Morning tiffin
Idli, vadai and a tumbler of coffee
Three idli soft enough to break with a spoon, two vadai straight from the kadai, coconut and tomato chutney, and filter coffee to finish.
Sembu, a South Indian tiffin room in Chennai: Crisp dosai, soft idli and coffee poured high.
Breakfast from seven, meals on a banana leaf at noon, and evening tiffin until ten. The batter is ground fresh every morning and the coffee is brewed in brass, every day of the week.
Open every day 7 am to 10 pmFilter coffee all day
Three menus a day
One kitchen, from first coffee to last.
The menu changes with the hour, so there is always something fresh off the stove, whenever you walk in.
Morning tiffin
7 to 11:30 am
Idli, dosai, pongal and vadai, with three chutneys and a pot of sambar on every table.
Lunch on a leaf
12 noon to 3:30 pm
Rice with sambar and rasam, the day's vegetables, kootu, appalam, payasam and curd, served on a banana leaf.
Evening tiffin
4 to 10 pm
Adai with avial, kuzhi paniyaram, onion uthappam and bajji, and the last coffee of the day.
Lunch
Meals on a banana leaf
Rice with sambar and rasam, the day's vegetables, kootu, pickle, appalam and two kinds of payasam. Second helpings come round without you asking.
Evening tiffin
The evening plate
Soft set dosai with tomato chutney, a scoop of rava kichadi, a crisp vadai, coconut chutney and sambar, with coffee on the side, for when lunch feels a long time ago.
Our kitchen
Batter ground at dawn, coffee brewed in brass.
In Tamil, sembu means copper, and it is also the name of the round metal pot that every home kitchen kept close at hand. We named the room after it because most of what we cook is that old and that plain.
The rice and lentils for the day's batter are soaked overnight and ground on a stone grinder before the shutters go up. Chutneys are made in small batches through the day, so the coconut chutney you get at four in the afternoon is not the one from seven in the morning.
The coffee is the one thing we would never change. The decoction drips slowly through a brass filter, is mixed with hot milk, and is poured high between tumbler and davara until it froths.
Order or visit
Come hungry, or let us bring it to you.
Order for pickup or delivery
Send your order on WhatsApp and we will tell you when it is ready. Meals travel in a leaf-lined box, with the sambar and rasam packed separately so nothing goes soggy on the way.
Reserve a table
Tables for lunch and dinner, for up to twelve people. Breakfast is first come, first served.
Opening hours
- Morning tiffin
- 7 to 11:30 am
- Lunch
- 12 noon to 3:30 pm
- Evening tiffin
- 4 to 10 pm
- Filter coffee
- All day
Open every day of the week, in Chennai.
Good to know
Before you come.
Is everything vegetarian?
Yes. The whole kitchen is vegetarian, and most dishes can be made without onion or garlic if you ask when you order.
Do I need to book?
Not for breakfast, which is first come, first served. For lunch and dinner you can walk in, but a booking keeps a table for you at busy hours.
Can you cook for a group?
Yes. For twenty or more banana-leaf meals, for a function at home or at the office, give us two days' notice on WhatsApp.