Cafeography
சென்னை

Cafés in Chennai kaapi by the tumbler

Filter coffee at the Mada Street counters around Kapaleeshwarar Temple, a biscuit cup on T. Nagar's South Usman Road, light roasts on St Mary's Road and cafés on Besant Nagar's avenues.

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141Cafés listed
1Open by 6am
5Open past 10pm
4Specialty & roasters

Chennai (சென்னை), the capital of Tamil Nadu, was officially Madras until 17 July 1996, and dates its founding to 1639, with Fort St. George built a year later.1 Coffee reached its kitchens late. The historian N. Subramanian, born in 1915, recalled the drink becoming a family custom around 1918, and from the 1920s to the 1950s coffee hotels serving it with tiffin spread across the city, many with a separate section for Brahmin customers.2

Filter coffee is still the default order, and it comes in many versions. Kumbakonam degree coffee takes its name from a town in Thanjavur district and is made with cow's milk free of adulterants; there is a café under that name on Vadhyar Subbraya Mudali Street in Kodambakkam.11 Karupatti (palm jaggery) coffee goes back to an older sweetener: Udangudi's palm jaggery was once known to coffee drinkers all over rural Thoothukudi district.10 At Vijayaram on South Usman Road, coffee has come in a chocolate-glazed wafer cup since June 2020.12

Newer formats arrived in the 2010s. Madras Coffee House, founded in 2010, opened its first counter in Express Avenue mall.5 Starbucks came to Chennai on 8 July 2014, at Phoenix Marketcity in Velachery, with a pour-over set sold only in this city.4 Beachville opened its café with a glass-walled roastery on St Mary's Road in Alwarpet in October 2020.3 Garden cafés came earlier: Amethyst moved about a decade after its opening in 2000 to a restored granary on Whites Road, where Wild Garden Cafe takes the garden.13

From the Mada Streets to Besant Nagar

Chennai by area

Several of Chennai's neighborhoods are planned layouts on reclaimed water: T. Nagar was laid out in 1923–25 on the drained Long Tank, and much of Nungambakkam stands on the same tank, filled in during the early 1970s.1415 Coffee follows the temple streets of Mylapore, the shopping roads of T. Nagar and Nungambakkam, and the numbered avenues of Anna Nagar and Besant Nagar.

Nungambakkam

Cafés on Khader Nawaz Khan Road and Kothari Road, tea opposite Loyola College and late tables on Periyar Road.

17 cafés

T. Nagar

Vijayaram's coffee in a biscuit cup on South Usman Road, standing counters and Pondy Bazaar's pedestrian plaza.

10 cafés

Mylapore & Alwarpet

Coffee counters on the Mada Streets around Kapaleeshwarar Temple, and roasters and bungalow cafés in Alwarpet.

18 cafés

Adyar & Besant Nagar

Cafés on Besant Nagar's numbered avenues behind Elliot's Beach, and a rooftop in Gandhi Nagar.

16 cafés

Anna Nagar

A grid of numbered avenues around the Roundtana, tea houses on 2nd Avenue and a karupatti coffee shop.

18 cafés

Kodambakkam & Vadapalani

Kollywood's studio district, Vadapalani's Murugan temple and metro, Ashok Nagar's avenues and a degree coffee shop.

13 cafés

Guindy & Velachery

Velachery's malls, lake and bypass, Guindy's metro interchange and coffee shops in Nanganallur and Madipakkam.

16 cafés
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Browse by mood and hour

George Town & Park Town 8 cafés

Triplicane & Chepauk 1 cafés

Egmore & Kilpauk 7 cafés

Nungambakkam 17 cafés

More about cafés in Nungambakkam

Royapettah & Gopalapuram 9 cafés

T. Nagar 10 cafés

More about cafés in T. Nagar

Mylapore & Alwarpet 18 cafés

More about cafés in Mylapore & Alwarpet

Adyar & Besant Nagar 16 cafés

More about cafés in Adyar & Besant Nagar

Cocoa and Crème Rooftop Cafe

  • 4th Floor, 53/26 Gandhi Nagar 1st Main Road
  • Daily 16:00–23:00
  • +919840223428
  • Outdoor seating
  • Open late
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Thiruvanmiyur & Taramani 4 cafés

Anna Nagar 18 cafés

More about cafés in Anna Nagar

Cafe Console 101

  • Metro Station, 37, 2nd Avenue, Anna Nagar Main Road, Anna Nagar West, Anna Nagar, Chennai Near Thirumangalam(Nehru Nagar) Bus Stop, and
  • +918610131261
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Kodambakkam & Vadapalani 13 cafés

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Guindy & Velachery 16 cafés

More about cafés in Guindy & Velachery

TeaTrance & Snack Boat

  • 41 Balaji Nagar 1st Street
  • Daily 09:00–21:00
  • 04447906014
  • Outdoor seating
  • Air-con
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Perambur & Kolathur 4 cafés

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Coffee chains in Chennai

Branches by area

Before you sit down

How to order filter coffee in Chennai

Ask for "coffee" at a tea stall or a temple-street counter and you get filter coffee: decoction, the strong brew from a two-part steel filter, mixed with hot milk and sugar and handed over in a tumbler set in a davara (a wide, rimmed bowl). On South Mada Street in Mylapore, Leo Coffee House charged ₹20 a cup in April 2026 and served 09:00–20:00 without a break; a month earlier Cothas asked ₹25 for coffee and ₹12 for tea.87

Purists hold degree coffee to stricter rules: no chicory, cow's milk rather than buffalo milk, and a small tumbler drunk in quick sips, cool enough to gulp without burning the tongue.2 The tumbler has a rim so that you can pour the coffee in without your lips touching the metal, a habit tied to Tamil Brahmin ideas of purity.2 Pour it back and forth between tumbler and davara to cool it.

