Babu's Cafe — Restaurant in Tamil Nadu

Babu’s Café

Babu’s café is tucked away in a side street called as Othavadi Street in Mahabalipuram. It is an old fashioned no frills unassuming restaurant. It has no air conditioning and has cement sheet as its roof. But the food they serve more than makes up for its simple interior. When you drive all the way to Mahabalipuram from Chennai – some 65 km, you need to have a valid reason – sea food.

Most restaurants in this fishermen colony of Mahabalipuram will offer fish in a large container. You pick your fish and they cook the chosen fish and serve you along with sumptuous food accompaniment like rice.

Here in Babu’s café, they show you a plate full of fish, crabs and shrimp. Once you have made your choice, they will start the cooking. Be prepared for a good food. When I went there, we were the only diners for lunch. We opted for shrimp fry and Calamari fry. We also tried French Fries, Roasted Calamari with rice. It was a leisurely lunch spread over nearly an hour and half.

Each portion was sufficient for a person, and you order adequate portions well ahead to avoid having to wait. As they cook individually each item, you can tell them how you want. If you are ordering steak, tell them how you want them done – rare, medium or well done. While you are at it, tell them if you want...

A great place with a relaxed vibe that blows the culinary experience out of the park. The service is laid back but in a professional way, and friendly. Their food is superb- just the right amount of spice that brings out the flavors instead of the typical attempt to kill your taste buds with chili powder or black pepper. We had calamari, prawns, fish and the kids had spaghetti with a pasta which was surprisingly great (I live in New York city, am well traveled and savvy culinarily- just had to throw that in to throw in credibility to that statement 😃). All washed down with that trusty Indian beer- kingfisher- that have made warm weather fun. The price for the entire dinner for four adults and two kids with four bottles of kingfisher was under...

We are surprised to see this place open and active during our unplanned visit to Mamallapuram during late hours !

The ambience was comparatively good and quiet. However mosquito disturbance is a pain. They keep mosquito repellents on top of each table like how they keep tissue papers.

The place sells a good range of Indian beers. Unfortunately we have decided to not drink on that particular day.

We ordered fried rice, chilli chicken, beef steak with French fries. Rice and chilli chicken was good. French fries was Okayish. But beef was bad.

Owner of the property was too nice and friendly to the customers.

This place accepts UPI payments.

Beach is just a 5 minute walk from here. One can hear the sound of...