Thyme and Whisk

What a find (patting myself on the back)! This is a vegetarian only place. The Asparagus nuts soup is very good. The most heavenly experience though is their – very nicely named - Blue Butterfly Pea Water Chestnut Cream Cheese dimsum. I don’t know if it is the cream cheese or the water chestnut or whatever it is they put to make it look blue – but this dimsum was heavenly! Though their Hot Cow Boy sizzler sounded like an exciting dish, we ended up ordering the Pattaya Massaman Sizzler and just gobbled up the whole thing! The sizzler used nice glass noodles and the right amount of vegetables and spices. The Jalapeno Cheese poppers were also a good appetizer to begin with. 

Mak-o-brew!

What a find this place has really been! It’s a vegetarian only place; has very good ambience and has some exceptional coffee options! You must try some of the options such as Turk Havesi (Coffee with cardamom), Qahwa, Café de Olla (especially for that tinge of pepper!), Vienna Coffee (for the whipped cream combo!) and ofcourse the Cappucino 😊. Each of these options will literally leave a mark on your taste buds. You must have the Tomato Basil Avacado Open Sandwich while you are here. You must have it. They have Brussel Sprouts too – but not always. You must try them when they have it. The various Pastas and Noodles are also quite good here, but I frequent this place just for the coffee!

Taro

 Taro has many things going in favour of it – location, ambience, menu, and most importantly taste! This is Asian restaurant and serves a variety of Sushi (until I went here, I didn’t even know that there are varieties in Sushis depending on how they are wrapped – Urumaki, Ngiri, Tataki etc!). To uncomplicate things, we just ordered the Sushi and Dimsum platters, so that we can get to taste a variety of them! I liked all of the items, avocado, asparagus, chicken, prawns etc! For soup, we had the Laksa which was really good but the mistake we made for main course was that we ordered the Singaporean Chicken curry , which basically is very close to how Laksa tastes (it’s not bad, it’s just that we repeated the same taste!). We also had just the Edamame (not too many places serve this) and weren’t disappointed at all!

Krishnapatnam

True to their name, they offer many telugu cuisine dishes. The Gongura Mutton curry, Kamju Pitta fry and the Nalli Ghost biryani are quite tasty. The Natu Kodi curry along with white rice is yet another combination that must be tried here. I am not a curd-loving person but I heard that the curd rice is also quite good here, after all that spicy stuff you just had! This place is often quite full, no wonder!

True Black Coffee

Returning from a wedding one night at Kompally and desperate to have coffee, we found this small place called True Black Coffee! One of their most striking aspects is their cup 😊 – it doesn’t have a handle and the experience of holding it with both hands and slowly sipping the piping hot Pour Over is a good one! They have coffee from different estates in India – we had the Ratnagiri one which they said may feel like pineapple! For one of us, they were able to feel the pineapple flavour – the others felt berry. All of us liked the coffee a lot though. They have another variety called Unnaki Agni, which is also quite good to have on a rainy evening! The Cappuccino itself is also very pleasing to the soul! If you are a fan of avocado, then their Avacado toast is a must have along with all these piping hot coffee options.

The Spicy Venue

 The famed MLA Potlam Biryani is from this place! The presentation lives up true to it’s name. Potlam means packet – this is prawns biryani wrapped in a packet (potlam) of omlette 😊. The taste was good but certainly not exceptional. What is exceptional here though is their Palleturi Kodi Pulao (Village Style). The chitti mutyala rice, the stock used to cook it, the many chicken pieces in it – all of it makes for some great eating experience.  There is also another dish you must definitely try here – the avakaya chicken biryani! It's simply unbelievable how good the combination of avakaya and chicken tastes! 

