Cafe Heart Cup

This place is tucked away under the more famous F9 lounge bar in Kondapur, and was a great find by Sandeep bhai! The place serves European and Indian cuisine. Best part is that they serve stuff in lunch portions and not in bulk portions. So if you order their Mutton Rogan Josh lunch combo – you get the right amount of curry with the right amount of white rice – thereby making your life easier! 

You can also try their pastas, which are quite tasty. For starters, you SHOULD order "tawa fish" and "chicken barbeque drumsticks". They are just brilliant, especially the tawa fish that is neatly wrapped in a banana leaf  and is piping hot! For main course, you can try the option suggested above. Or you can order their "Steamed fish with brown rice". This will fill your stomach till dinner time for sure! Or order the Sea Food sizzler - another filler till dinner! (whatay rhyming ;) )

This place deserves multiple visits to do full justice. I'd say, if your friend is ready to burn some money, choose this place!

Avasa

This is one of the few star hotels that have a nice buffet for the price they charge. They have a live counter for starters – two chicken, one fish and one prawn starter. All of them were mouth watering tasty! We must have had atleast 3 servings of all the starters! Their main course spread is also quite vast – multiple chicken, mutton and fish curries! 

Served along with an assortment of breads and naan’s – this place is truly a culinary delight if you go with a hungry stomach! They have some cold starters/salads too – which are quite tasty. Desert spread is also vast, but we were so full with the main course, that we postponed desert for the next visit! This place is surely recommended for team lunches, or lunch when you are very hungry! 

Papa Johns!

Curiously, in Papa Johns, I liked their veg pizza more than the non-veg! Their "Classic Veg" pizza is really awesome and is strongly recommended for all ! In addition to that, their chicken wings are quite tasty too. They have cheese sticks on their menu - I don't think the other pizza joints have this. And this is very tasty too! We had their "All chicken" pizza and there's nothing to complain about! Overall, this place is good (better than Pizza Hut too!) and is strongly recommended for nice Pizzas! 

Price: ~Rs.700 for two

Location: Opposite Cyber Towers

The Palette!

The Palette is an extension of a smaller food joint – Smoking Jalapenos! Situated in the heart of Somajiguda, I am just in love with this place! I’ve always yearned for a good place to eat near home and this fits the bill perfectly! They have a nice lunch buffet that is very affordable and very tasty! You should try their “tawa fish” – one of their best! 

Their chicken varieties are all good (kababs, Chinese etc) – I have tried pretty much everything on their menu and no complaint so far! In their buffet, chat items are also very tasty. Earlier they used to serve boneless chicken biryani – different from the routine dum biryani. I am not sure if they continue to do the same. They have recently started a snacks section in the evening time – that’s when the next attack will happen :D This place is a strong recommend for you to go!

Price: ~Rs. 300/- for buffet

Location: Somajiguda

The Village

I never imagined that I will re-visit a veg-only place. “The Village” has been visited 3 times till now! The Village is another theme based restaurant of the Ohri’s group. And this is one of their best themes! You are welcomed with a welcome drink that is “sold” on a bicycle! The entire ambience is reflective of a village atmosphere. After the welcome drink , you walk around to check which place is best to sit! Meanwhile, you will have hawkers coming to you with starters – shouting out their names!

There are periodic “puppet shows”; a guy who sells tea on a cycle; a stall that sells the “gola” ice J ; a long stall where appetizers, chat items, tiffins, sweets are freshly made; cabins with various themes like jail, police station, saloon, even an astrologer cum face reader! But wait – shouldn’t we be talking about food here? Well yeah, but the ambience was so mesmerizing that I visted this place 3 times. Coming to the food (finally!), their main course is just about ok. The starters and chat varieties are good though. Tiffins are also good, and so are the desserts. The place serves buffet and is reasonably priced too, given the location (in the Inorbit Mall)

Price: Rs 275 per head

Location: Inorbit Mall, Madhapur

Waterfront

This place must rank as one of the best places to enjoy a meal in Hyderabad! I never knew that a glass-walled restaurant on the banks of hussain sagar will have such a magnificent view! The ambience is sure to bowl you over – apt lighting; a small live band and a place buzzing full of activity! The food doesn’t disappoint you either! 

Over various visits, we tried the sweet corn soup, manchow soup and lemon coriander soup. No complaints! We tried, Apollo fish, chicken 65, chicken kabab, fish kabab, prawns for starters. No complaints! There is one item that must find a place when I visit – the Khao Pad rice. This is a Thai delicacy and this place serves the best! Along with this, any gravy based curry will be good. We tried Pot Chicken, Schewan Chicken, Prawns curry – again no complaints! Remember – you have to eat their Khao Pad rice!

Price: Rs. 1000/- for two

Location: Necklace Road

Oh! Calcutta

It was by accident that we visited this place, and we were glad that the accident happened ;) !

