Chennai Express

Food is kind of average yet decent for a quick buffet lunch. However, they are not set up to be able to serve even a small crowd. The two people that were managing the place clearly did not get along with each other and were passive aggressive.
It seems beyond their capability to service buffet and ala carte at the same time. The trash containers were overflowing and several tables were uncleaned. Trash was picked and removed from the trash containers in front of everyone. Boy what a mess of a place!!! Avoid on Sundays at least!

Pongal !!!
I frequent this place at least once a week and am a patron of sorts but this is not a regular review.
If you did not make it to their Pongal special lunch on Jan 16, you have missed out one of the best culinary experiences of your life. Mind blowing dishes some of which you can never see outside India. I felt compelled to write this review as it will be a crime not to do so. Have only been stumped like this a few times since I left India.
So if you have not visited this place yet, please do a favor for your taste buds. You owe it to yourself.
As for me, I am waiting for Pongal 2017.
Cheers!

Its ok. The sambhar isnt that great and tastes just like dal. Its too thick. The dosa and masala was great along with onion uttappa. The service is way too fast and I have never had Uttappa on my table like in 5−10min after I placed my order. It was cooked well. We did inform them that we wanted filter coffee as to go but unfortunately towards the end of our meal when we placed the order again for coffee they mentioned its over and would take another 30min. I was super excited to have coffee but but but… :(

Excellent chaat place. Authentic. I’ve gone there twice already. Only recommendation would be to use environmentally conscious products. The disposable cups and plates need to go or be substituted by other paper products.

I tried the buffet on a weekday and thought it was quite decent. There was a variety of southern dishes mostly, some of which was quite new for me. Also idly and dosa was available. Good price for the buffet.

Even though this place was not clean, the food was good. If you wanted to try some basic South Indian dished like Dosa and Sambhar I would recommend this place

Ithu namma ooru kadai. :D
For those that don’t know tamil — it translates to «This is a shop from our city». This is definitley the most authentic food from chennai/​tamilnadu you can get. I don’t think it could get any better than this — unless your mom cooks it at home and delivers to the states.
I had the badam milk, sambar idly (which is heavy) and the kothu-​barotta (which I managed to finish like ¼) and pack the rest. The raitha on the side was good but the kurma wasn’t. I would think they should expand if the business is doing well and get more comfortable seating arrangements. But I like the concept of Self-​service to some extent. Prices are really reasonable as compared to Indian food anywhere around the country. (it’s definitely on the cheaper side — considering the sheer quantity).

must go
very good
best indian food this side of the missisipi
Kid’s plain dosa is such wow
Probably best NA

All menus are Excellent
Every Tuesday dosa night unlimited
All type of dosa available

This is THE AUTHENTIC CHENNAI STYLE FOOD in the region. The dosas here are simply delicious to say the very least … The staff are also kind and thia place is worth every penny spent.

Came here for lunch on a Saturday. They do have a buffet for about $ 11 a person on the weekends, but I was not particularly wowed by it. We all ordered from the menu. Paper dosas, plain masala dosas, mysore masala dosa, rava onion dosa, chaat, mango lassi and sweet lassi. The dosas are very large and can be split with someone if you are not too hungry. The sambhar was decent, but we had to ask to have it rewarmed. Like others have mentioned, this is a self serve restaurant. Foam plates and foam cups with cafeteria style seating. The inside was fairly clean and there was some Indian instrumental music playing. I really appreciated the cashier’s helpfulness and service despite the large group we brought in. For that reason, I recommend this place for lunch.

Food was rally good. Place is clean. Nothing fancy which is nice. They have all u can eat dosa night once a week. We went but they need to add more variety to the selection of dosas for that.

We had the kottu paratha, onion rava dosa, bhel puri and pongal. The pongal was vey good and everything else was alright.

