The Chettinad

This location has been home to a series of Indian restaurants in the last decade. The Chettinad is on par with the best. The flavor pallete here is broader than most SE Michigan indian places. Many of the dishes are southern Indian or Sri Lankan, others have some szechaun influences. The lightly spiced kashmiri naan stuffed with sultanas, almonds and cashews is great. My personal favorite is the kozhi varutha curry which comes served on a banana leaf on a sizzling platter. The banana leaf prevents the meat from sticking to the cast iron. Brilliant. The buffet is good as well, on par with Ashoka in Troy. If you like dosas they are huge. Service is good and prices are reasonable. Décor is uninteresting; definitely not a romantic spot. Staff always ask how spicy you like your food, but I find «chefs preference» to be a safe way to go.

I have been craving Indian food ever since I returned to Michigan from NYC and tried The Chettinad on a whim and boy was I surprised. Located at an intersection that features polish, thai, korean, and middle eastern food with mexican and chinese restaurants just a hop and a skip away it can be easy to overlook this modest Indian establishment. But I’m here to tell you that you’ve been missing out. The food I ordered was colorful, flavorful, and delicious. The waiters were cordial and attentive. And I would definitely recommend this restaurant to anyone in the area.
I went for their lunch buffet which was $ 9. The There was roughly 15 or so items to choose from and included two chicken dishes (Butter Chicken, and Chicken Biryani) a beef dish, goat curry, vegetable kurma, and many other veggie dishes (sorry I’m not as familiar with Indian food names as I should be). I’ve now been 2 times and each time the buffet had different entrees which is nice.
I would put this place on par with any of the other finer Indian Restaurants in the area (mostly located in Ann Arbor such as Seajoy’s and Shalimar). And compared to Ashoka’s lunch buffet which has half the options of The Chettinad for the same price, this place is well worth the money. Additionally, The Chettinad lunch buffet offers unlimited Tandoori chicken compared to Ashoka’s one per person policy.
If you’re unfamiliar with Indian food you should come for lunch, with so many choices you’re bound to find something you like.

This is my favorite Indian restaurant in metro Detroit. They have a wonderful lunch buffet, with about 12 main courses each day, and multiple appetizers, and desserts, and a great dinner menu too. Great vegetarian and meat options are always available too. Please go to this place — they said they may go out of business if don’t get more business :(

They can make pretty authentic south-​indian style food here. The Chettinad items are also very very good. You can request to increase the spice level if you want. Chettinad food is generally spicier.
We tried a bunch of things.
Appetizer — veggie puffs (flaky-​baklava-​kind-​of-​doughy thingy filled with vegetables)
Entrees:
Rava Dosa (cream of wheat crêpe),
Poori (fried/​fluffy Indian bread) with potato,
Parotta with Kurma (Layered Indian bread with coconut based creamy vegetable curry).
Mango Lassi was fine.
Indian style tea with milk and sugar was good.
Overall very good.

I was probably a little too excited to try Chettinad. But after going to Royal a thousand consecutive times, I was interested in trying something new. I tried two different dishes (whose names I don’t remember), iddly, mango lahsi, and naan. All in all, it was so-​so. It wasn’t spicy enough. Maybe I’ve just become to accustomed to Royal, but the ambiance at Chettinad didn’t mesh with me so well. The food is definitely not bad, but I think I will stick with my favorite. On the plus side, it wasn’t expensive, and service was kind and fast.

The ambiance is pretty bland. Much like the food. The food didn’t come out hot, spicy, or appealing.
I love the iddly though, and that seems to be a popular item on the menu — most people seemed to enjoy the fried version though. I prefer the spongier version — the lentil soup that came with it was great. Spicy, well seasoned, and very tasty. Why weren’t the entrees like that?
I had a vegetable korma and some other vegetarian South Indian specialty with broccoli stems (?) and mustard seeds. Everything else was fine, but these dishes just didn’t give me that satisfying feeling after stuffing my face with Indian. It just lacked.
This place fell flat. Royal or Ashoka is the way to go.

The lunch buffet is pretty diverse and tasty for an Indian lunch buffet.
The dinners are priced about twice as much per person but you have a plethora of options to pick from. Also I feel that dinner has more South Indian options and lunch buffet is more generic Indian dishes. 4 out of 5 Indian restaurants are «North Indian» style, so this place is one of the few South Indian ones you will find. It’s interesting because the way South Indians prepare food is different. It is like comparing how us in the North of America like food compared to those in the South. Give this place a shot as authentic South Indian dishes like «Fish Pulsu», «Malabar Chicken», «Chettinad Chicken», etc. will be spicy and different tasting than the counterparts they have in typical North Indian restaurants.
It’s a good place. I go perhaps once or twice a year. I am South Indian myself so I feel my view of authenticity the dinners here have count for something. However one gripe I have is that the chicken curries cater to Americans by being boneless — North Indians eat many boneless chicken curries but we South Indians do typically make the chicken with bone pieces because the flavour is more distinct from the fats/​membranes that join the meat & bones on different pieces.
This place has that authentic hole in the wall charm. All in all a good Indian place that is off the radar of mainstream Indian places like nearby Ashoka — which is like the Olive Garden of Indian restaurants in my opinion.

I am a sucker for Indian restaurants at lunch time. The Chettinad had the added mystique of being a South Indian restaurant, a distinction that I had not seen prior. Every Indian restaurant I’ve ever been in at lunchtime has had a buffet and The Chettinad was no different.
The restaurant’s name comes from its location in India. Chettinad cuisine hails from the southern most region of Tamil Nadu. Chettinad cuisine is one of the spiciest, oiliest and most aromatic in India (
). Not being familiar with this style of Indian cooking, I was actually kind of surprised at the strength of flavor of some of the dishes.
The buffet was solid. Plenty of vegetarian and meat options along with at least 2 desserts. All of the food was at the proper temperature — hot dishes were hot and cold were cold. There was one cold dish that was quite interesting — a cold lemon relish/​salad. Chopped whole lemons (rind and all) in a moderately spiced sauce/​dressing. Another difference was the addition of a cornbread type biscuit that was at room temp. Not very flavorful, but perfect for sopping up the wonderfully spiced sauces. Traditional naan was available as well.
The hot dishes (and I’m sorry I didn’t get any names for the dishes I ate) were very impressive. As someone who enjoys spicy foods, the Chettinad does not disappoint. The marriage of sweet and hot that occurs in many Indian dishes is present. Chicken was tender, the paneer had good texture, and the rice was cooked well. There was also a yellow lentil dish and mixed vegetables in red curry. No lamb or goat was on the buffet.
Dessert included a luscious mango mousse that was sweet, tart, and creamy. Gulab jamun, fried dough balls in a rosewater syrup, is one of my favorite Indian desserts. It is done very well here and should not be missed.
Lunch buffet was 8.99 and is available Monday through Friday.