Given that we are always told that Bengali cuisine is famous for it’s fish delicacies, we decided to focus on fish. We had fried fish and “roshun bhapa maach” – steamed fish topped with a mustard flavoured paste! This item was very delicious, spicy and tangy – all at the same time! Our only complaint was that the quantity was too less – just two pieces! Fried fish was good but nothing out of the ordinary! We also ordered Golden Prawn – and they got a really BIG prawn simmered with various spices! The taste was good, but this was the first time I was seeing such a huge prawn! Never knew such prawns existed!

For main course, we decided to move away from fish and prawns because the items were too costly- We had simple chicken curry with poori (yes, poori!) and chicken biryani. The biryani was saffron flavoured and was much different than the famed Hyderabadi biryani! Overall, we liked the taste and service at this place – definitely on our list to go again :) 

Price: Rs. 1200 for two

Location: Somajiguda

N-Asian

The moment you enter, you are greeted by the majestic sight of steps leading to the first floor! It will feel as if you are  True to it’s cost, the ambience of this place is very nice. They have a variety of Asian cuisines on offer and have a glass kitchen – so you can see while the chefs get busy dishing out stuff. It’s been a while since I went there so I don’t recollect the soup that ordered there – Lung Fung or Manchow – but I do remember that the soup was very good! For main course, we ordered Thai fried rice and Malaysian fish curry. I vividly remember the waiter was suggesting that there is a better item than the fish curry on the menu. Somehow never understood why waiters tell us that a particular item is bad! Anyways, we enjoyed the food and the ambience but the cost is on the higher side, so there won’t to be too many visits to this place! 

Price: Rs. 1500 for two !

Location: Jubilee Hills (near Chutneys)

Indian Spices

We went here accidentally (we were a big group and this was the closest place nearby). Located in the road from JNTU to the Malaysian township circle, this place actually serves quite good food! And their quantity is very large too! We had a full course meal – soups, starters, biryanis! They serve a lot of biryani for one plate! They have both the Dum Biryani and pulao style biryani on offer. We also ordered chicken 65 and chicken hariyali kababs - both of which were very good too :) 

Price: RS. 300-400 for two

Location: JNTU-Malaysian Township road

Nizam's Kitchen

The place is apparently famous for Biryani. One of my colleague asked for Veg biryani and he got the reply of his lifetime – Veg Biryani is actually not veg biryani here sir! It took him a while to recover from that statement and to be on the safer side, he ordered fried rice :). We ordered, special chicken, mutton and chicken biryanis. They were nothing out of the ordinary. Mutton biryani even had very few pieces. We ordered chilly chicken too – didn’t enjoy them as much too! Overall, a decent place but I wouldn’t go back there if I had a choice.

Price: Rs. 300-400 for two

Location: JNTU-Mayalsian Township road

Rotis

What a mis-nomer this place is! I was lured into eating veg (this is a veg only place) on the premise that this name sounds interesting, so will the place! There was a lavish buffet spread but veg in general never excites me. What was thouroughly disappointing though is the lack of variety in “rotis”! The same old tandoor roti and butter nan were served as part of the buffet. The menu also just had a standard list of rotis otherwise available at every other restaurant! Their ambience is decked up well though – vegetarians might like this place, but then I am no expert on this ;)

Price: ~Rs. 300 for the buffet

Location: Hitech City

Cafe Rsitoretto

There is this mini food court opposite Cyber Gateway – Café Ristorette is tucked between Venky’s and Subway in this! The time taken for service is a big negative here, but the food is awesome! This place serves European cuisine and is worth visiting merely for the taste, and if you have time to kill (given the pace at which they serve). I had Sea food Risotto and Mixed Paella during two different visits and they were very good. Friends had sandwiches (chicken and veg) and were not disappointed either. The presentation of the food is also quite good – but like I said earlier, service time is very very slow! 

Price: ~Rs. 800 for two

Location: Hitech City, opposite Cyber Gateway

Venky's

Our very own snack bar :D – I liked this place a lot J - quick and tasty food, and is very ideal for evening time get-togethers. Except for their katti roll, all other items are quite good here! Their chicken samosas, veg kabab, chicken and cheese nuggets, tender grilled chicken (especially the bread that comes along with this is soft and yum!) etc are all very good. If you get a chance, do visit this place! 

Nellore vaari mess (Shamshabad!)

If you are going to Shamshabad, don’t think of eating anywhere except at this mess. Meals + chicken fry + mutton fry is the best combination! Even their standalone meals are very good – they serve unlimited amount of flavoured rice and white rice too! We loved their chutneys and curries also – this place is like heaven for people craving for simple yet tasty food! This should be your only choice if you are going to Shamshabad! 

Price: 200 for two

Location: Shamshabad

Indu Deluxe

After about 10 years of wanting to eat here, we finally get a chance one day! Indu is famous for it’s meals and no wonder! We ordered chicken fry and mutton fry to go along with their sumptuous meals. Mutton fry was not upto the mark but chicken fry was quite good! There is nothing much to order here – meals + nonveg curry of your choice pretty much sums up the menu here :D 

Price: Rs. 250-300 for two

Location: Lakdi-ka-pool (beside Kamat)

Cafe Bahar

They have opened up in Begumpet too now! Needless to say – chicken biryani and mutton biryani are very nice here! We even had roti and mutton kheema curry and they were ofcourse good! If you are in the vicinity of basheerbagh or Begumpet, don’t have second thoughts on where to eat!

