[puzzledobserver]

Not really.

Or at least not completely extinct in South India. Some of my favorite childhood memories are from these messes (short for mess hall, I assume). You go there, pay what they ask, eat what they serve.

MTR, Brindavan on MG Road (though that's long gone), Iyer Mess in Malleshwaram.

What they lack in choice they usually make up for in taste.

You're right that they have a more traditional ambience and newer restaurants offer more choice, but they are definitely thriving in the parts of Bangalore that I grew up in.

[giraffe_lady]

Yeah sorry I intended there to be a more clear constraint on the claim I was making. It's mostly extinct in the anglosphere, so english doesn't really differentiate. But the concept itself is still popular globally.