but such amazing beats and a roll to it! :d

authentic intasteand 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 totastethalapakattu 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!

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 perfecttasteand a perfect way to conclude the meal. they have a bunch of indian sweets and even masala chai.

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 intasteof 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 nottastelike 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.🙂🙂

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'ttasteeverything 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.

visited chennai cafe for the first time on recommendation of a friend. they had a special buffet as for columbus day weekend. the ambiance was nice. they had a huge buffet which ranged from south indian tiffins, live chat counter, live appam counter, lots of south indian desserts, parotta, biryani etc. the buffet definitely scores for the spread. when it came to thetasteof the food, it was ok and nothing great. at the end of the day i was not too happy with my meal. it was not bad but not great either. the next time i come here i will try the thaalis and will avoid the buffet.

had heard lot of good things about this place so went with great expectations.
but it is just average or may be not even that.
idli was good but masala dosa was bad. the masala had notastejust potatoes.

pretty decent food, authentic chennai fare and mind blowingly spicy but not consistent intasteand is hit or miss. service is ok compared with some other places but slow. if your not into spicy food...steer clear.

chennai cafe is not know how to cook briyani. "i mean it" arcot briyani rice is two big and hard to chew, very dry. next thalapakattu briyani two much oil. spices are well grindered ( you can not see single piece of spices) and mixed with over cooked rich with the help of mutton(goat). it will not digest if you have it in the night. food will stay in the chest. the last one is amboor briyani that's just more spice and more red chilly powder that's all... no difference in thetasteit's another version of arcot briyani and dry big size rice. this shop is not for briyani lovers but you can have other items, those are all good taste. your cooker made briyani is better than these briyanis.

excellent place regards to thetasteand is very authentic. i reserved the table just for my self through urbanspoon. it was really busy but the honored the request even though there was no table available for 1 person. they had to close the dining for a while because of the in flow. highly recommend this place. you need to have a reservation especially on the weekend

foodies don't miss this place.... if you have been searching for "the real indian food", this is the place. the food served has the realtasteof india. spice level is not compromised so is the flavor every dish. love coming to this place, they are very dynamic and keep you surprised with daily specials. service is really good. don't miss this place if you love good indian food.

as a south indian food lover and cook, i am very disappointed at the quality of chennai cafe. the food takes its time making it to the table and is cold. thetasteis pitiful and quite disguisting. i haven't had worse south indian fair.