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The Menu card at CreamCentre fyr.







Precisely my observations as well of the place.Ambience is zero(I am yet to understand why do they have so much of empty space in their restaurant-thats the whole problem with the place-the look),place needs a maintenance job soon and the employees need some inspiration real soon,they are just not interested anymore.Maybe the kitchen people are the only ones who are managing to keep themselves inspired!

IMO,the place served good food,but the problem lay in the "vastu" of the placelol:

None of the places that opened up in that building survived and thats because the place is too out of bounds and is never visible from anywhere on the road.Grand Wok,Yokos and some sports bar-none of those survived.

PS:Grand Wok did have ala-carte we have ordered ala-carte many a time there.

Lunch was take away from "Kakatiya Delux Mess"

Kakatiya Chicken Fry ( Rs.100)

Very tasty but, it had a few bones even after they confirmed its boneless when i asked them

Koremeenu Fish Fry (Rs.180)

This is Murrel fish which he said is Rs.500/Kg ( Have no clue if its true). It was spicy, thick gravy and delicous fish. Good one if you like your fish extra spicy

Above gorged down with white rice...

BURRP:D

If you visit a restaurant which has both air-conditioning and also serves liqour, they are to charge you service tax @ 4.94 % of the total billed amount except on VAT.

Note that service tax is a governmental due and different from service charge which is a charge levied by the restaurant.

So essentially if you bill 909/- and the restaurant adds 90/90 as service charge, they will also bill you 49/40 service tax and 144/99 VAT making your bill as 1194/29.

And in case you bill 909/- and the restaurant does not add service charge, they will also bill you 44/90 service tax and 131/81 VAT making your bill as 1085/71.
KCF is with bones. The one they give as boneless is the chicken pieces they put in their chicken biryani. You will repent if you ever eat that chicken. They will parcel the boneless chicken from the counter they parcel the biryani and not the regular non veg counter. Good they gave you with bones else you would have blacklisted them by now.

Murrel fish is presently ruling at around 350/- to 400/- per kg live weight which means it will work out to between 600/- to 1,000/- per kilo for boneless fillets depending on the size of the fish.

Of course, KDM serves it with skin and bone so their claim of 500/- seems to be reasonable.

I love Murrel fish and use it extensively at home for cooking my traditional English style fish and chips with tartare dip and fries on the sides.

Was at Bhimas Chitram(Veg only) the other day,have to admit-loved the place.Very reasonable rates in today's context.Ordered two veg thalis and it was excellent and fresh and priced at INR 135 plus 5% VAT (no service charge).Ambience is very good,service is quick-efficient-effective.For a place in such a locality found the rates to be extremely good.There is also a Mughlai joint in the same building called Patan Court and a Chinese restaurant called Chinese Wok.The valet told me that all the three places see a decent amount of crowd.Plenty of parking space and all in all highly reccomended.Bye bye Southern Mirchi for us-its going to be Chitram for us for a while now.The thali had a dal,sambhar,unlimited pooris,rasam,a ver poriyal,a curry for the poori,a chutney in addition to the pickles and the 3 different powders on the table and the papads.Taste 9/10,service 8/10,Cleanliness 8/10,



Southern Mirchi

Like I wrote in another review-all good places are too good to last-same is the story with this place.We used to go here just for the thali and we were shocked at the quality and quantity on offer for the last two times.Quantities have become measly,service is pathetic-they are just not interested in coming around to your table a second time for any second helpings be it for rice or for any of the other things on the thali and they make such a lousy face at you if you ask them for something.Not sure if they are having staff problems or not but the warmth of the initial days is certainly not present anymore.The dishes on offer are so lousy-sambhar has been just boiled water with sambar powder,something which looked like a distant cousin of the rasam,the dal has been good,its been aloo on offer every single time for the past couple of times etc and what takes the cake is that the Veg normal thali is now at INR 195 (all inclusive)-thats super expensive IMO.No more Southern Mirchi loyalties for us.

+1 to Bhima's. The sambar that they serve with the idli/dosa is the closest to the sambar that you get in Chennai restaurants. The other restaurant that we love is Shanbag, in Nagarjuna Circle. Prefer these anyday over the snooty overpriced Chutney's.

