The Chennai Music Season, or the Margazhi music festival, is one of the world's largest music events. It typically coincides with the Tamil month of Margazhi (usually December 15 to January 15). While there's no exact estimate of the number of music venues (Chennaites refer to them as Sabhas), most estimates suggest that the city plays host to 60-100 music venues where the spotlight shines on Carnatic musicians and dancers. It's also a time when foodies embark on a vegetarian food trail that takes them across venues, mainly in the Mylapore/Alwarpet and T. Nagar area.
What Is A Sabha Canteen?
A few decades ago, the sabha canteen started almost like a pop-up restaurant to serve the rasikas (Chennai speak for music aficionados). Some of these rasikas would hop venues throughout the day. These canteens began serving evening snacks (or what locals like to call tiffin). Gradually, they added lunch and breakfast to their daily offering. What started as a convenience option for rasikas gradually became a showcase of fine vegetarian Tamil cuisine that was usually the preserve of weddings.
It's no coincidence that it was wedding caterers who began to dominate these canteens by the early 2010s. Weddings don't usually take place during the month of Margazhi, offering caterers an opportunity to showcase their repertoire during the Music Season. For long, these sabha canteens were like the concerts and enjoyed a cult following.
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Photo Credit: Ashwin Rajagopalan
From Cult Phenomenon To Foodies' Paradise
For a long, sabha canteens were like the concerts, frequented mostly by Carnatic music and dance aficionados. Instagram and food bloggers changed everything. The frenzy and FOMO that social media posts have created in the 2020s has sparked a whole new bunch of sabha canteen operators who are riding this wave. Meal prices have doubled in most cases over the last five years with no visible increase in quality.
Most Chennaites acknowledge the unique place these canteens hold in the city's culinary landscape and would like to see this unique concept continue to thrive. Some old-timers feel that the meals should stay authentic and not include dishes that are not usually part of a Tamil vegetarian meal. These sabha hoppers believe that innovative dishes should be saved for the evening snacks. While that's opened an interesting debate in the city, the crowds only continue to increase at the sabha canteens that remain a great place to explore Tamil vegetarian cuisine.
What's On The Menu At Chennai's Iconic Sabha Canteens:
There are three distinct menus that most canteens serve. There's breakfast, especially at Sabhas that feature a 9 am performance like Music Academy. The menu features breakfast staples like idli, vada, dosa, pongal and quite a few specials and breakfast sweets - usually a rava (semolina) kesari or a piping hot halwa (usually white pumpkin or badam halwa). The traditional banana leaf meals are the absolute must-try. The caterers keep refreshing the menu but the structure of the menu doesn't change and typically includes anywhere from 15 to 30 dishes including staples like sambar and rasam.
The lunch menus are usually served from 11 am until 2:30 pm. Almost immediately after lunch is tiffin time. Most caterers offer an extensive selection of snacks, piping hot filter coffee and innovative sweets. It's the tiffin menus that are seeing quite a few interesting twists over the last few years. You might even find Indian-Chinese specials on these menus.
Photo Credit: Ashwin Rajagopalan
Top Sabha Canteens To Try During Chennai Music Season:
We pick four venues that you can try (check for the exact dates with the respective venues):
1. Mountbatten Mani Iyer at Indian Fine Arts Society
Probably the pick of all the sabha canteens. Their 'full meals' (Rs 685) focus more on quality than a long list of items. The menu keeps changing each day. The flavours are traditional but they don't mind innovating within these boundaries, like a curd jangiri or an apple pachadi (raitha). They also have a selection of snacks and freshly brewed filter coffee.
- Indian Fine Arts Society
2. Sastha Catering at Music Academy
This is one of Chennai's most hallowed music venues and has been hosting its annual festival since the 1920s. It's also home to one of the most popular canteens. We'd recommend visiting this canteen for breakfast or tiffin. Their banana leaf meals are worth checking out (Rs 550) too.
- Music Academy, Cathedral Road
3. Arusuvai Catering Services at Parthasarathy Sabha
This one's your best bet for the 'gram'. Expect a meal in a shiny golden plate (their thanga thambala kalyana sappadu or golden plate wedding meal). Their 24-dish meal (lunch is priced at Rs 650) rounds up specials from across Southern states and features a mix of traditional and innovative dishes. Their filter coffee (also served in golden-coloured tumblers) is a big draw.
- Vidya Bharati, Bheemsena Garden Road, Mylapore
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4. ABC Catering at Mylapore Fine Arts
Their tiffin menu with 30 varieties of dosa is one of the highlights of this sabha canteen. They offer a wide range of dishes made without onion or garlic and an exhaustive ela sapadu (banana leaf meal) for lunch (Rs 600).
- Mylapore Fine Arts, Musiri Subramaniam Road, Mylapore
Whether you're here for the music or the meals, the Chennai Music Season is a celebration of culture, tradition, and taste - an experience that truly belongs on every enthusiast's calendar.