AnTeRa

AnTeRa stands for Andhra, Telangana and Rayalseema. However, only the telugu speaking people will understand the brilliant word play of the place 😊. And true to their name, they serve a wide variety of cuisine from all these three regions + some Chinese too! The Nalgonda Mutton Fry is one of the best mutton dishes I’ve had. The Korameenu fish fry is also very tasty (I also think this is because the fish was also fresh and frozen). Their prawns curry with Bhimavaram Chicken pulao had the taste glands asking for more! We also tried their chicken fried rice, just because it is there on the menu 😉. The place is mostly full and the noise in the place actually makes it more lively too. AnTeRa surely is a brilliant place to go for nice ambience and great food.

Taro

Taro is one of the few Asian cuisine places that offers nice real Asian flavours in their menu! Their Tom Kha soup was really refreshing to begin with – their optimal usage of the coconut milk to get the authentic flavour is perhaps one of the best in the city. We had a platter of Chicken and Veg Dimsums – a total of 6 varieties were served and every single one of them was really good. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the names of these dimsums 😊. For main course, I did the mistake of ordering Singapore Chicken Curry. Mistake not because the taste wasn’t good, but mistake because I forgot that this curry also will be coconut milk based, so it tasted like a repetition of the soup 😊. But all this was made by their superb Pad Thai with egg. Especially, the masterly preparation of the egg was impressive 😊. For the first time, I also got to taste Mocha Ice Cream and came to know how rice paper is used in the preparation of this ice cream!  

Tashi

Tucked away in a small bylane near the Peddamma Temple in Jubilee Hills, Tashi has been an excellent find for us! It is a veg only restaurant and offers almost everything that is on the menu in Jain options too. The variety on the menu is very impressive and requires multiple visits to try out these awesome options! We had the Taco Salad, which was fresh and very tasty! Their dim sums are certainly something worthy returning to eat! The Red Thai Curry along with rice is one of the best you will find in the city, taste wise (though I would have preferred it to be a little more runny!). The Hakka noodles and Tibetan Thupka are also very good here – especially the Thupka! 

Gaurang's Kitchen

This is one of those rare places where almost the entire course was disappointing – I think primarily because we didn’t know that it was a Thali only place for lunch. The Thali also didn’t offer anything unique. The spicy guava mocktail was good though! The ambience of this place is very good, but I guess unless another visit happens for dinner time, I would never know if this place is good or not! 

Medley

The last thing I would think one would love at a vegetarian only restaurant is a mocktail! Their Spicy Guava mocktail is really really good. The other dishes that we ordered were decent enough but nothing to rave about. The Pizza was good and so was the Sizzler, but like I said they were nothing to rave about.

F-House

I hear Tiramisu and start drooling. And in F-House, when they told us that their dish is called “Pull Me Tiramisu”, in addition to drooling I was also intrigued! So they bring the Tiramisu and then dramatically pull out the plastic casing and then the cream slowly drops onto the plate. And then when you dig in to the dish, you realise the taste is as good as the theater! If you are wondering why I jumped into talking about desserts directly, then it’s my fault only – because I think nothing can beat a great Tiramisu! While we are on desserts, I need to mention about the awesome Rose Tres Leches – this one had the exact proportions of rose and milk flavour that a Tres Leches commands! Our entire group was simply in love with this dessert too.

Let’s now talk about their Starters 😃 – Gun Power Prawns is real crispy yet doesn’t lose out on the prawns flavour or the gun powder flavour. Achari Fish is another tasty spicy starter. But the best one is their Galouti Mushroom! You can actually tell that the mushrooms are of very good quality just by eating this dish – some of us ordered multiple plates of this dish alone! 

Yet another standout dish is their Pizza – both the Veg and Non-veg pizzas were real tasty and had the right amount of spice too. While their Kimchi fried rice was good, I’d definitely recommended their Salmon dish – yet another dish with the right proportion of an awesome sauce, vegetables and Salmon (ofcourse 😉). On the whole, I think F-house scores very strongly on the food and would visit this more. Also, did I tell you their Galouti Mushroom rocks?

