I read reviews about this here, and was reminded of my experience. Its a little surprising that everyone who has gone has found it good.
As far as my experience.. I went there a year back. we were on a trip to Belur/ Helebidu.. and decided to take a detour and visit Kemengundi on the way back to Bangalore. We reached in a few hours.. and I was so disappointed with teh place. There’s nothing! there is one really sad government run horticulture guest house. Thts it. No private hotels. And this guesthouse is really dirty. There was no place to eat.. except the canteen there.. and it was so dirty that we decided to skip lunch, and left the place.. and started back for Bangalore.
There are a few waterfalls you can see..but beyond that there’s nothing. Trekking might be an option.. but I know of many better places to go to for that. Basically it is important to have a decent place to stay/eat. This place has nothing. And shopping? forget it.
Visit Ooty or Kodai.. (though u have visited them 5 times before)... skip this place. definitely not for families. CAn be ok for adventurous college crowd on a shoestring budget.