We Found A Chettinad Restaurant Headed By MGR’s Personal Chef In T-Nagar

Did you know that Amma Chettinad Restaurant in T-Nagar is owned and run by Chinnaiah who was the Chief Cook of ex-Chief Minister and Veteran Actor, the late MGR and specialises in authentic Chettinad cuisine?

Tucked away in a quiet, cozy corner of T Nagar, Amma can be hard to spot from a moving vehicle and is super short of parking space, given the numbers that it attracts. As you walk in, you will be warmly greeted by the owner of Amma Restaurant, Mr Chinnaiah.

It usually does get pretty crowded during lunch hours (even on weekdays) and since they don’t accept reservations, you might have to wait a bit for a table. The ambiance is homely and you instantly smell the heavy incense in the air. The restaurant is adorned with portraits and photographs of MGR. all around and they also play music from his classics softly in the background. The menu at Amma is quite simple but extensive. Be it lunch or dinner, all meals are served on a plantain leaf.

During lunch hours, complimentary hot and spicy Chettinad Chicken Soup is served to all. For appetizers they have chicken lollipop, nattu kozhi roast, mutton chukka, brain fry, liver roast, paya kurma, meen fry, nandu 65 (crab 65), era roast (prawn roast), kadai fry (quail fry), pepper rabbit fry and much more. The chicken lollipop we tried was seasoned well and the spicy prawns fry was delicious.

Their non-veg meals are unlimited and come loaded with three non-vegetarian curries — chicken, mutton and fish gravy along with the dal of the day and a vegetable fry. The biryani —chicken, mutton, and prawn — is a bestseller too. We ordered the mutton biryani which turned out to be a bit dry for our taste but had all the necessary Chettinad flavours in it. For dinner, they have appam, soft idlis, ghee dosas, parottas and kothu parottas accompanied with flavourful non-vegetarian and vegetarian curries and the usual biryani. Every meal at Amma is traditionally ended with complimentary bananas.