Copper Typically when we research restaurants for our trips we start out trying to find places serving good food and then we try to figure out which ones of those are relatively close to our hotel. And our research for Chennai restaurants followed that pattern.

One of the places we had read good reviews for was Copper Chimney but its location on Cathedral Road was about a 15 minute ride from our hotel located in the City Centre.  So while on the good food list, it wasn’t at the top of the places where we would likely be dining.

Coincidentally, we had been trying to withdraw money from ATM machines on our first day in Chennai. Chennai was to be the last large city we would be in before heading south in the State of Tamil Nadu to much smaller cities for our textile tour and we reasoned this might be our last best chance to withdraw some money for about a week.

We looked for ATMs before, during and after our morning food walk and nearby our hotel in the afternoon and while we found plenty of machines, all were for use on domestic Indian accounts only and did not connect to international banks.

But back in the room before dinner I googled for international banks and found a Citibank located on Cathedral Road about 3 minutes from Copper Chimney. So to kill two birds with one stone, we asked our driver Mohan to make a quick stop on the way to dinner and with a pocket full of cash we made our way to the restaurant.

Copper Chimney is located on the ground floor of a building with very limited parking. We found it entertaining to watch two restaurant employees directing the dance between arriving and departing cars. As we moved from the chaos of a busy Cathedral Road we entered a very pleasant clean room and we were seated along a wall in kind of a semi-private alcove.

The service was very elegant and attentive. And the food: It was really really good. The menu is not strictly Southern Indian but rather takes influences from all across the country.  In reflection, we have agreed that Cooper Chimney was our favorite restaurant that we ate in over the entire 2-weeks we spent in India.

In fact, it was so good we came back for dinner again the next evening even though we didn’t need another visit to the Citibank ATM.

Over the course of our two meals there we enjoyed Butter chicken, Grilled Mutton Ribs, a delicious chickpea and onion chana masala, Lamb kabobs and an excellent garlic naan. The mango chutney and mint & cilantro green sauce were up to the same standard. While not the least expensive meals we ate in India, it was certainly reasonable for the quality of the food. Too bad we’re a little too far to go back for a 3rd visit tonight.