A new Chennai address makes a case for vegetarian comfort food

The building announces itself in green before you have even parked. Bhavyam Veg’s new Mount Road branch is impossible to miss from the road and once you step inside, the interiors do the opposite of what the street outside does. Thoughtful minimalism, no aggressive lighting, nothing brightly coloured or overwhelming, and a quality of calm that is genuinely rare on Mount Road at high noon. We arrived riding under a hot sun and breathed out properly for the first time in an hour. The space was designed by Prathyuksha Acharya, whose siblings Pavithra and Pradyumna run the restaurant alongside their mother. The Anna Nagar branch has been going for three years. Asked when they planned to expand further, Pradyumna says simply, “We are focusing on being consistent with the food quality and service over expanding commercially.” The new branch is evidence of that conviction.

Green exterior, thoughtful interiors, and a tikka selection that genuinely surprises

The Malai broccoli opened things on an uncertain note: the malai was good but the broccoli had been over-blanched and lost the firm bite that makes the dish worth ordering. It did not set the tone. What came after it did.

The tikka section of this menu is extensive and we feel like we tried almost all of it: paneer pasandha tikka, reshmi tikka, rangeela paneer, and the raja mushroom tikka. All of them arrived well charred on the outside, soft and good within, and all of them carried slightly different cheese filling inside that added depth and richness to the preparation.

The main course came with roti and Kashmiri pulao. The Paneer Shyam Savera arrives as two gravies in the same bowl: one tomato-based, which is brilliant on its own, and one cashew-based, which leaned too sweet for our preference and ended up being paired with the spicier things on the table. The Paneer lababdar came with a cheese crust and chilli flakes on top, a good dip-like quality to it. The Paneer peshawari held its own quietly alongside it.

We washed all of it down with a pomegranate and orange punch before taking a sharp turn south. The Ghee roast alone would have sold this place to us. And then the Bangalore benne masala dosa arrived: the classic thick dosa, one side shatteringly crispy, the other soft and spongy and made for soaking up sambar.

Millet options exist on the menu. We were approaching food coma and spared ourselves. Next visit.

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