Rayar Mess

If you are in the vicinity of Mylapore and manage to give the Karpagambal mess and the Luz Vasanth Bhavan a miss, then you can try out the Rayar mess.

Enter the Luz Church Road from the Luz corner end and stroll down for a about half a KM, on the left side of the road you would find the Arundale Street.

If you are lucky you would be able to park the car in the Luz Church Road and if you are luckier you would able to insert your car in one of the slots in Arundale Street itself. But if you not too sure of luck being on your side lately, take your bike.

As you enter the Arundale street and proceed towards the other end of the street and you would see a Pillayar temple. And the Rayars are at the mid-section of this road and it would be an easy guess for any to know that you are there for having your breakfast or the evening snacks at the mess, if you are cruising along the street. Perhaps the mess visitors are the only people who test the tranquility of the place which is otherwise quite a sober street.

The mess is managed by the brothers - Kumar Anna and Mohan Anna; the former is usually at the kitchen dishing out the menu items. Kumar is the younger one of the two and is the wholesome entertainer of the visitors fulfilling the 16 customers, which is the maximum seating capacity of the mess. The mess had been handed over to these siblings by their father albeit they had moved from their earlier location at Kutchery road about 5 years back.

The mess is open on all days, at two time slots: 7AM to 10 AM for the breakfast and for the evening snacks between 3 pm to 6 pm. Mohan Anna quips neatly when enquired about the timings “Remember two 3 hours anna… 3 in the morning and 3 in the evening”. Forgot to check whether he was a native of Coimbatore, for ‘anna’ was included in every single statement of his.

The menu on board was mouth watering. One would get Adai aviyal, Idlis, Dosas, Pongal and Medhu vadai. with the sidees of idli-mulagapodi with gingley oil, getti chutney, kara-chutney, running-chutney, sambar. Don’t be surprised at the lavish spread of ghee for the Adai or the Idlis. Carry your water or ask for bottled one.

And be prepared to have the ‘coffee in the corridor’ if you need to vacate the table because of the customers waiting for their turn. And the coffee is prepared strong; so warn the waiter if your preference is a lighter one.
And if waiting for your turn is little testing, then pick up your parcel and carry it home.

The idlis and the vadai was pretty good with the mulaga podi. Not the same case with the sambar. The getti chutney could compensate for the not-so-great sambar. Breakfast for two, consisting of 7 idlies, 4 vadais, 3 portions of the idli-mulagapodi and 2 coffees costed Rs 76. Not costly, but does not come very cheap either; still worth trying.

My rating of the place :
Menu spread: Good for breakfast or a evening snacks
Price: Not expensive
Hygiene: Can be improved
Parking: You ought to be lucky with a four wheeler; Take your two-wheeler
Overall rating: Good (hmmm… little broadminded, I am)