Me too :shock:
TN is quite famous for its veggie restaurants (unlike Kerala where it's difficult to find pure-veg places).
Like the Saravana Bhavan chain in Chennai, Coimbatore has Annapoorna Gowrishankar (which was possibly the first big chain in TN, it predates Saravana Bhavan). They have big size restaurants in every main place in Coimbatore city. In 90's they used to have a central kitchen in Vadakovai (may still have) from where a number of items will be transported to restaurants through out the city. (Ofcourse hot items like rice / dOsai etc will be made in each restaurant).
Annapoorna used to have great standards for hygiene / food quality etc, way ahead of its times! Cbe people used to love it and IIRC, the "restaurant going culture" started there in TN -i.e. much before other places historically, with AP-GS a main driver.
My first experience was in 1980 (as a student visiting that city for an inter-school tournament) when we jumped into the Annapoorna restaurant in Gandhipuram bus stand for dinner. First time I saw idly immersed in sAmbAr that tasted a little sweet (they used to add sugar), possibly one of their innovations, and treated myself with that dish every time I visited Cbe!