[autotranny]

First visit to the much heard, Hong Kong restaurant.

I have been trying to find this place for well over a month. I don't know why everyone says, this is opp to Ramky Towers. I drove through the road opp. Ramky atleast 6 times in the last month, but never saw this place. Then by chance, when I was driving down from Gachibowli to Kondapur, I spotted this place. For God's sake, its on the Gachibowli - Kondapur main road... opp to Ramki is a misleading statement.

Anyway I had a Sweet Corn Chicken soup from there and bought a Garlic Egg Fried Rice and Chicken in Black bean sauce as take-away. Total damages - Rs 380/-.

Whilst, Im not quite the expert on traditional Chinese food, I did not quite like it.. It was kinda too bland. Anyway at home, I had to add a bit of Chilly and Soya sauce to it to salvage the dish.

Having said that, I will go there again, I like the little chinese charm of the place...maybe the next dish i order is mindblowing

[rknair]

Originally Posted by rknair

I happened to have a quick bite at a low key chinese restaurant called Hong Kong Restaurant in Gachibowli Kondapur Road opposite to the road to Ramky Towers.

Originally Posted by autotranny

I have been trying to find this place for well over a month. I don't know why everyone says, this is opp to Ramky Towers. I drove through the road opp. Ramky atleast 6 times in the last month, but never saw this place. Then by chance, when I was driving down from Gachibowli to Kondapur, I spotted this place. For God's sake, its on the Gachibowli - Kondapur main road... opp to Ramki is a misleading statement.

I thought my update about the location of the restaurant earlier in the thread was clear enough. Sorry it confused you.

As I said, you don't get the spicy Indian Chinese taste here. Even I am not sure if this is the authentic Chinese taste, but I sure love it..

[autotranny]

Originally Posted by rknair

I thought my update about the location of the restaurant earlier in the thread was clear enough. Sorry it confused you.

Nair Saab.. it wasn't your description that confused me.

Infact, even Zomato says the address as Opposite Ramky Towers, Rajiv Nagar, Gachibowli,
Hyderabad.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by Honda2k

Went to Jewel of the Nizam" at Hotel Golkonda on Wednesday, being parents' wedding anniv. Like Mobike008 said, superb ambience, royal feeling, good ghazals, just the right kind of lighting, top notch cutlery, prompt service, etc.

Yes, indeed its a great place for special occasions. Iam glad you like it as well.

Yesterday evening, picked up Pav Bhaji, Sev Puri and Dhabeli along with Mutton Biryani from Papaji Ka Dhaba for dinner.

Boggulkunta ( Area near Pragati Idli) is to be seen to beileve on a sunday evening. Each sunday the crowds are increasing in hordes and number of vendors too increasing like crazy. 3/th of the crowd will be marwari's who love eating out on every sunday evening and that area is their standard "adda"

Spotted a new vendor selling Dosas in a leafy plate with plastic cups for sambhar. He was drawing crowds like bees to honey. Next time will try out this new dosa guy.

Pav Bhaji, Sev Puri and Dhabeli was good as ever.

What I enjoyed was the Mutton Biryani from Papaji, had gotten tired of the Paradise and Bawarchi's of this world. The punjabi style biryani was a welcome and refershing change

[NoRules]

There is a new restaurant on Road No.4, Banjara Hills, near Casa Luxurio hotel - Rock Castle. Went for lunch yesterday with my wife and kids.

Had the following:

Chicken manchow soup 1/2 for kids - @115/-; chicken hot n sour soup 1/2 for me and my wife - @110/-. Hot n sour soup was thick, spicy and with lots of chicken. We loved it though my wife thought it was a bit too spicy. Kids liked the manchow soup.

Kalmi tangdi kebab - 4 leg pieces @190/-. Soft chicken, nice and tasty. Liked it.

Chicken chettinad @185/- and butter naan @40/- The chicken chettinad though tasty, was not spicy at all which surprised me.

Chicken biryani @180/- The biryani was good with lots of small pieces of chicken, long grain rice with decent amount of masala.

Total bill came to Rs.900/-

Overall a decent experience.

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by mobike008

Yesterday evening, picked up Pav Bhaji, Sev Puri and Dhabeli along with Mutton Biryani from Papaji Ka Dhaba for dinner.

Started the evening at 7pm with Vada-Pav from the "Aunty" opposite Dimmy's Paan Shop on PG Road at Sindhi Colony.

Told my wife to order and pay for them and bring them to the car for eating.

My wife had her first interaction with the "Aunty".

Had not warned my wife about "Aunty" having an attitude with arrogance and rude behaviour, as has been reported by many people, so that she does not have any pre-conceived notion about that lady.

My wife was made to wait and the Aunty served a few stags first. It was while handing over the vada-pav that Aunty told my wife that she made her wait as she wanted to give freshly fried vadas to her instead of the ones which were fried a bit earlier. The Aunty was very polite and had excellent behaviour and made the vada-pavs just the way my wife wanted them. My wfe gave a feedback to me that the Aunty was a bit rude to just a few customers but my wife has only praise for that lady.

The vada-pavs were amazing and costed 18/- each.