Very tasty tamil style vegetarian food and very courteous staff. The quality of the food is unmatched anywhere else in the Atlanta area. The varieties of dosa are very many. If you don’t know anything about South Indian food the staff is more than ready to help you. The only downside to this place is the Wednesday evening Dosa nights, where people queue up for unlimited dosa, and the queue becomes very hard to manage for the staff. Other than that you should try this place if you’re in the Atlanta area

Although my husband and I went there on a Sunday, the restaurant wasn’t packed with people, unlike many other Indian restaurants. The staff were very friendly. And the first thing I noticed as soon as I entered was some used plates and spoons that were on the floor. So ambience wise, not so much to expect.
The menu was quite extensive. Since we are vegetarians, we found so many great options. We opted for the sambar vada, dhahi vada, Kara dosa (which was with the masala stuffing — specially customized for us), onion uthapam, buttermilk and sweet lassi. All these were good, but not the best. It’s a better alternative to a heavy Indian lunch buffet. My verdict would be — ⁷⁄₁₀.

Not very impressed with this place.
Clean yes
Fast yes
Pani poori not good
Dosa etc okay

Best place in the ATL for south Indian vegetarian food. Beware this is a self service place, so you order and pay cash at the register and then when they call your order no. then you pick up the food.
I went on a Tue night, and the place was pretty dead, which was good for me. I got the Special Veg thali which came with a masala dosa/​sambar/​chutney; thali and dosa was of excellent quality and very authentic, no watering down of spices aka «americanization». Very reasonably priced at $ 8.95 for the both.

The workers when I went were really nice. I had no idea what to order and they wanted to give me time and answers even when I wanted to step aside because a lot of people came in right after us who knew the menu/​spoke the language.
They will help u with telling you what the menu word means, spicy level, vegetarian vs vegan menu items. Very nice staff.
I would describe it as home cooked style fast food. You self serve for some things like a water/​sauce/​napkins and there is no décor, but the food is good and you don’t have to wait as long as a finer dining restaurant but longer than fast food delivery. I hope that makes sense. Oh and the tables were clean but the laminated menus could have used an extra wipe but I went on a weekend night so this is understandable. :)

I love meat! That’s a weird admission considering I’m reviewing a Vegetarian restaurant, but I do. However, from where I come, growing up we only ate meat once a week on Sunday for lunch and dinner (leftovers from lunch). That’s not because we were poor but simply because that’s how it was (still is) in most household. And also vegetables are a lot cheaper than meat in India. so I have a lot of memories of those foods.
On that note, I came across this place in Unilocal other day and I wanted to give it a try. Before that, I have been to few south-​Indian restaurants (different from other Indian cuisines) but even within south-​India there are four states and food preparation is much different in each of these states. Chennai Express serves authentic TaminNadu (State) style vegetarian food.
(Trivia: Chennai is the capital city of the Tamil Nadu State — yes, they speak Tamil language)
Chennai Express is located at Tadka Square strip mall on State bridge road. Another Indian restaurant, Bamboo Garden is also located at the complex. it’s occupies the suite between ‘Just Fitness’ and ‘Salon Centric’.
They open at 11.30 am but I arrived a bit early and was going to wait for them to open at 11.30 am. But as soon as they saw me, they opened the door and welcomed me in (The Chef and other kitchen staff were finishing up their meal). There is no wait service here. You go up to the counter, look at the menu board and order your food and pay. Your number will be called when the food is ready. Meanwhile you can help yourself with some water (plastic wares and napkins are on the table).
I ordered the following,
1) Special thali ($ 8.99 — unbelievable price)
2) Kal Dosai with Vadacurry for take out ($ 7.99)
Thali (Plate) is meal that comes with assortment of dishes. One big plate, in which various dishes placed in small bowls. At Chennai express the dishes in special thali changes everyday for variety and based on availability of ingredients.
Thali came with following items,
1) Bitter Guard puli Kuzhambu
2) Chinese Okra based side dish
3) Dal
4) Pongal
5) Sambar
6) Rasam
7) Yoghurt (plain)
8) Papad
9) Rice
10) Choice of dosa or poori or chapati
11) Semiya payasam (Dessert)
12) spicy lemon pickle
Don’t get put off my bitter guard — I guarantee it wasn’t bitter at all. The dish is tomato and tamarind based; cooked with bitter guard, tamarind undercuts all the bitterness in the guard and actually gives very unique flavor and delicious sauce. You generally eat it mixed with rice.
Chinese okra side dish, dal (yellow pigeon peas based, goes with rice or chapati), Pongal (dish made with lentils and rice), Sambar (Yellow pigeon peas based, made with spices), rasam (mixed herb soup — usually eaten with rice) — all the dishes had authentic taste I have experienced at my home in India. I was full when I finished eating but no way felt heavy, mostly because of healthy ingredients like vegetables and lentil.
Vadacurry is an authentic south-​Indian dish that have I not seen in any other Indian restaurants. So I had to get it. It’s a gram lentil based dish made with assortment of spices and ingreditents. This goes well with the kal Dosa (Thick dosa)
I had a chance to talk to Owner Murugesan (he is an IT professional venturing into restaurant business) and Chef Senthil. They both humbly accepted my compliments and mentioned that they have been getting good reviews all around and they wanted to keep it that way.
I agree with all other Unilocal reviewers, the food is so authentic, this is one of very few times food evoked such strong memories of childhood in me, I had to call my Mother when i got out of the restaurant. True.
5 well deserved stars.

