This is a series on food that we had at Madurai March 2024. Read earlier posts here – Konar kadai

Read about YUMMRAJ’s earlier review of Murugan Idli chennai here – https://yummraj.com/2017/01/08/murugan-idli-shop-771a-gn-chetty-road-t-nagar-chennai/

In a nutshell:

A fabulous breakfast that reinforced in our mind that we were in the best hands in Madurai when it came to best food & also made us feel how deprived we are in accessing this level of finesse of this evolved cuisine in Delhi NCR.

Address & other details:

Instagram – Murugan idli

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/MuruganIdliShop?mibextid=uzlsIk

Website – https://muruganidlishop.com

Articles – https://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/Murugan-and-the-idli-factory/article11627366.ece/amp/

Meal for 2: ₹200 onwards

Cuisine type : vegetarian only

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

YUMMRAJ rates all the food items & then gives a final overall rating, which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster

Short description- in case u r in a hurry

The trip to Madurai was organized by our travel curator Vana safaris. We have been travelling all across India on food & culture immersion tours since 2019 & have got addicted to their unique layered tours way beyond the obvious that no amount of Internet research could get us ever.

What we did not know & got to know from our foodie friends Mukunthan & Praveena in Madurai is that Murugan Idli started in Madurai & then spread over to other parts of Tamil Nadu. P & M have been running food walks in Madurai from the time when food walk was an almost unknown concept in India.

I will write about few eateries that we visited with P & M but this was just the surface. You can book a seat in their food walks to explore a lot more.

If you are a foodie & you are in Madurai, I would recommend you not to miss a food walk with them.

Website – https://foodiesdayout.com/

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/foodiesdayout.tht?igsh=Njh3bHVzYW9wdjZz

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/FoodiesDayOut?mibextid=uzlsIk

Murugan idli has been my favourite place to eat at, during my chennai work-travel days. Ate again at Murugan idli after 6-7 years, this time at Madurai.

We realized how we craved for this amazing food & how the general level of vegetarian Udupi snacks in Delhi NCR is so low, when compared to Murugan.

The last time we went to saravana bhawan Connaught Place, Delhi, we promised to ourselves to never go back.

The Murugan idli restaurant at Madurai is huge & we were told that it has been renovated in the recent years.

The menu was written on the wall

The gentleman who served us understood that we did not understand Tamil. So he was patient with us & we managed to communicate with him using gestures & broken words of hindi & English. He served us really well.

Loved most of the food a lot. So happy to be back here.

To read about the history of Murugan idli & some amazing statistics, please click here – the Hindu

Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:

Food was served on banana leaf. The custom is that guest re-cleans their leaf with water using fingers before starting to eat. Guests also fold the leaf in a certain way to indicate end of the meal.

We started with idli. It was just a plain idli. When we had this idli, we realized again that it is possible to differentiate a ubiquitous classic product by creating a platinum standard of the same product.

The idli was super soft, had a strong fermented feel to it & we loved that flavour. The salt was just right & balanced the sourness very well. We had the idli just as it is & also with the sambar that they served in a natural, dried Sal-leaf bowl. Rate it 4.75/5

Ghee Podi idli was insane good. The flavour of ghee, the perfect balance of taste of podi, the fermented flavour of idli, the ultra softness of idli contrasting texture with the grains of podi, all came together to create magic on the plate & the palate. Rate this dish 4.95/5

Medu vada was excellent. It was served warm, with a very soft inside & a fairly crisp external layer. Fermented flavour of the vada was very enjoyable. Rate it 4.5/5

The sambar was like a home made daal & we loved it. There was good amount of daal in it, in addition to vegetables. The flavour of daal was not overpowered by flavour of spices. Really enjoyed this. Rate the sambar 4.5/5

Butter onion utthapam was very good. It had crisp outer layers & a soft & juicy mid part. The salt was a bit on the lower side & that slightly disturbed the ideal balance of salt & sour. This was when we had it just like that. When eaten with sambar & chutneys, the salt balance seemed good. Rate it 4/5

We also tried Onion adai dosa. This was served with jaggery. We liked this dish quite a bit. It was new for us. Probably it will take our brains a few repeats to start appreciating this dish more. As of now we found it good. Rate it 3/5

They served us 4 chutneys, each one of which was extraordinary. We licked these off the plate till the last drop

For dessert we had halwa, made of wheat & sugar. The Sweet reminded us of Karachi halwa sweet of chaina ram sweets, Chandni Chowk area, delhi. The halwa was gel-like, not chewy, soft, sweet with a tinge of salt & it had good flavours of ghee. Rate it 4.25/5

We finished our breakfast with Strong filter coffee. It was surely strong & had the perfect flavours of good coffee. The sweetness was just right. Rate it 4.5/5

Overall rating of food at Murugan idli Madurai averages out to 4.3/5

A must visit when you are in Madurai or Chennai. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY YUMMRAJ.