Price: Rs.500-600 for two 

Location: Begumpet, Basheerbagh

Manzar

This is a branch of Mandar (in the awesome Toli Chowki food compound) – We had chicken, mutton and prawns biryani here. Needless to say, they are awesome! We once had “pathar ka ghost” and  Drumsticks, and these were good too.  For all those working near Cyber Towers, Cyber Gateway and the IT parks nearby, this is the closest you can get for some nice Hyderabad dum biryani! 

Price Range: ~700 for two

Location: Opposite Cyber Gateway, Madhapur

Taj Krishna

After having some really sumptuous buffets at Westin, I wanted to explore how the other 5 star hotels match up. And Taj Krishna was my first destination for the same! But I must say that the outing was very disappointing – there were normal items in the buffet (Thai green curry, Thai red curry, biryani, fish pulusu etc). Slow roasted fish salad was very very good, but that’s about it. Everything else just looked ordinary, and the cost of the buffet was not commiserate with the quality and quantity of items in the buffet. Definetely not going back there to spend money from pocket again! 

Radisson Blu

They had a huge hoarding about a large number of items in their Sunday brunch – and so I got tempted! Unfortunately, couldn’t go there on a Sunday but ended up going on a weekday. Frankly, the buffet was not upto the mark (I heard the Sunday one is really good though!). 

Cocktail dressing with salad was good. Cocktail prawns were good. Pickles with bread were good. Fish starter was ok, but tasted like normally what we get outside. Pasta was also bland. Grilled chicken was simple; and the main course was not innovative (normal biryanis and curries). Also, Radisson Blu is quite on the inside… there is no simple road/route to get there. This might be a big drawback factor to attract people! 

Price Range: Rs 800 for buffet (when we went)

Location: Banjara Hilla

Saangcha Chulha

A colleague told about this place, that is tucked away in a small bylane near to the govt. high school in Madhapur. And boy, what a find! This place I well known for it’s parathas – we tried many -chicken, egg, methi, lachcha, and even Chocolate paratha! Every single one of them was good! We had omlette curry, egg burji, butter chicken, dal tadka…what not! The only disappointment had been chicken fried rice, but then our fault in ordering fried rice at a place famous for it’s paratha! This place is a must must visit if you are in and around Madhapur. 

Price Range: ~200 for two

Location: Madhapur

Svadh

For the first time ever, we tasted a new type of naan called Taftan! This is apparently a north Indian speciality and we all loved this! Totally different from the routine mundane plain naan/butter naan we always have! We had Chicken Drumsticks and Tangdi Kabab that were good too. Forgot the curries we ordered, but no complaints on their taste! Their biryani was average though – definitely not having this item the next time we go

Price Range: 500-700 for two

Location: On the Botanical Garden road.

Avial

Another veg only place in Hitech City. I heard many good things about their buffet and so went there to try it out. And lo – they don’t have buffet on the day I go to eat there! Had meals along with some paneer item – was not bad, but if I had to have meals, I would definitely prefer some good mess than Avail :) 

Just Biryani

Just Biryani is a kiosk like joint, that you can find at many places in Hyderabad/Secunderabad/Cyberabad. Like their name suggests, they offer only biryani as their parcel service. We took both Chicken and Mutton biyranis – they tasted the same and were not good either! Not going back there for sure! 

Meridian

From nearly 20 years (or probably more), there is a very famous mutton shop in Panjagutta. It was called the Shanbhag mutton shop because it was right next to the erstwhile Shanbhag hotel (which incidentally is a veg place!). There was always a queue at this place – such was the quality of mutton sold here. The owner of this shop has opened up a restaurant next to the shop and this is called Meridian! We had a lot of kababs at this place, and just like the quality of mutton, the taste of all these kababs was also very good! 

Price Range: Rs. 300-400 for two

Location: Punjagutta circle

Indu's Food Court

This is not a food court per se; but calls itself so, because they dish out many items of our choice J:) This eat-out is located outside Ratnadeep supermarket on the Kondapur-Gachibowli road. 

We were a large group that day and so we ordered Biryani, Noodles, Fried Rice, and Chicken 65. All were very good, though it took some time for him to get all this ready! This place is nice for a quick bite, just like the Chinese bandis! 

Price Range: Rs. 200-300 for two

Location: Outside Ratnadeep on Kondapur-Gachibowli road

Step-in-Bakers

This Bakers is right at the Panjagutta junction. Amongst all the items, the one standing out was Chicken chaw chaw – had a mild taste with a sauce that had many vegetables in it! Otherwise, all other stuff we ate there was normal onlyl (fried rice, chicken 65, mutton 65 etc).

Price Range: ~ Rs.300-400 for 2 people 

Location: Panajgutta circle