Next, we moved on to Mayur Paan Shop on Minister Road for their tava-sandwich and fresh strawberry juice.

He had justed started making the bhaji for pav-bhaji and the tava was occupied so we ordered grilled sandwich instead of the tava sandwich. Delicious and absolutely worth going all the way for them. Costed 40/- each (2 slices make 1 sandwich).

Downed the solids with strawberry juice (50/-) and orange juice (30/-). Will need to go back again and again as they were the most delicious drinks in this city.

Back home, had home made mutton in keema gravy with bread for dinner. Bread goes amazingly well with keema as it can soak in the juices very well making it one lip smacking dish.

Strongly recommend everyone to visit Mayur Paan Shop for a sandwich and juice while the weather is pleasant and strawberries are in season.

Originally Posted by NoRules

There is a new restaurant on Road No.4, Banjara Hills, near Casa Luxurio hotel - Rock Castle.

Is this Rock Castle on Road No. 6 on the left side of the gate of Blu Radisson.

I assume it is the same place where once used to exist a bakery called Rock Castle.

It used to be the most famous bakery of twin cities till the early nineties.

[NoRules]

Originally Posted by hyd_traveller

Is this Rock Castle on Road No. 6 on the left side of the gate of Blu Radisson.

I assume it is the same place where once used to exist a bakery called Rock Castle.

It used to be the most famous bakery of twin cities till the early nineties.

Yes Sir. It is the same place. They started a restaurant few weeks ago. Nice place and is picking up now. Couple of my friends also ate there and liked the food. Neat and simple decor and for me it is just a km away.

[CtrlAltDel]

Lunched at Zurna on Rajbhavan Road, on saturday.

I had heard from Hyd_Traveller that he hated the food but I decided to risk it due to 2 reasons:
1- I had work in the same building so parking was not an issue
2- heard a couple of good reviews too.

Ordered: Rotis, tandoori chicken masala and chicken dum biryani.

The chicken gravy was spicy n good but nothing outstanding.

The surprise was the biryani! It was unexpectedly GREAT. The chicken was "fall off the bone" soft and had a nice sweetish taste that I had experienced only in chicken I had in Australia!! The long grained rice was perfectly cooked with the ideal quantity and strength of the masala.

My wife loved it so much we parcelled a "double-piece" biryani (more rice, more chicken and a boiled egg) for dinner the same day!

Btw there is also a "special" chicken biryani on the menu which is biryani with a serving of Chicken65...bah...didnt dare order it. The 'normal' biryani was good enough.

[Honda2k]

Last night, went for dinner with a friend to The Square at Paryatak Bhavan, Begumpet. They have a buffet for lunch and dinner, priced at Rs.450/- AI, which has a veg soup, a non-veg soup (spicy chicken corn soup), 2 veg starters, 2 non-veg starters (Chicken lollipop and Chicken Kali mirchi kabab), 2 non-veg salads (Fish and mustard, & Hariyali chicken salad), 4 Veg salads, 3 non-veg gravies (spicy garlic fish, mutton in rich brown gravy, and a chicken gravy), a veg rice, a non-veg rice (mutton biryani), assorted breads (nons, rotis, etc), no idea about the veg section. I think there was a noodle dish too, not sure. Desserts counter was lavish too... so many items, lets see how many I remember : assorted cut fruits 6 - 8 varieties, 3 ice creams, hot gulab jamun, doodh golla, moong dal halwa ke laddoo, strawberry mousse, assorted jellies, khubani ka meetha, shahi tukda, a sinful chocolate pastry morsel, assorted pastries, a cake, and a couple more that I can't recall. Let me just list out what was outstanding - both the chicken starters were A-W-E-S-O-M-E, the chicken soup was great, the garlic fish and mutton in its rich gravy were again, lip-smacking. In the desserts, the Shahi Tukda and the moong dal halwa ke laddoo and the chocolate pastry morsels were drool-worthy. Service was excellent, attentive yet unobstrusive, and prompt. Snacks, soups and rotis were served on the table. Ate and enjoyed so much that we had to litrally waddle out !!!

O.T. : Off-topic, but I think it should be raised, nonetheless. It was a pity to see that a restaurant in such a nice and convenient location, serving such good food, was nearly empty on a Sunday night. Hardly 2 tables were occupied, including ours. But why I raise this point is that so much food was obviously going to go waste. There must be some legislation or law making it mandatory for hotels and restaurants to donate left-over food to some organisation or NGO that can in turn, feed the hundreds and thousands of homeless beggers who do not get a square meal in a day, while these places dump hundreds of kgs of food in the garbage. In a country like ours where there are so many people below the poverty line, someone must devise some way of harnessing this criminal wastage that can be useful to feed so many unfortunate and hungry souls. This write-up came up because I asked the steward what they'd do with so much food thats left over, and he confirmed that as per company policy, they'll throw it away, not even let employees partake it, or take it away, even. I suggested to them that instead, they should reduce the price of the buffet so as to attract more patrons.