I’m shocked at the bad reviews. This is EXCELLENT food, some of the best South Indian food that I’ve had outside of the homeland itself. The place just opened up about a month ago and it was jam packed with 98% Indians in there – families and friends, young and old. We were lucky to get a table! The room is just one big square empty room with tables, and you walk up to the counter and order your food. Very simple but practical. When your food is ready your # is called and you go to the counter to pick it up. Since it’s still pretty new I don’t think they are used to the crowds yet because we waited a long time for our food. However the food was so tasty and authentic that it washed away any hunger-​related crabbiness we all had. It turns out that the chefs are carefully cooking each meal to-​order fresh and that takes time!
First of all, there is a set menu and then it looks like they rotate daily specials. The special dishes included northern dishes like aloo gobi and paneer thikka masala. Also special thalis like with eggplant curry. The set menu is purely traditional South Indian food. One of us got the special thali and I was really impressed with everything – especially the dal. The sambar is my favorite and tastes just like home in Chennai. The uppma and sambar together was a very tasty appetizer that we ordered and thoroughly enjoyed. I ordered the adai dosa which my fam in India never makes but I fell in love. Instead of making dosa with rice flour they make it with 4 dals! It is essentially a lentil dosai. Thoor dal, masoor dal, urud dal, channa dal were all ground together to make a crispy, hearty and protein packed dosai. Instead of avial I got it with sambar and licked every last drop off my plate! YUM!!! My dosai itself took a very long time and came later than everyone else in my party. However the guys kept remembering me and my order and kept signaling me from across the room to say «don’t worry, it’s coming.» And they finally brought it out to me when it was ready. Now that’s service!
Nothing was too oily or soggy or salty. Everything tasted fresh and crisp. One of us had to send a masala dosai back to the kitchen after requesting it to be thin and crispy and they didn’t complain at all. The chefs made a new one immediately and it came out perfect the 2^nd time.
The menu is full of traditional goodies that I can’t wait to come again to try. Paniyaram, idyappam, poongal, uppma, bajjis, appam, thayir saatham, ROSE MILK, and filter coffee. Oh yes, all delicious things from my childhood that I have not seen on a menu before!!! When I do come back here I’d go in a non-​typical dining time to avoid the rush and pandemonium that takes away a bit from the dining experience (but not much because the flavors of the food are enough to distract you from any loud crying or screaming children or families near you). Thank you so much for bringing a slice of home to us.