Nalas Aappakadai, Annanagar, Chennai

Nalas Aappakadai is a relatively recent chain of restaurants in Chennai. The chain of restaurants is centred around innovations on the Appam which is the South Indian bread/ roti made with rice batter. The appam is a wonderful preparation and goes particularly well with meat stew and sea food dishes. The fluffy rice batter offering is worthy of

receiving a tribute by a restaurant chains with Aappakadai aims to and largely succeeds. Given a choice however I will rather keep to the appam and meat stew combination.

The restaurant is an attempt at the South Indian style merging with 21st century fast food prone India. The feel is like that of a fast food outlet, bright lights, bright colours with the menu being loudly displayed on the signage opposite and open kitchen. The menu cards are however on the tables and the waiters take orders at the table, and serve the food.

The menu card at Aappakadai basically consists of three parts, regular South Indian meals, set meals with the Appam as the main staple with meat/ vegetable preparations and a whole range of variations on the Appam starting from Kheema to multi flavoured, multi coloured Appams.

I ordered two dishes, one was the set meal with Appam and Chicken Chettinad, the other was a chicken kheema appam. I was unfortunately disappointed by both. The appams served in the set meal were not the fluffy appam I have had at most restaurants, it was too crispy, slightly cold and difficult to break. People who have tasted the appam know how critical it is for the appam to be soft and hot - the appams I was served with the set meal were definitely up to the mark. The chicken chettinad was the most disappointing part of the meal. The gravy was very spicy as Chettinad gravy usually is, but did not have any flavour of the meat - seemed as if they have loads of gravy pre cooked and decide to serve the meat/ egg/ vegetable depending on the order. They served two pieces of chicken along with the meat, the pieces were with bone and had very little meat on them. I do not necessarily mind bone but the pieces were one of the worst pieces you find on the bird and you would think twice before serving them to guests coming at your home, let alone those paying for food at a restaurant.

The chicken kheema appam was interesting, it was basically a sort of chicken ommelette cooked on the Appam, the insides of the appam, the hollow side had this scrambled mix of egg, chicken mince and chillis on it. Decent taste, but i think that it would have tasted far better if they had served chicken kheema, egg bhurji and nice, hot appam separately. I may have ordered all the wrong dishes, to be fair the place was doing decent business but I fear that in an effort to go completely retail and mass produce the appam and the side dishes, the essence of the preparations have been compromised. To me that is not an acceptable trade off.

You may still go to Aappakadai if you have not tasted the appam before and are not a fan. From a curiousity perspective tasting the various preparations can be fun. Do not go there for having a regular appam meal. If you do go there however, you may be advised to steer clear of the preparations that I have mentioned - particularly the chicken chettinad meal with appams.

A meal for two at Nalas Aappakadai without drinks will cost you approximately Rs 300/-

How to get there: Nalas Aappakadai is on 3rd Avenue Annanagar just below Kebab Court restaurant.

Dindigul Thalappakatti Restaurant, Annanagar, Chennai

I love India. I love to travel in India. And I absolutely LOVE to sample the best food that this beautiful country of ours has to offer. It is even better if the restaurant serving the fare is an institution and Dindigul Thalappakatti in Annanagar, Chennai is an institution in Indian and Tamil cuisine.
Dindigul is the region in the South of Tamil Nadu and Dindigul Cuisine along with Chettinad are the two most distinctive Non Vegetarian Food schools emanating from the Southern most state

