Sree Annapurna of Calcutta - Egmore [Chennai]

Decent Bengali food in Chennai at decent prices; that what “Annapurna” is all about! We had heard a lot about this place from the time we landed in Chennai. Finally on a public holiday this year we went there to have a Bengali meal in Chennai!! It is a small place, hardly accommodating about 15-16 tables in all.  I found out that this is a family run business and they have not changed much for a long time.

The place does not have a fixed menu; day’s menu is written on a whiteboard!! It reminded me of old pice hotels of Kolkata. The menu is pretty basic; everyday there is a fixed veg thali with about 2-3 types of fish including prawns [You can get Hilsa if you are lucky], 1 chicken curry, 1 mutton curry and ‘Hanser dimer kasha”. You have  choice of biriyani or Pulav additionally.

We ordered for basic thali which consists of rice, dal, 1 veg sabji, shukto and something resembling mashed potatoes. It was pretty basic and in truth not very inspiring beginning. We ordered the “Rui macher jhal” (Fish curry), “Kosha Mangsho” (Spicy Chicken curry) and “Chingri macher bati chachhori’ (Prawn). Among all these, the fish was ok, not very good and the piece was very small. Prawn was very disappointing, not tasty at all. The best one was Chicken kasha. It was really nice and we ordered pulav to go with it. I was hungry for more and also ordered ‘hanser dim kasha’ (Spicy egg curry). This was the best part of our entire meal. Pulav was very good and also the “hanser dim kasha” was spicy and very tasty.

Well, there are lots of improvement scopes but still if you are in Chennai and craving for Bengali food, try this place. The prices are very very reasonable. The veg thali was 45/- , Chicken was around 70/- , Hanser dim kasha was 25/-. For 2 of us the total meal including 2 veg thali, chicken curry, fish curry, prawn curry, egg curry and 1pulav in total cost us around 300/-. We would suggest you to try the pulav with kasha mangsho and Hanser dim kasha; you can’t go wrong with it. The place does not have any seat booking policy, so be ready to wait standing beside a table if you are going on weekends. Seriously be ready to wait half hour to one hour during lunch on a Sunday, I know it from first hand experience!! Do not expect great ambience but just go for the Bengali food.

OUR RATINGS:

Ambience: 1/5

Food: 3.5/5 [Considering it’s in Chennai]

Service: 4/5

Price: 4.5/5

Overall: 3.5/5

OUR TAKE:

A pace to visit when feeling homesick and craving Bengali food in Chennai. There are not many places where you can get decent Bengali food in Chennai at this reasonable price. Also you will meet lots of Bengalis.