Selvi Mess, Salem Bypass Road

Have you heard of a pure non veg restaurant? OK, maybe you have! But have you heard of a restaurant that doesn't want vegetarians to step inside? Something like having a board as soon as you enter warning you that there is no veg food. And then reiterating the message again at the end of the board? I've not!

The food has to be excellent for them to get away with something like that!

It was!

Just a couple of dishes were mind blowing! The chicken fry. That's it, no complicated names. The waiter (in mufti), says that he will tear the chicken apart and just fry it with masala. Oh it was yum. I mean like really really yum! And then the dish of the day. The Katla Fish Fry! Some spell it Catla. For someone who is not fish fan and then skipped graduate school to a direct post graduation in fish eating (read as, started eating sushi directly), I've never come to like cooked fish. I know, that sounds strange. I do here and there, but this fish was something. Yes, it was fried, but the fish itself was super super yum. The masala was just on the outside! This is a river fish that is found around Salem and I've tried sourcing it in Chennai, but no luck!

We all had some biriyani and parotta to go with the gravies, but the chicken and fish simply stayed on our minds. We ended up ordering about 4-5 fishes between the 5 of us and the bill was Rs. 1450!

Selvi mess is on Salem Bypass road and quite popular! If you have a vegetarian in your group, don't worry. Just sit in the a/c hall and ask for mushroom gravy or something and they will serve it to you. They don't want to serve a pure veg lunch. Why? Beats me, too!