This newly launched restaurant on the ECR, Chennai, serves authentic Kerala food

Oru Kerala Story in Uthandi offers authentic Kerala cuisine in a shack-style ambience, with seafood sourced locally.

After a year of research, Nithyashree and Sourab launched Oru Kerala Story, a shack-style restaurant selling authentic cuisine from God’s own country. 

Their hunt for a suitable location led them to Uthandi. “We were keen on creating a shack-like ambience with wooden benches for seating and a tea shop at the entrance. My mother, who unfortunately passed away last year, wanted us to launch our restaurant. That was another reason to open,” says Nithyashree, a special educator.

“We were keen on creating a shack-like ambience with wooden benches for seating and a tea shop at the entrance. We found this place perfectly fit the bill,” says Nithya.

Over warm cumin-infused water, we peruse through the menu and settle on fried chicken doused in fragrant coconut oil. It is spicy, crisp and tasty. The surprise however is the prawn fry that arrives unassumingly and tastes delicious. The proprietors tell us that their seafood is sourced locally from Kovalam, on ECR.  We peruse through the menu serving both vegetarian and non-vegetarian fare and settle on the fried chicken and a portion of BDF (Beef Deep Fry). Boneless strips of meat batter fried in oil, are tossed in an in-house spice mix sprinkled with curry leaves and served. Every bite is delightful.

For the mains, we choose the Kerala-style chicken biryani but as we await its arrival, Chef Ajay Mohan who hails from Kerala’s Idukki district, recommends that we also try paal kappa where tapioca is cooked, mashed and blended with coconut milk and salt, with a hearty fish gravy on the side. A bite, and we realise that the biryani does not stand a chance. Such is the preparation of this simple dish. “Paal kappa can be eaten with sh or beef, and it elevates the taste to another level,” says Nithya. 

How can we miss parotta at a Kerala restaurant? We are served flaky parottas with vegetable kurma and chicken gravy. Their parotta combo are value for money, where you get two parottas with either vegetarain kurma, or chicken or beef gravy. For dessert, the Malayali staple paalada pradhaman comes in bowls, while a mango coconut pudding follows. The dessert portions are generous but not memorable.  Oru Kerala Story has a vegetarian thali meal on the weekends, which comes with four side dishes, sambar, rasam, moru (buttermilk) and payasam. 

In the evenings, the owners say that it is common to spot several cars and bikes parked by their tea stall. “The place is very close to Uthandi beach and we see a lot of young people who stop by for tea and snacks between 4pm and 6pm,” says Nithya. Pazhampori and masala vada are staples, but they plan to expand the menu gradually.