re: A Guide: Eating out in Hyderabad/Secunderabad/Cyberabad Some restaurant reviews from my end: Jewel of Nizam: Hotel Golkonda-Masab Tank
Been here last week after a very very long time. My wife wanted to eat at a place which served authentic Hyderabadi cuisine. This was the first name that came to my mind. Called to make reservations and was surprised to see the guy at the other end saying we can walk in directly. Maybe since it was a weekday, they don't see much crowd. Anyway, started from my home at Kondapur and after fumbling my way through the mad rush-hour traffic on the T'chowki-M'patnam stretch, reached this place at around 8.
We were seated immediately and as told earlier, tables were completely empty. We chose a cosy corner table and settled down. As expected the décor and ambience were top class with soothing Qawwali music being played live.
We ordered for a Tamatar Shorba, Murgh ka Tikka, Paneer Seekh Kabab and finished it off with Veg Biryani (my wife being vegetarian).
The Shorba had the right amount of spicyness to it and was served piping hot in heavy brass tumblers. Paneer was excellent with soft succulent pieces with right amount of flavor and color (it was not excessively orange as is served in some other places). The star of the night was however the Chicken Tikka. Mouth-watering with extremely soft pieces that were literally melting in my mouth. It had the right amount of Tandoor burns to it and was oozing with butter. Wow!!! The Biryani qty was huge and even though we had skipped lunch so as to have a heavy dinner, we could not finish it. I could tell just by looking at the rice that Basmati of premium quality was used. The veggies were boiled and cooked properly and the ratio of Masala to rice was just perfect to my taste.
Overall a very good dining experience. We ended up paying north of 1.8k for the 4 dishes we ordered but it was every penny worth it. The only grouse, if I had to nit-pick was that service was extremely slow. But the soothing music and the awesome ambience and cushy seats more than made up for it.
Would rate it a 9 out of 10. It still remains the one of the best Hyderabadi Cuisine restaurants in the city Exotica: Rd no 12 Banjara Hills
For those who don't know this place, it is on the top floor of the bldg just opposite to the Audi showroom on Rd no 12.
Had gone there for a team lunch (13 ppl) with prior reservation. Basically we had to choose this place because most of the happening places like BN and ABs were booked for Friday. Anyway reviews were good and we landed up at 1230pm promptly.
They have a sit out area and an AC area. We chose the AC area as the weather was bordering between pleasant and hot. Surprisingly, the AC was not even switched on. The worst part is that even though the waiters there were sweating, he was still maintaining that AC was running. Luckily the manager intervened and it was sorted out.
The food spread can be described in just one word: Disappointing. I mean come-on guys. In this age when similar type restaurants give complimentary mocktails and a minimum of 3-4 veg and non veg starters each, they were giving out Pepsi and Sprite as complimentary and only 2 non-veg (both chicken) and 2 veg starters. Only one out of the 4, that too, a veg starter was good. Others were uncooked, hard to chew and looks unappealing.
The disappointment continued onto the main course. Rotis were served cold, paneer in paneer tikka masala was hard, there was a mutton masala gravy in which you could hardly find muton and even if you did, it was hard to chew and peel off. Combine that with typical IT mentality during team lunches where ppl think its sub-standard behavior to eat with hands, it was a total disaster. Desserts were the only saving grace with Gulab jamoons which were piping hot. Chocolate pastry which was good and my favourite Mango ice cream which was part of the ice cream menu. If not for the desserts, we would have come back extremely disappointed.
I cannot think of a rating higher than 5 on 10 for this. Sahin Sindh Sultan: City centre mall, Banjara Hills
For starters, I feel this place is over-hyped wrt the crowd that it sees. Even after calling and making reservation and that too for 10pm, we were made to wait for more than 15 mins. Since it was already late and my daughter was getting cranky, we decided to stay put till we were summoned.
The Décor is good. It has subtle lighting and is not overly bright - just the way I like it. We ordered for Zamindaari Achari aloo for starters, rumali roti for me, Masala Kulcha for my wife and a gravy called Pista Khaju and Badam (which they call as PKB).
The aloo was quite good. They were basically baby potatoes grilled in a tandoor with little bit of yogurt and achaar added to it. All the 15 pieces in the plate were consistently and equally cooked. They had a beautiful golden red color to them and looked instantly appetizing. Coupled with Coke, they tasted awesome.
Rotis were the usual fare and they were quite soft and were not at all leathery to peel. The gravy was the real star. Generous amount of dry fruits sprinkled in a thick onion-tomatoey gravy. The lightly roasted dry fruits along with the smooth gravy made it a real treat to the palate. I don't know about the Kulcha, but my rumali roti tasted extremely awesome with the gravy.
For desserts, we ordered for a dish called the Indian sweet sampler. It was a combo of 3 indian desserts, Gulab Jamun, Kheer and Ice cream which was sufficient for 2 people. It was excellent with Jamuns being extremely soft and kheer had the right amount of sweetness to it. The correct way to eat this is to start with Kheer, then ice cream and then the Gulab Jamun (even gulab jamun with ice cream would taste great).
We were set back by a good 1.8k here as well which I think is a little over-priced for this place. As is said, this place has a lot of hype especially among the North Indian crowd. I would rate them around 7 overall. |