Tamil Nadu - Places to Visit

**app_engine** · 27th April 2011, 11:28 PM

Originally Posted by PARAMASHIVAN

Really

I thought it would be other way round

Me too

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!

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**app_engine** · 27th April 2011, 11:31 PM

There used to be "Annalakshmi Foods" in Race course road, Coimbatore - classy restaurant where banana leave cut to shape and fit inside a round plate was used to serve very tasty veggie food.

Possibly one of those early places where girls served food. (It used to be rare in TN to see female servers in restaurants other than tea-kadai levels).

**SoftSword** · 28th April 2011, 12:02 AM

if in cbe, search for and try paatti mess, a small time hotel.
u get atleast 30 kinda dhosais here, and many more variety in vegitarian tiffin items...

**rajraj** · 28th April 2011, 01:22 AM

paramashivan,
There used to be a BBH (Bangalore Briyani Hotel) in Coimbatore that I used to frequent. I am not sure they serve vegetarian food!

**app_engine** · 28th April 2011, 09:14 PM

Originally Posted by SoftSword

if in cbe, search for and try paatti mess, a small time hotel.
u get atleast 30 kinda dhosais here, and many more variety in vegitarian tiffin items...

Another similar place, it used to be called "tiffin house" on Raja street off of oppaNakkAra street and the variety of chutnees for idli...wow, mouth waters just by remembering that

The only difficulty there was long waits on your table (means between dOsai's) as the demand was far greater than the samaiyal.

**SoftSword** · 28th April 2011, 09:19 PM

and not to forget the famous angannan biriyani in cbe.

**Bala (Karthik)** · 29th April 2011, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by cinema

saravanabhavan is good and vegetarian. beware of the fact that unlike london most of the restaurants in Tamilnadu are non vegetarian. You have to be really careful if you want to have vegetarian food in Tamil nadu. Good luck with it.

Is there a Tamil Nadu in Mars?