South Indian
South Indian Restaurant in San Diego
Most Indian restaurants in San Diego cook from the north: butter chicken, naan, tikka masala. Chennai 2 Hyderabad cooks from the south, and the difference is not a garnish — it is a different grain, a different fat, a different set of spices and a different idea of what a meal looks like.
We are in Mira Mesa, at 10606 Camino Ruiz #6, San Diego, CA 92126, and we serve the South Indian table across four traditions: Tamil Nadu, Chettinad, Andhra and Hyderabad.
The South Indian table
A dish from each of the four kitchens we cook from.
vegan and gluten-free markers are set by the kitchen, never guessed. See all dishes →
Tamil Nadu — the tiffin table
Tiffin is the South Indian meal that has no equivalent up north: idly, vada, pongal, dosa, eaten at any hour with sambar and chutney. Our batter is ground in-house and fermented, which is the whole difference between an idly that is light and one that is a puck.
Chettinad — the spice country
Chettinad cooking comes from the merchant families of inland Tamil Nadu and it is the most aggressively spiced food in the south — black pepper, star anise, stone flower, fennel, all dry-roasted and ground before they go in the pot. Our Chettinad chicken and goat curries are made this way rather than from a general-purpose masala.
Andhra and Hyderabad — heat and dum
Andhra food is the hottest in India and it is not shy about it — kodi vepudu is a dry fry built on red chilli and curry leaf. Hyderabad, an hour's drive away, cooks in the opposite register: dum biryani sealed and slow-cooked, talawa gosht, the Mughal inheritance of the Nizams. We cook both.
For vegetarians
South Indian food is the easiest Indian food to eat as a vegetarian, because the vegetarian dishes are the tradition rather than the substitutions. Every dish on our menu carries a veg or non-veg marker, and vegan and gluten-free dishes are marked individually — those markers are set by the kitchen, never guessed from a dish name.
Common questions
Visit us
Chennai 2 Hyderabad
10606 Camino Ruiz #6, San Diego, CA 92126
- Sunday: 11:30 AM – 9:30 PM
- Mon – Thu: 11:30 AM – 3:00 PM · 5:00 PM – 9:30 PM
- Fri – Sat: 11:30 AM – 10:30 PM