Many counters have no chairs. At Madras Coffee House you order and pay at the counter, then carry the tumbler to one of the round steel tables outside the kiosk.5 Roadside stalls raised their prices on 1 September 2025, to ₹15 for tea and ₹20 for coffee, the first rise since 2022; stall owners cited milk at ₹65 a litre and coffee powder at ₹250 for 200 grams.6

Laptops are welcome at a few specialty cafés: Beachville on St Mary's Road, Bask by Coffee on Kasturi Rangan Road and Southwest Coffee Roasters in Nungambakkam. Late coffee is rarer. Crafe on Periyar Road and The Entrance Cafe on Taylors Road serve past 22:00, and in George Town, where Assam Tea House stands at 121 Mint Street, the Madras Coffee House counter opens at 05:00.

What coffee costs in Chennai

DrinkTypical price
Coffee
Filter coffee at a roadside tea stall		₹20
Tea stalls, from September 2025
Tea
Milk tea at a roadside tea stall		₹15
Tea stalls, from September 2025
Filter coffee
Filter coffee at a Mada Street counter		₹20–25
Mylapore, March–April 2026
Coffee
Coffee at the UDAN Yatri Cafe		₹20
Chennai Airport, February 2025

Prices as of 2025–2026: roadside rates from the Chennai Metropolitan Tea Shop Owners Association's rise of 1 September 2025, Mada Street prices from Mylapore Times in March and April 2026, and the airport café's prices from its opening in February 2025.6789

Sources

  1. Chennai, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
  2. A Coffee Break in Tradition, Open Magazine (Shylashri Shankar, December 14, 2016), accessed October 2026
  3. Build-Outs Of Coffee: Beachville Coffee Roasters In Chennai, India, Sprudge (September 21, 2021), accessed October 2026
  4. Tata Starbucks Ltd. celebrates 50 Starbucks stores in India with its foray into Chennai, Tata Consumer Products (July 9, 2014), accessed October 2026
  5. How Madras Coffee House managed to stand out in a city known for filter coffee, The News Minute (Megha Kaveri, December 5, 2020), accessed October 2026
  6. Costly cuppa: Tea, coffee to cost more in city from Sept 1, DT Next (September 1, 2025), accessed October 2026
  7. Mylapore's coffee contests happen all the time. Cothas opens third outlet, Mylapore Times (Baskar Seshadri, March 24, 2026), accessed October 2026
  8. Coffee battles on Mada Streets. Leo offers a cup for Rs.20, Mylapore Times (Baskar Seshadri, April 29, 2026), accessed October 2026
  9. Chennai Airport serves tea for ₹10, samosas for ₹20, Business Today (February 27, 2025), accessed October 2026
  10. Udangudi jaggery industry on verge of extinction, Deccan Chronicle (M. Aruloli, May 31, 2015), accessed October 2026
  11. Kumbakonam Degree Coffee, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
  12. 5 Places for Best Filter Coffee in Chennai, The Quint (Smitha TK, September 2, 2021), accessed October 2026
  13. Meet Kiran Rao, the woman who started Chennai's popular Amethyst cafe, The News Minute (Anjana Shekar, May 8, 2018), accessed October 2026
  14. Thyagaraya Nagar, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
  15. Nungambakkam, Wikipedia, accessed October 2026
More to read

Guides

Coffee cultures

South Indian filter coffee from the Baba Budan hills to the darshini counter

How filter kaapi is brewed and why it carries chicory, the davara and tumbler, Bengaluru's darshinis, the Indian Coffee House and where India grows coffee.

FAQ

Cafés in Chennai: common questions

How much does filter coffee cost in Chennai?

Since 1 September 2025 a coffee at a Chennai roadside tea stall costs ₹20, up from ₹15, and tea costs ₹15; it was the first rise since 2022. On Mylapore's Mada Streets a filter coffee cost ₹20–25 in spring 2026, and the UDAN Yatri Cafe at Chennai Airport sold coffee for ₹20 when it opened in February 2025.

Which neighborhood of Chennai has the most cafés?

Mylapore & Alwarpet and Anna Nagar have the most cafés, followed by Nungambakkam. Nungambakkam, Anna Nagar and Mylapore with Alwarpet have the widest choice, ahead of Adyar and Velachery.

What makes degree coffee in Chennai different from ordinary filter coffee?

Degree coffee, associated with Kumbakonam in Thanjavur district, is made with cow's milk free of adulterants. Purists add no chicory, prefer cow's milk to buffalo milk and serve it in a small rimmed tumbler, drunk in quick sips at a heat you can gulp. In Kodambakkam there is a café called Kumbakonam Degree Coffee on Vadhyar Subbraya Mudali Street.

Where can you watch coffee being roasted in Chennai?

At Beachville on St Mary's Road in Alwarpet, a café opened in October 2020 around a roastery behind a glass wall. It opens daily from 08:00 to 20:00, serves specialty coffee and welcomes laptop work.

When was Chennai renamed from Madras?

The city's official name changed from Madras to Chennai on 17 July 1996. Chennai dates its founding to 1639, and Fort St. George was built a year later. The city is the capital of Tamil Nadu.

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