Chennai Kings — Restaurant in San Francisco

Context: a) I'm from Chennai and am an ardent fan of Chennai briyani and Chicken 65 over any other form of chicken cooked Indian style. b) I didn't visit the restaurant for the food. I ordered it through an online delivery portal as I wanted to try out the Chennai cuisine and how authentic it is. So my review is nothing in regard to the ambience. It's going to be purely the food.

My order: Kozhi Briyani (Chicken briyani) and Buhaari chicken 65

What I received: Prawns Briyani and Buhaari Chicken

Jist: Feels like SF-Indian version of Chennai. Not proper Chennai

Review: a) First things first, want to clarify that the staff was apologetic about not having any more chicken briyani. They called me up, asked if they can switch it to something else etc. Extremely appreciative of the tone and the options that they gave me. So I went with the Prawns briyani. b) If you're from Chennai and are expecting it to be authentic, you're going to be disappointed. The masala base is nothing like chennai or even tamil nadu. It's more of a fusion of pulao/fried rice with meat in it. You can tell from the multi colored rice that it's not made chennai style. c) That said, the briyani is average. Nothing to write home about, nor is it going to make you hate Indian food. For a non-Indian, it's going to be colorful, spicy and tasty. d) For an Indian, who's not from South India, you're going to have to think of it as fried rice or pulao with meat. It's definitely lucknowi briyani nor is it a hyderabadi briyani (where the rice is heavily split into white rice and masala rice). At the same time it's not a kerala or TN briyani either in the sense that it's not proper authentic. Rice is more basmati than briyani rice. Wish I could've had the chicken briyani. e) Buhaari chicken 65 was somewhat like a chicken 65. Again, not authentic but I can see traces of chennai...

I wish I could give 0 star to this place. Just because the restaurant is located in a prime location, doesn’t mean you get to loot the customers. Everything on the menu is insanely overpriced. Food is absolute trash. We ordered Paneer Butter Masala and roti, naan. I bet everything was frozen and all they did was microwave it. It is no brainer to differentiate between frozen roti and hand-cooked roti. I could literally smell the preservatives added in frozen Naans. And yet, the waiter had the audacity to lie about it.

I highly recommend everyone to never visit this restaurant. The reviews might be misleading as majority of them are by non-Indian customers. Indians can absolutely agree with me that this place is a disgrace to Indian restaurant and food.

If you are super hungry, STAY HUNGRY but don’t visit here.

UPDATE: I am editing the review and adding my comments on the response to this review by the restaurant.

Sorry if I misunderstood what you are trying to say (sentences are incomplete and make no sense) but to clarify, we finished the food because we were damn hungry and anyone would finish food if I am paying $70 for it.

There was no mention of frozen food in your comments. How casually that portion of my review was ignored, proves my point.

I never mentioned...

Stepping into this spot, we were excited to dive into some comforting South Indian thali, but much to our surprise, it wasn’t on the menu. That initial letdown aside, the experience turned out to be decent in its own way. The menu still offered plenty to choose from, and every dish we tried was packed with flavor—though be warned, the spice levels are quite mild, so spice lovers might want to ask for a bit more heat. We ordered the masala dosa, kothu parotta, biryani and poori—everything was tasty! They even took some custom orders and were very friendly and accommodating.

The ambiance was simple yet quirky, with a small hall that featured a stage and, believe it or not, a disco ball! It’s an interesting setup with a lot of old pictures of the city of Madras a.k.a Chennai and many more old pictures of actors, singers, cricketers who in some way have a connection to the southern city that gives the space a good feel. However, a word of caution: the restroom definitely needs some attention. It was far from the standard you’d expect, and I hope they invest in some maintenance soon.

Overall, while we missed out on the thali, the food we did enjoy was delicious, and the place has potential with just a little more care to detail. Oh, and they even have a small bar at...