Our family of four recently visited Chennai Chimney for a delicious and (comparatively) inexpensive dinner. I might have given five stars based on the dishes I ordered...but poor service prevented that. The dishes I chose - the Rogan Josh and Jeenga Aatish (tandoor shrimp) -...were indeed quite perfect. The shrimp was flavorful with bright notes of citrus and cardamom while the lamb was earthy and spicy with enough heat to grab your attention. The Mysore Masala Dosa, Virudhunagar Chukkakari Dosa (lamb w/ onion masala), garlic naan, and cucumber raita were all quite good. The eggplant in the Ennai kathirikai was a bit mealy but the sauce - a spiceful though not spicy coconut sauce - was delicious. I thought the deep fried chicken lollipops were best avoided but my son loved them. However, the Gobi 65 - deep fried batter hiding what was theoretically cauliflower inside - was rather awful. Many have commented on having issues with the service and we had some as well - but oddly enough only with our ordered beverages. Our food arrived in good order and our water glasses were refilled attentively and as needed. But of our four beverages only the Masala Butter Milk arrived promptly. We asked about our Masala Chais and Rose Milk at least three times through our meal but to no avail - they all finally came at the end after we had finished.More

With dirty bathroom walls, what does the kitchen look like? Food ok. lamb dried out, butter chicken etc low on proteins mostly sauce.

Really bad customer service. Rude waiters/receptionist, irrespective of that, they say that their food gets over by 1 and the restaurant closes at 2:30. Why are you open till 2:30 then?

We called for a reservation and the guy was really rude. The buffets are so bad. They do not refill food. I won't recommend it don't waste your money try somewhere else.

I was expecting a lot from this place as it has been recommended by many. But it was kind of a dampener. The service was good but the food called for a lot of improvement. Being an Indian who cooks daily and also eats out...often, I might be hard to please. But I do feel that they need to improve on the flavor of the foodMore

We were here for a business meeting lunch. It was a week day. The lunch buffet was nice, though the vegetarian options were limited, added woe was that one of those veg items was mushroom based. It was a bit disappointing. The restaurant wasn't packed...to its capacity at lunch on that day, making our meeting very productive. The service was outstanding. Always a great place to dine, in Princeton.More

I’ve had a LOT of very good Indian in London and New York, but Chennai stands out... certainly the best in central NJ. For years we’ve gotten takeout every 2 weeks or so from Cross Cultures, which does excellent North Indian on a menu that...literally hasn’t changed since it opened. We tried Chennai Chimney for the first time two nights ago. It was astonishingly different from Cross Cultures and at least as good, which is saying a lot. So I went back the next day for the lunch buffet to try more things, and then I oddly returned for lunch the next day. I couldn’t believe that every dish on the buffet, save one, was different from the day before. Unlike other Indian places which tend towards tired sameness each day or cliche, the food here seems freshly imagined or perhaps drawn from a wider range of localized cuisines than other places I’ve visited. Highlights among over 20 different dishes I’ve sampled during the past three days: Kaalan Manchurian (mushrooms), Ennai katharikai, Aatiraitchi varutha araicha curry, karikudi curry, Fried fish street-food style, Karnataka fried chicken, gobi manchurian and kaoai vegetable. I’ve reviewed dozens of restaurants on TripAdvisor, and this ranks among my favorite inexpensive places anywhere.More