Hotel Thattivilas has been serving Theni since 1975. For close to fifty years it has remained one of the district's best-known names for traditional South Indian cooking, drawing regulars from across Theni and the surrounding towns.

The kitchen still works to the methods it opened with — slow-cooked kulambu varieties, biryani, and parotta prepared fresh through the day. It is the taste a generation in Theni grew up with, and the reason families keep coming back.