George Town is the center of Chennai city, quite famous for the various wholesale markets. Foodies like me know this place for the food varieties available here. Especially the north Indian vegetarian cuisine like Rajasthani and Gujarati are pretty well known. Me and My friend went there to buy some tools in broadway. Before going there, we already decided to have our meal at "Shri Gujarati Mandal".
Located at the junction of Philips street and Broadway at the ground floor of a building called "Gunavti Bhavan". It is a no frills place serving only gujarati vegetarian meal (costs 120₹ on a Sunday & 110₹ on rest of the days) managed by gujratis. Luckily we were seated without any wait. Such a limited space, you can't even shake your head as it might hit the head of the person sitting behind. No worries as we came here only for food, not for any ambience.
A big plate was kept for each of us with small bowls of potato masala, chana masala, curd, rolled pappad, brinjal yam sabji, sambar. There was a separate bowl for mango pickle, mint chutney, fried chillies and cabbage cucumber salad for self serving. After a while, a sweet dhokla and snake gourd halwa was served. Both of them were new to us. No complaints. A gujarati guy sitting before us was asking for additional dhokla which was served with no questions. But we were happy with the single one. We both could not finish gourd halwa as it was too sweet.
And then one guy came and served 2 soft rotis on our plates. It was a perfect combo with aloo subji, chana, brinjal and all. Roti guy came again and served another 2 rotis without we asking for. And then we finished it. Again he appeared with rotis. My friend was very upset and he was not sure how to stop with endless loop. It seems like the roti guy didn't understand our Tamil or English. Then I decided to use my little hindi knowledge to put an end to roti. Had to tell him "roti bus baiyya. chawal chahiye". My friend was super cool asking me how I know gujarati ;)
Later chawal AKA boiled rice was served, which was put into the guts by mixing with sambar. Both roti and chawal are unlimited here. My friend asked for rasam which I never expected in a gujrati eatery. However, it was a perfect one. One guy appeared with bowls of basundi and aamras (each 30₹). My friend was curious to see aamras as we never had that earlier in our life. Got each a cup shared by we two. Basundi was okay. Aamras was a yummy thick mango pulp. My friend loved it much, so he had another cup of it. Finally paid 330₹ for 2 thali and 3 desserts. One may buy gujarati sweets and snacks at the snacks stall outside the dining hall.
It may bring a little discomfort if you visit for lunch in summer like we do, as there is on air-conditioner over here. But if you are a north indian or a gujarati who wants to have pillow-soft roti and subji, then this is one of the best place in the city. If you can spend more, then you may visit "Agarwal Bhojnalaya" which is even better for Rajasthani and Gujarati thali.
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