I like Bhimas in Tirupathi ( our go-to joint whenever we go to tirupathi which is normally once a year)

Our favorite South Indian restuarant for many many years was Shanbagh ( Basheerbagh). Even now when we go, everyone comes and greets my mom as a super star has arrived as she is known to them professionally :)

But, over the years I am sad to confess Shanbagh seem to have lost interest and quality to a small extent and it reflects sadness when you visit them now ( It's also due to some personal reasons of its owner which i cannot reveal here). We have stopped visiting them purely for this reason and our favorite now is Minerva at Himayathnagar

Yeah, Yeah. Chutney's is simply overrated and I will NEVER visit them again

Had been to Minerva at Jubilee Check post last sunday for dinner with family. All 5 of us ordered Veg thali. He gave an option of Puri/Naan/Tandoori Roti with the thali. I had mine with Naan and was surprised to see that the thali had 2 large pieces as a normal naan would. I am used to hotels giving roti sized naans and that too only one piece. Food was excellent. Sambar was out of this world, rasam smelled and tasted divine and the payasam was simply outstanding. Quality of rice is very good and even the curries (bhendi, paneer and some gobi curry) were awesome. The show stopper was the sambar though. Simply loved it. There was some kind of Biryani as a variety rice and this too was quite good.

At 160 bucks, this surely is a VFM offering.

Home-made Aloo Gobi Curry:)

Last week was a little heavy in terms of work and hence was eating out almost every day for lunch and a few times for dinner too. This was over the top for me as I hardly eat out more than once in a week ( keeping the visits to Subway aside). Places visited include Sahib Sindh Sultan, Firdaus ( Taj Krishna), Paradise, Kebab e Bahar ( Taj Banjara), De Thali, Adaa (Taj Falaknuma) and The Square (Novotel) apart from some Subway and Domino's thrown in between.

Since most of the places have been covered here, I just wanted to make a special mention of the some dishes that I had at Adaa.

For the appetiser we had ordered some cutlets made out of hung curd (to separate the water) with spices and herbs added to give it a special flavour. This was really a unique dish and I really liked it.

We had ordered two dishes of Desert, one was called "Zauq e Shahi" which contained 5 different varieties of ice creams for tasting. wherein you can taste about 5 varieties of ice creams The other dish that we ordered (I forgot the name) consisted of 1 scoop each of 3 different types of ice creams and 2 varieties of sorbets.

The 2 flavours of sorbet that I had chosen were:

1. Guntur Chilli Sorbet
2. Red wine Sorbet

The Ice Cream Flavours also consisted of something with Paan and a few other local flavours. The above 3 dishes mentioned were truly different.



If you are going to Adaa for lunch, please try them out. You won't be disappointed.


Cheer

A friend is getting engaged in last week of December and we are on the lookout for a venue. A Banquet hall which can accomodate 100-110 people and serves nice food (veg)in and around Secunderabad or A S Rao Nagar is what we are looking for. Food being the top most priority, hence posting here. The cost per plate should be in the range of Rs.250-280, a little variation wouldn't hurt. Can you recommend good places for the event?

Few places that we are considering are -

78 Degrees East, Habsiguda
Chilly's, Paradise/ A S Rao Nagar
Paraivar, ECIL
Swagath, Habsiguda/A S Rao Nagar)

Any reviews about Solitaire near ParkLane?

Chilly's (Raj Comfort inn) is a good option, centrally located but parking is a problem here.The food here is very good.

Waseem.

You could check out the new place Purple Leaf at Karkhana (the old Satyam office).You could speak to the GM Murthy there.Solitaire food I found to be claustrophobic and cramped ofcourse my observations are of the restaurant.

Banquet hall of Hotel Minerva Grand on SD Road. Parking is not an issue. I think it belongs to the Minerva Coffee Shop, Blue Fox, Palace Heights, etc., group. No idea about price but price depends on menu and dishes.

Have been to every restuarant except 78 Degrees which is owned by a friend.

Chilly's : Good veg food but, small place

Parivar ECIL : This is a nice place. Been to a few family functions here. I think you should select this one or Swagath

Swagath : It's a nice place and decent food. Been to a few family functions here

Solitaire at Parklane is also a good place. Been there to have buffets a couple of times and found it decent. Except this place is small.

I am also regular to Pebbles (Solitaire owned) restuarant at Himayathnagar. Awesome ambience and very good food. Except offlate their prices have hit the roof. A biryani i think costs Rs.280 at Pebbles

chilliy's has been taken over by Swagath and they have also opened banquet hall next to parivar ,parking at all these places is an issue .Food is better at swagath while parivar is little more expensive .