Team-BHP - A Guide: Eating out in Hyderabad/Secunderabad/Cyberabad

Places visited for Haleem so far this season:

Outlet (location) - Number of Visits - Review

Shahdab (Charminar) - 6 - Amazing, Thick, Consistent, Whole Meaty and Enjoyable.

Hyline (King Kothi) - 2 - Lovely Haleem, been a regular for years and would be for years to come. This Haleem is way different from everyone else.

Deccan Paradise (Shah Ali Banda) - 8 - Amazing, Thick, Consistent, Whole Meaty and Enjoyable. *

ShahGhouse (Shah Ali Banda) - 5 - Loved it 4 times, but 5th was horrible

ShahGhouse (Toli Chowki) - 2 - Enjoyed Haleem

Pista House (Charminar) - 1 - Ok, not up to standards as expected by a regular eater

Pista House (Toli Chowki) - 2 - Ok

Sarvi (BanjaraHills) - 1 - Enjoyed the Haleem

Sarvi (Mehdipatnam) - 2 - This tasted different from Banjara Hill outlet. Far better than Sarvi Banjara Hills

Paradise (Sec'bad) - 1 - WORST HALEEM OF MY LIFE. PARADISE NEVER CEASES TO SPOIL MY MOOD.

555 (Masab Tank) - 1 - Haleem tastes good here, especially the Special Haleem.

Cafe Bahar (Hyderguda) - 1 - Was good to eat and enjoyed the spicy taste of Haleem here

Bawarchi (RTC X Roads) - 1 - One of those very stereotyped Haleems. Sold for the heck of ensuring that you cash in during the season.

City Light Hotel (R. P. Road) - 1 - This has always been in my wish list every year & never falls short of amazing me with their amazing haleem.

Hotel Sohail (Malakpet) - 2 - Special Haleem with Zubaan. Something to die for. Good Haleem, not too slimy not to thick, just perfect to slide down and satisfy your urge for Haleem

Hotel Niagra (Malakpet) - 1 - This surpasses Paradise by leaps and bounds in being the worst haleem. I would never go back to Niagra.

Hotel Sham (Moosaram Bagh) - 1 - Ok, not much to say.

New Green Bawarchi (Nagole) - 1 - Thanks to my buddies for taking me there. If you want a Andhrastic Mutton Haleem, then this is the place. Looks like, it's been customized to satite the urge of Non-Hyderabadis for Haleem.

Home Made Haleem (Thanks to my friend Sohail) - 1 - World's Best Haleem. Eagerly awaiting for next year for his Home Made Haleem.

Total Visits/Haleems had in this season: 40 (39 Haleems + 1 Home Made Haleem)

Most of the times, followed by 2 Rituals: Pineapple Meenakshit Paan at Begum Bazaar and Mango Ice Cream at Famous

Quote:

Originally Posted by spadix (Post 2062530)

To summarize -

Cab to Madina Circle from office = INR 320
Dinner at Shadaab for 4 = INR 1000
Ramzaan shopping at Charminar = INR 120 (for me)
Getting stuck in a human traffic jam in light rain = priceless!

That was some terrain even a 4x4 cannot conquer!

Regards,
spadix

That was very well put together. I completely agree and plan a similar visit tonight to enjoy the haleem before it bids adieu for this year.

Indianomad and Traveloholic can easily via for the coveted title of who had how many plates haleem this season? Winners can be decided by public opinion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mobike008 (Post 2063181)

Indianomad and Traveloholic can easily via for the coveted title of who had how many plates haleem this season? Winners can be decided by public opinion.

Haleem King or Not, it's those EVIL TASTE BUDS that drag me to the outlets for Haleem. I never go there by myself, it's just that I follow what my TASTE BUDS order and asks me to do stupid:

Quote:

Originally Posted by mobike008 (Post 2063181)

That was very well put together. I completely agree and plan a similar visit tonight to enjoy the haleem before it bids adieu for this year.

That's my plan for tonight & hope I get to lay hands on Haleem at Shadab and Deccan Paradise. Else the Adieu would not be on a good note & would have to wait for next year. 335 days more for that first spoonful of Haleem :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD (Post 2063269)

Betw-Nikhil, any plan to burn those calories?

Plans much in place Waseem Bhai. Cycling and Cardio's on. Hope I burn these calories before the next year's Haleem Season

Quote:

Originally Posted by SILVERWOOD (Post 2063560)

Dont be so sure, Eid could be on Saturday as well.