Chubby Cho

Interesting name no 😉. Their menu and food is also equally interesting. We had the Tom Kha soup (and not the traditional Tom Yum soup) and it was very refreshing! Another time, we had their lemon coriander soup and it was one of the best we had – right combination of lemon and coriander made it one of the best! Their Nunuki Fried Rice was also very tasty but the only disappointment was that they didn’t actually use sticky rice for making that. The Tibetean Thupka bowl totally made up for it though. Definitely a place to repeatedly eat their multiple offerings!

Blind Ch3mistry

The advantage of going with large groups is that you get to eat a lot of items from the menu! Their Spicy Mango Mix mocktail was superb because of using jalapenos and not actual mirchis! Many starters were ordered (Cheese Corn Balls, Chicken wings, Chicken Satay, Volcano Prawns) and not disappointed with any one of them! The veg folks had Quesidilla’s too. But to me, the best items were their Pizzas and something called a Twister pizza. They had the right proportion of cheese, vegetables and meat on the pizzas and were really yummy! I also had the Oozy Cheese and Tomato sandwich – it tasted ok and was definitely not oozy!

Telangana Spice Kitchen

 What a place! I love it when we go in large groups to such places because we get to try multiple items in the menu at once. Chicken 65, Apollo Fish, Chitti royyala fry, Karimnagar Fried Wings, Korameenu Roast, Chilly mushrooms – were some real good starters here. Especially the chicken 65 and Karimnagar fried wings! The TSK Special chicken and mutton pulaos were also awesome.  And one of the hidden gems of this place is their Sambar rice – I don’t know how any combination can top a piping hot Sambar rice with chicken/mutton curries!

Prost Brew Pub

 This will perhaps be the first review of a pub where drinks won’t be discussed! The food here is really really good. They offer a really large variety of cuisines and nothing has disappointed us so far! Chico Nachos are gooood, sauteed mushrooms (dish is called Prost Pilze) are nice, the chicken wings are awesome but the best starter I think is their Chicken 65! You should also try the Spicy Calamari, fish fingers and onion rings! The chicken popcorn and jalapeno cheese balls are also also good to be munching all along. One of the best things here is their Mini Burger Platter – we can happily taste of different burgers in small sizes instead of worrying about choosing which burger to eat! The Thai Curry, Chicken Biryani, any Pizza and Nasi Goreng are great main course dishes to have here.

 

Tatva

 This is a veg only restaurant in Jubilee Hills, but it is a good veg-only restaurant too 😊. Malai Broccoli, Hara Bhara Kebab and Smoked Pesto Panneer Tikka are very good options to have here. The Veg Spring Rolls and Jalapeno Poppers are good too. The Wild Mushroom Risotto tastes good. The Veg Steak sizzler and Jain sizzler both taste quite good too. Methi Chaman with naan/kulcha also tasted quite good here.

Flying Sphagetti Monster

 One of the best Italian cuisine places in Hyderabad! All their Bruscettas are very nice – I think it’s the sun-dried tomato and olive oil that makes the difference. You should try the ones with brinjal; artichokes; peppers; chicken and for simplicity sakes, just the fresh tomato ones. The names are quite tougue twisting though 😃 – so you should order the Crostini Melanzana if you want to eat the bruschetta with brinjal! Their Broccoli starter is quite tasty and any of their pasta/pizza can be had, depending on what sauce or toppings you will prefer. But what I liked here is their Risotto – especially Risotto Di Pollo. You can’t go to an Italian place and not have Tiramisu. Their Tiramisu is awesome and so is their Panna Cotta!

Van Lavino

 The place looks imposing! True to how it looks, their food (especially the desserts) are also quite good. The crème brulee, the Tiramisu jar, the many pastries, chocolate éclair, tarts – they are all must try desserts here. We even once took their 1kg Tiramisu cake and absolutely enjoyed it.

Smoky Pitara

 You would never think that a place named like this will be a veg only place! Located in Jubilee Hills you will get some smoky food in here! From their entire menu, I think their sizzlers are the best. Malai Broccoli, Cheese poppers and Paneer Tikka are good too.