There are some for whom food is the music of life. And, they eat on.
It helps them that all kinds of cuisines are entering the city, and all manner of food, apart from the rather bounteous south Indian cuisine.
If you close your eyes and put your finger on a random place on the globe, chances are you will find the cuisine of that region in Chennai.
While good food is available all over the city, over the years, some of Chennai’s streets have emerged as destinations for eating out.
Some areas have become synonymous with particular dishes — for instance, Egmore with sandwiches, Mint Street with chaat, and Second Line Beach Road in Parrys with Burmese food.
In recent times, however, some streets have also evolved into sit-down food hangouts for the young and hip of the city.
So this is where you are spoilt for choice: Khader Nawaz Khan (KNK) Road in Nungambakkam, 2 Avenue in Anna Nagar, Elliot’s Beach Road in Besant Nagar, Bypass Road and Taramani Link Road in Velachery, Rajiv Gandhi Salai (OMR), Mada Streets in Mylapore and stretches of Theyagaraya Road in T. Nagar.
Do restaurateurs think about where they want to park their business to be successful? Indeed. There is certainly a feeling that the location counts in a big way.
Vipin Sachdev, proprietor of Tuscana Pizzeria, says simply opening a restaurant on KNK Road is no guarantee for success, but hastens to point out the road helps in bringing customers on a larger scale because of its easy accessibility.
Citing the numerous restaurants that have opened and shut shop on the road over the past few years, he stresses that the success formula is great food, good service and the right ambience.
He must be right about the formula, and yet, KNK Road has become the engine around which several restaurants are doing flourishing business in Nungambakkam.
N.R. Mahendran, founder of Haven Sampoorna, a vegetarian multi-cuisine restaurant in Velachery, also echoes the same mantra.
The restaurant, which started out as a small joint on Velachery Bypass Road, grew mainly thanks to the shopping malls that it was surrounded by, he says.