Waseem Bhai, but these outlets aren't taking the risk of making huge amounts of Haleem and ending up not selling them. Yesterday, Shadab & Deccan Paradise were totally SOLD OUT!!! Believe me, the Kiln was already cold, by the time I reached there. That means how early it finished.

I can digest, if small outlets sell out early as they make less quantity but what about these HUGE Outlets, they displaying a SOLD OUT board makes me sad.

Wish I get to lay hands on Haleem at Shadab or DP today. Only issue is, by the time we leave from home to have Haleem at either DP or Shadab it's already 11:30 or 12:00.

Bid adieu to haleem this season. One of the greatest dish to be invented and 3-cheers to it for getting the geo status bringing Hyderabad yet again on the world map.:thumbs up

Friday

Me and wifey together had 3 plates of Haleem ( Cafe 555-1/Sarvi-2)

555 was thin, very mildly spiced and very good

Sarvi was thicker, perfectly spiced, major hints of ghee and was simply awesome

Saturday

Had one plate at almost midnight at Kabab Inn, Himayathnagar. So much onions, kaju and ghee, haleem cannot be seen. One of the best

Prior to that been to Central Court, Lakdi-ka-Pul last evening to meet some friends for dinner

As it happens to be one of our oldest and favorite joint and we know the folks there, we asked the chef to make a fish fry with my friend's receipe.

Only salt, mirchi and deep fried. It was nothing short of a miracle how it came out.

Completely Delectable. We ate more than 4 plates of same dish.

As a sub section of this thread, I'm going to start a new topic. Review of Food on Trains originating from the land of Hyderabadi Biryani & Haleem.

I'll start the series with Falaknuma Express that connects the Hyderabadi Biryani with Kolkata Kathi Rolls. Even though the train runs between these two great food centric cities, the food is a far cry from either.
Last night ordered 2 plates of Egg Curry Parantha. The gravy was bad and the parantha fibrous. Ate it only because I. was hungry. Breakfast of Bread Omlette and Special Lunch of Jeera Rice, Dal and Mutter Paneer was only slightly better. Post Bhubaneshwar, on this route one gets delectable chops, cutlets and jhalmuri and I haven't been disappointed at all even after 5 years on this route.
Bottomline: If travelling on this route, carry food from home or from one of the many good Biryani joints in the twin cities.

Coming up: Food enroute Biryani and Butter Chicken.

We went there last week.

Place is crowded (good) and the decor is baroque Indian.

Welcome and reception were warm and efficient. We were seated at a table of our choice and the prelims were quickly dealt with.

One look at the menu card and one knows that Thailand is very far away. All dishes are offered in Veg/Panneer/tofu/Mock Chicken/Chicken/Prawn. The place studiously avoids meat. We did manage to order one noodle, one green curry, one stir fry and a small portion of steamed rice. The noodle was veg, the green curry was chicken and the stir fry was prawn. The white rice was excellent - fragrant, well cooked and with just the right stickiness.

The noodles came loaded with small bits of panneer. (This is truly turning out to be Bangkok via Pahargunj.) The green curry was good and I was left wondering how much better it would have tasted with some meat in it. The stir fry was a bit of a disappointment, it came smothered in a gravy. This in spite of me instructing them to go easy on the sauce. Ideally, stir fries should have no flowing gravy and that is how I like them. Bowing to 'market pressure' most restraunts serve all food with surplus gravy, I guess one day they will serve fried wings in a bowl full of gravy. The noodles were merely Ok in taste and the basics of the sauce used in the stir fry was decent - if only they knew how to put it together properly.

As soon as we were seated, we were asked if we were vegetarian to which we vehemently shook our heads indicating our carnivorous inclination. As we were leaving, I asked why that question was asked and was told that they use seperate glasses for vegetarians. Now that leaves me wondering - Is it for religious reasons? Or, Is there something wrong with their washing system? Anyway - I guess it is good news for the fastidious vegetarians.

Overall: The place is great at their service. The menu selection is good for vegatarians. The portions tend to be a little on the smaller side. The taste is okay. Authentic? - Absolutely not. Thai? - No, it is fuax-Thai, in a generous mood one can call it Indo-Thai.

Would I go back? Perhaps, if someone else was paying and insisted on going there, it is too expensive for the experience offered.

Cheers,

@Ani, glad to see one of the foodie brigade updating this thread even from a "Train". Keep up the momentum !!

@Ravveendra, that was a fantastic write-up but, after going through it unable to understand, did you enjoy or not? One thing was pretty clear--your displeasure of no meat being served:D

Also, dish names and rates of same would have been helpful.

I had a terrible experience of Thai food at a festival organized by Ohri's Banjara and ever since, we all became allergic to "Thai Food":)