5 Pocket Friendly Places in Mylapore to Grab a Quick Bite
Mylapore Food Walk
Sridhar Venkatraman, a long time resident of Mylapore, had called out people for a Food Walk in Mylapore last week, on the 8th and 9th of January. He had also shared a handy map for the joints (Which can be found as the Featured image in this post), thus giving us the freedom to explore the places on our own.
I went for the food walk with some of my friends, on the 9th and here I am, writing about my experience, and listing out the places I tried out.
1. Rayar’s mess :
I tried out these items:
- Bonda – Pretty good, and the traditional South Indian touch was there, making it taste great, without that oily, sticky feel one usually gets at tea shop bondas.
- Gulab Jamun – Yummy !
- Coffee – Wow! One of the simplistically good coffees I’ve tasted in recent times. Kudos to Rayar’s Mess !
- Onion Rava Dosai – My friends tried out an Onion Rava Dosai in addition, and their reviews were quite positive
Overall, for the 4 of us, the bill worked out to be Rs. 260 in total, which, in my opinion, quite pocket friendly, as we left the place with satisfactory tummies.
Rating: 4/5
2. Karpagambal Sweets:
We next decided to try out Karpagambal Sweets, as it was nearby on our map.
After a quick glance at their shop and what was selling like hot cakes, we decided to try:
- Gobi Pakora – Typical Gopi Pakora that you get at every other savoury shop. Nothing special about it
- Vazhekka Bajji – My friend liked it. Though I took a very small portion of it for taste, I noticed that it wasn’t oily at all, which is quite a feat, considering the Bajjis are fried and served on real time.
- Medhu Pakoda – Alas, before we got around to trying this, they got sold out ๐
Overall, the total expenses here worked out to be around Rs. 40 for 2 plates of Bajji and 1 plate of Gobi Pakora. Quite VFM indeed !
Rating: 3.5/5
3. Senthil Softy :
Our next visit was to Senthil Softy, which was located about 100mtrs away from Karpagambal Sweets.
We originally wanted to try the Gulkand Milk, but sadly, that wasn’t available.
So we ended up getting:
- Badam Milk – I tasted a small sip. Liked it. My friend said it’s perfect
- Chocolate Milk – My friend appeared to like this, though I don’t remember trying this one ๐
- Rose Milk – Decent, bit too sweety though. Many would love it I suppose.
Overall, the bill here was Rs. 82 which works out to an average of ~27.33 ๐ Pretty pocket friendly I’d say !
Rating: 4/5
4. Mami Kadai:
We next walked around and around and around, trying to figure out if we want to try the Jannal Kadai or Mami Kadai. We finally zeroed in Mami Kadai, since we had already tried the Bajji at Karpagambal Sweets and we sure didn’t want to have Bajji again.
Enter Mami Kadai:
I decided to stick with just a Coffee, so that I’ve some room for trying out Gomathi Mess.
On hindsight, it was a bad choice on my part ๐
The coffee was too sweet, and the flavor was not as strong as the coffee I had at Rayar’s mess. ‘To make it worse, the coffee was quite watery too.
My friends tried out the Ghee podi roast. Pranav exclaims it as: “one of the best I’ve had. Crunchy dosa and a layer of ghee mixed with podi. Yum !”
Total bill here was Rs. 110 for 2 Ghee Podi Roasts and a Cup of Coffee. Again, it’s totally pocket friendly, considering most restaurants these days charge Rs. 110 or more for just a single ghee roast.
Rating: 3.5/5
5. Kalathi Paper Mart :
After walking round and round around Mylapore, trying to find Gomathi Mess for trying out their Venpongal, and getting lost along the way, thanks to dysfunctional Votta-fone connection and Google Maps, we finally decided to chuck that visit and try out Kalathi Paper Mart.
While the place is known for Rose Milk, we didn’t want to try it, having had Rose milk just a short while ago on Senthil Softy.
So we settled for a Goli soda each. I’ve had Goli Soda only once before, on a road side shop in New Avadi road while walking home from Kilpauk. As it wasn’t chilled and it was the plain soda variant, I wasn’t too sure about having it here.
But the one I had in Kalathi Paper Mart was much, much better. It was a Goli (Paneer) Soda. Took me back to my college days when I used to drink Paneer Soda quite often. It’s a great thirst quencher, and miles better than any Coke/Pepsi/Their Products.
PS: It was really interesting to watch how they opened the Goli Soda bottle with just a tap on the mouth of it.
Total: Rs. 30 for 3 Sodas
Rating: 4/5
That’s it from me folks ! Thanks a lot to Sridhar Venkatraman & Chennai Food Walks for putting this together.