of our country. The food of the region was made famous by the efforts of one Nagaswamy Naidu who by his distinctive head dress earned the nickname of Thalappakatti (Tied Turban). Thalapa in Tamil means "turban" and katti, "Tied", the food popularised by Mr. Naidu is today known as Thalapakatti Dindigul cuisine and is a completely different strain of Indian food in its own right. Long may his soul rest in piece.
The decor at Dindigul Thalappakatti in Chennai is that of a typical Chennai meal restaurant, straight lines of tables seating 4 people each. The food at the restaurant is served on Banana leaves which are kept of steel plates. We ordered quite a spread at Dindigul Thalappakatti, we ordered the famous Dindigul chicken biriyani, chicken idicha veruval, brain egg fry and a Karandi ommelette. The Chicken Idicha veruval was a bonlesee chicken veruval and was not too spicy which is usually a problem area in South Indian food if one is not careful. The brain egg fry was basically a scrambled mash of egg and brain and was ok but had too much of the masala flavour almost overpowering the taste of the brain and the egg. The other two dishes were what made the meal special. The Dindigul Biriyani is again a unique adaptation by the region of India's most popular dish, firstly it is cooked with small rice - called seeragasamba rice as against the Basmati used in the North. The Dum flavour is also almost entirely absent. The water used in the dishes preparation is also apparently translated from the Dindigul region. I can already hear screams of sacrilege by Biriyani aficionados but hey, the dish is interpreted differently by all parts of our country and it was very tasty!
The highlight of the meal however was the Karandi Ommelette, which is the most wondrous egg preparation that I have ever seen or heard about. What you get is round hot ball of egg served at your table. It truly grabs your attention and makes you gasp and you have to see it to believe it. The egg is apparently cooked in a round shape container akin to what is used for making Idlis. There is actually an open kitchen in the restaurant where you can see the dish being prepared. Brilliantly there are also innovations where you get the preparation with stuffed meat or prawn. Unfortunately I did not have the appetite to enable me a taste but the same is a positive must have when next in Chennai. The very thought of the preparation is enough to make anyones mouth water. We also rounded off our meal with a glass of Jil Jil Jigarthanda - the traditional drink from Southern Tamil Nadu but it wasn't half as good as what you get in Madurai.
A meal for two at Dindigul Thalappakatti restaurant without drinks will cost you approximately Rs 650/-.
How to get there: Dindigul Thalappakatti Restaurant is in Annanagar. From the Annanagar round circle you have to take the road towards Chintamani. Then you have to take the first left. The restaurant will fall on your right.

Sarvana Bhavan, Ashok Pillar, Chennai

If you are not from Chennai or are not fully aware of the phenomenon that is Sarvana Bhavan, chances are is that you will think that this is a chain that does not have any business sense or you will think that the restaurant has a huge family business that has been split down the middle and each faction wants to outdo the other. After all when you see 3 restaurants within 50 meters of each other you are well within your rights to make the above assumption in normal cases. However Sarvana Bhavan is not normal. It is I believe the Chennai-ites alternative to their home kitchen and the chain is doing well - a great testament to the quality standards and value for money customer offering that they have always kept up with. The same is evident in the decor. Clean, hygienic and very basic.
The last time I was at Sarvana Bhavan was for breakfast and had a plate or butter idlis, a ghee dosa and filter coffee. Tasty, simple and value for money food!
A meal for two at Sarvana Bhavan will cost you Rs 200/-.
How to get there: You will see Sarvana Bhavans all across Chennai. Just jump into an auto and ask him to take you to the nearest one.

Anjappar, Ashok Pillar, Chennai

Anjappar is synonymous with Chettinad Non Vegetarian cuisine in Chennai not only is it like the last word on Non Vegetarian food, I suspect Anjappar is almost infamous given that it borders on the exotic offering preparations of quail and rabbit ( I tasted them when I visited Chennai for my summer training almost seven years back) along with the standard chicken and mutton.
The decor of Anjappar at Ashok Pillar in Chennai is basic almost to the point of being sparse. Plain simple furniture; banana leaves and Tamil meals. Unlike the Andhra meals where it is usually vegetarian, the meals at Anjappar come in both the vegetarian and the non - vegetarian varieties. The Vegetarian meal is standard, the difference from the Andhra meal is the absence of Podi and Pappu, and instead you have some Tamil vegetarian preparations and multiple types of Rasam and Sambhar. The Non Vegetarian meal very innovatively comes with unlimited servings of gravy - mutton, chicken and fish. You might find the odd piece of meat but the same needs to be ordered separately.
Last time I was there I ordered the standard meal along with a portion of Chicken Chilli Dry Chettinad style. It makes your eyes water if you are not careful, but with the armour of curd you can send your taste buds drooling.
A meal for two at Anjappar will cost you Rs 250/-
How to get there: Anjappar has around 12 branches in Chennai. We went to the one at Ashok Pillar, 100 feet road.