Komala Vilas was founded in 1947 — the year of Indian independence — by Murugaiah Rajoo, a Tamil migrant who saw demand for vegetarian food among Singapore's growing South Indian labour force. In November 2015, then-PM Lee Hsien Loong brought visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi here for breakfast. The choice was deliberate: not a fine-dining hotel restaurant, but a 70-year-old tiffin shop where ordinary Tamil Singaporeans had been eating dosa since before Singapore was a country. Global media followed. The name itself combines 'Komala' (the founder's daughter) and 'Vilas' (Tamil for 'house').
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Place history
When Modi and Lee shared dosa at Komala Vilas
In 2015, the Singaporean and Indian Prime Ministers shared breakfast at a 1947 tiffin shop.