Mehal Briyani

Our shop is located at No 99/1 on New Avadi Road in Kilpauk. We are very close to the Kilpauk Garden bus stop, so people often see us while they are waiting for their ride. The smell of the food usually travels outside and that helps people find us too. Chennai can get really hot, so the shade of our building is a relief for some. We focus mostly on biryani here. We have large pots that we use to cook everything and the kitchen gets quite steamed up during the lunch hours. It is a simple setup with a few places to sit. We don't have air conditioning or anything like that, just some fans to move the air around. When the buses pull up at the stop, we usually get a rush of people. Some are in a big hurry and others have more time to stay. We spend a lot of time cleaning the rice and getting the spices ready. It is hard work and the days are long. We don't have a big marketing team or anything like that. We just put the food out and hope people like it enough to come back. Most of our customers are locals from around Kilpauk or people who work near New Avadi Road. We just keep doing the same thing every day, making sure the pots are full and the customers are fed before we close up for the evening break. It's just us here.