Madurai Kullappa Mess brings the flavours of southern Tamil Nadu to your plate
Now, find the flavours of Madurai in the heart of Chennai. At Madurai Kullappa Mess, the menu is built around meat: ghee mutton chukka, brain masala, liver fry, and head and trotters curry. However, it is the seafood here that seems to pull the most crowds, from crisp netheli fry to their Sunday-only ayira meen kuzhambu (a tamarind-based gravy made using this freshwater fish native to Tamil Nadu. These are tiny and slender fish often found in canals along agricultural fields and ponds. Due to their size, they are typically cooked whole.)
Promoted by Jeyanandh Dinakaran and helmed by managing director V Sivasankaran, this restaurant brings the bold, rustic flavors of Madurai to the city, with a menu that celebrates everything from biryani to meat-based gravies.
We visited this newly launched restaurant on a sunny afternoon to try their non-vegetarian set meals (₹299 andveg ₹225). The meals come with unlimited rice and five gravies, including crab, fish, chicken, mutton and a robust karuvadu thokku (a semi-gravy made with dried fish) .
As we waited for our order, Sivasankaran explained that the masalas are made in-house, with the lamb meat sourced from Thiruvallur district. The ghee, cold pressed groundnut and gingelly oil are brought in from the Delta regions, along the river Cauvery in Tamil Nadu. 'Our signature dish is ayira meen kulmabu which is served only on Sundays and viraal meen varuval, available everyday. We get ayirai meen from Madurai, which we transport in aluminium cans on buses. This dish sells out quickly, so we recommend pre-booking,' he says.
We try the viral meen varuval along with the Simmakkal-style seeraga samba biryani. The biryani is moist, clumped together and not fluffy owing to the texture of the native rice. It was rather underwhelming. It is available in chicken and mutton variants, priced at ₹310 and ₹410, respectively.
To round off the meal, we order mutton ghee chukka and mutton uppu kari — two classic Madurai-style dry preparations. When the set meals arrive, I taste all the gravies, and the mutton kulambu and karuvadu thokku stand out for their depth of flavor. The viraal meen is crisp on the outside and moist inside, perfectly fried. Uppu Kari, Sivasankaran explains, uses the bare essentials: red chilli, shallots, garlic, pepper, and salt, all slow-cooked in gingelly oil. The mutton nei (ghee) chukka has an intense flavour and tender meat. Though the dish carries the rich aroma of ghee, there's none in the cooking — only the red chillies are roasted in ghee before being added.
Madurai Kullappa Mess offers Chennai diners a taste of Madurai's hearty, meat-centric cuisine. While the gravies in the set meal were more subdued than expected and did not leave a lasting impression, the dry meat and seafood specials shine with bold, rustic flavors.
Madurai Kullappa Mess, T Nagar. Open from noon to 11pm. A meal for two is ₹800. For reservations, call 6385123456 .
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