Mount Road, Coonoor’s arterial highway is abuzz with vacationers arriving by the iconic Nilgiri Mountain Railway practice. The highway begins at the clock tower close to the bus stand and winds its method up the hill that opens to sceneries shrouded in mist at Upper Coonoor. Along the method, the highway additionally skirts a vegetable market that shares contemporary broccoli and zucchini sourced instantly from farmers. On this highway, proper reverse the market, stands the 68-year-old Hotel Ramachandra that serves the well-known Wellington parotta.
Garlic rooster
| Photo Credit:
SATHYAMOORTHY M
Inside, there’s an air of classic appeal with black and white images gracing the partitions. Within ten minutes, a plate of parotta and mutton salnaarrives. The massive parotta is piping scorching. I dip a chunk in the gravy and put it in my mouth. My style buds dance in bliss from the mutton mince stuffing coated in a layer of egg.
A view of Hotel Ramachandra in Coonoor
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SATHYAMOORTHY M
As we tuck into the parotta, which is crisp on the exterior and tender on the inside, we expertise the style of fragrant spices utilized in proper measure. The finely minced mutton is velvety. “Hotel Ramachandra was started by my grandfather P Shankaran in 1957 on Onam day. From then on, the hotel has been drawing people with its nostalgic charm,” says Nikhil Suresh including that again in the day, eating places that served non-vegetarian meals had been known as navy accommodations. When his father took over Ramachandra Military resort in Nineteen Eighties, he reinvented the menu by including the title Wellington to parottas.
Chicken biryani
| Photo Credit:
SATHYAMOORTHY M
“Most of our patrons are from defence institutions like the Defence Services Staff College and the Madras Regimental Centre and the name clicked. It’s the pepper-spiced minced mutton that gives the dish an edge. We also throw in mashed green peas to the masala,” says Nikhil over plates of Ramachandra-style rooster biryani that’s straightforward on the spices and the Dindigul-style fiery mutton biryani. The menu additionally options many sorts of parottas together with Kerala parotta, Ceylon, egg and kothu parotta
Nikhil, alongside along with his brother Nitin Suresh, now runs a gaggle of accommodations and eating places in Coonoor. When they took cost of Ramachandra, they streamlined the operations with SOPs in place. “The focus was on quality and serving customers faster. We added Indo-Chinese and Chettinad fare to the menu with items like garlic chicken. Our old-style mutton puffs that are deep fried draws loyal customers,” explains Nikhil including that over the years, they lower down the dimension of parottas by just a few inches and the serving dimension of biryani. “We worked on cutting costs wherever possible and passed on the benefit to customers. We added non-vegetarian meals at ₹85.”
Tourists in addition to the locals take pleasure in their meal
| Photo Credit:
SATHYAMOORTHY M
For alumni of Coonoor colleges, a go to to the resort is a homecoming of kinds. “Whenever there is a reunion, they come here to relive their memories over a plate of Wellington parotta. Many an old student has wondered how, as a student, it was possible to eat more than one at a sitting. Some recognise our staff as some of them have stayed with us for over six decades,” says Nikhil including, “They are happy when they find that the parotta tastes as good as it did all those years ago.”
One of the previous images of the resort
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Special Arrangement
Hotel Ramachandra is situated at 30, Mount Road, Kumaran Nagar, Coonoor. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A meal for 2 prices ₹400 roughly. For particulars, name 0423-2232353
Published – March 19, 2025 03:21 pm IST
