Why Chennai Is Set To Be 2026’s Dining Hotspot

While Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru were chest-thumpingly claiming their superiority over one another in the realm of gastronomy, Chennai was quietly readying itself to stake its own claim. Perfecting balancing its avant-garde food city and traditional food hub characters, it is constantly pushing the envelope.

Chennai is a city that not only celebrates tradition in the chaotic bustle and the messes of Mylapore, but equally revels in the culinary progressions in the chic lanes of RA Puram. If an influx of professionals from across India and overseas has resulted in praise-worthy cuisine-specific establishments, its changing sociocultural fabric is vigorously batting for homegrown food narrative. From local to global spreads, the city seems to have an answer to every culinary desire with its authentic, experimental stamp to it.

As its dining scape is changing, its food and drinks are celebrating ingenuity, making a fine transition from inspired to inspiration. While Kappa Chakka Kandhari is reintroducing home-style Kerala cooking, Aeseo continues to set the benchmark for Korean fare. Pumpkin Tales is getting acknowledged beyond the state lines for a sustainable and local approach. Zhouyu, drawing inspiration from diverse places for its indulgent Chinese menu, revels in its harvest grain bowls. Pandan Club is proudly spearheading the cocktail revolution while being India’s first modern Peranakan restaurant boldly give a niche lesson in those Southeast Asian flavours.

India on your plate

There are more that have helped Chennai come a long way since Avartana challenged the notions of South Indian cuisines in fine dining and put the city on the map in 2017. And now, from the same maestro, chef Ajit Bangera, comes newly-opened Firo – breaking all cliches in a pan-Indian fare. In collaboration with restaurateur Ashish Thadani, and along with his protégé, chef Abhishek Mody, here is where Bangera is indulgently surprising all with collective memories and traditional techniques wrapped in contemporary gastronomy.

“Firo takes classic Indian dishes and gives them creative, playful twists while ensuring the core flavours and essence remain true to the land. Each dish and drink is designed to ‘tell a story of pride, artistry, and roots’”, Bangera says. Hence, be it forever-relished chaat or the fulcrum of Indian cooking – ghee, rustic breads, or plain vada-pav, all have been elevated with a finesse. Think chaat coming as a silken sorbet sitting pretty on crispy spinach and ghee losing none of its flavour when turned into an ice-cream paired with semolina cake and jaggery sauce. Then there is ‘palak no paneer’, where frugal cottage cheese gives way to burrata and comes served with a multi-layered Multani Kulcha.

“The city’s café culture, premium casual dining, and craft cocktail scene have all matured. Chennai is finally ready for dining that is modern, thoughtful, and rooted in India,” says Thadani, who also owns vibrant Ciclo Cafes. “With Firo, we felt this was the right moment to offer Chennai something elevated yet familiar, and to contribute to the city’s growing appetite for world-class dining.”

Zero Fake Americano at Pandan Club

Time to toot the horn

Similarly, the city’s beverage scene is also bursting with intention and innovation. However, as Manoj Padmanabhan, restaurateur-chef-mixologist at Pandan Club, Jolly Indian, and more, points out, the city’s problem has not been creativity but underrepresentation. For, this is a place that championed Korean cuisine well in the mid-1990s, much before its cosmopolitan counterparts jumped on the bibimbap and tteokbokki wagon, owing to recent popularity of K-dramas.

“Chennai saw Korean restaurants flourishing after Hyundai set up its shop near the city. We always had a strong global and regional food presence too, but just that we never got that mainstream attention or received our due in f&b awards and media,” says Padmanabhan. “Places like Pandan Club and MadCo. have been heralding a new cocktail culture, where quality trumps quantity. Apart from the chosen classics, rather than an extensive and predictable menu, we believe in 9-10 signature cocktails that stand out, and celebrate niche and regional flavours,” he adds. Their ‘Affair’, pandan-infused scotch with palm jaggery and sea water has been a chartbuster, along with the like of Americano in their much-liked Zero Fake menu. MadCo. (Madras Cocktail Company), is also working towards adding to the city’s discerning cocktail subculture with its Saleimaani Old Fashioneds, Kappi Coladas, and Fiery Amethysts. The city has been pushing forward many micro cuisines too, slowly and steadily marrying old with new, regional with global, and tradition with modernity. As Thadani says, “what excites me about 2026 is that Chennai is finally seeing more chef-driven projects, stronger bar programmes, and concepts that aren’t afraid to take creative risks.”

For a city that seems to always be eating or drinking, perhaps what is left to do now is toot its horn. Or, as Bangera wishes, some more high-profile openings. The time is nigh!