[ranjitp1]

Originally Posted by Honda2k

O.T. : Off-topic, but I think it should be raised, nonetheless. It was a pity to see that a restaurant in such a nice and convenient location, serving such good food, was nearly empty on a Sunday night. Hardly 2 tables were occupied, including ours. But why I raise this point is that so much food was obviously going to go waste. There must be some legislation or law making it mandatory for hotels and restaurants to donate left-over food to some organisation or NGO that can in turn, feed the hundreds and thousands of homeless beggers who do not get a square meal in a day, while these places dump hundreds of kgs of food in the garbage. In a country like ours where there are so many people below the poverty line, someone must devise some way of harnessing this criminal wastage that can be useful to feed so many unfortunate and hungry souls. This write-up came up because I asked the steward what they'd do with so much food thats left over, and he confirmed that as per company policy, they'll throw it away, not even let employees partake it, or take it away, even. I suggested to them that instead, they should reduce the price of the buffet so as to attract more patrons.

A very very valid point.There are two ways to look at it IMHO-If we people become that wee bit more conscious,it would lead to hotels stopping this atrocious practice of eat-all-you-can kind of buffet meals.There is only so much that a person can eat.I always felt that a buffet concept is just not right in a country like India.How difficult is it to order what we like or want and eat that much and be satisfied rather than eat because we have paid for it!Not getting patronizing or being preachy here,but definitely food for thought isnt it?

As for throwing away,only that food which comes onto the buffet table gets thrown away(which is also questionable),the rest gets stored(restaurants would never ever tell you they store back food).There is a regulation also by the ineffective and inactive Food standards department in India which states how much of food can be stored or refrigerated and every single restaurant flouts that rule(rather manipulates) right from the 5 stars to the hole in the wall types of restaurants.The very reason why many 5 stars and fine-dine-ins do not encourage a parcel or takeaway of the food remaining on the table because they are unsure how the food would behave after a certain period of time especially since the products have already seen quite a bit of shelf life already

As for food distribution among those who need it,its a brilliant idea,just a question of who would bell the cat.I am all for it,finance and logistics are the main stumbling blocks,maybe a Teambhp-Hyderabad initiative-what say?

Why do you think hotels do not want to do it-simply because they hardly have any food wasted!.something on similar lines began in Bangalore with much fanfare in the late 90s and the Tajs were party to it with their kitchens sending out tons of food to the orphanages,but with time and shrinking budgets the initiative ran out of steam and today there is hardly any food wasted if you ask me!ISKCON does a great job with their Akshayapatra scheme of providing food at schools and it actually gets kids into schools if not for want of education-they all turn up at schools because they are ensured of atleast one full square meal a day & for that one square meal a day the parents are prepared educate their kids!

[Honda2k]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

A very very valid point.There are two ways to look at it IMHO-If we people become that wee bit more conscious,it would lead to hotels stopping this atrocious practice of eat-all-you-can kind of buffet meals.There is only so much that a person can eat.I always felt that a buffet concept is just not right in a country like India.How difficult is it to order what we like or want and eat that much and be satisfied rather than eat because we have paid for it!!

Ranjit ji, your point of view is appreciated, indeed, it is a righteous view, but IMHO the reason why buffet lunches and dinners have caught everyone's fancy is very simple to understand. When you go to a restaurant and order a few dished a-la-carte as per your choice, you'll end up paying much more than the price of the buffet option, in most cases. Plus, the option of trying out a much larger variety of foods/cuisines is always more appealing. Also, the larger a group of diners, the more difficult it gets to select dishes that will appeal to everyone. In a buffet spread, everyone can exercise their individual choices, and choose what they want to eat from the spread. Plus, in an acutely price sensitive country like ours, a buffet makes great economic sense to individuals. Like you said rightly, there is only so much a person can eat, but a buffet can make people try out newer and varied options/ciisines and thus, become more adventurous in their eating habits, at the end of the day, everyone wants a bigger bang for their buck, so if I get to try out 15-20 different things as opposed to 3 or 4, for the same or lesser price, guess which way I'm gonna want to go ? . Peace !

[hyd_traveller]

Originally Posted by Honda2k

Last night, went for dinner with a friend to The Square at Paryatak Bhavan, Begumpet. They have a buffet for lunch and dinner, priced at Rs.450/- AI

It was a pity to see that a restaurant in such a nice and convenient location, serving such good food, was nearly empty on a Sunday night.

It was pretty much occupied when I was there.

Originally Posted by hyd_traveller

21 of us, neighbours in the apartment complex where we all live, decided to have a republic day lunch at Circle Restaurant in Hotel Square located at Paryatak Bhawan at Greenlands Junction, the same place from where the Airport AeroExpress Buses used to start earlier. This hotel was earlier under the management of Katriya Group and was called Katriya De Royale but is now managed by Butta Group (the same people who run Yatri Nivas in Secunderabad).

The lunch buffet is priced @ 450/- or so. Pretty extensive spread and decent food. All put together, there were 10 n/v items in the buffet spread.

Staff were on the toes and rushing around replacing cutlery, clearing used plates, keeping water topped up in the glasses and I was happy to see that all of them had a smile.

They have a nice open area pool side sitting place with cabanas which makes a weekend lunch a roaring success due to ambiance though I chose to sit inside in A/C as needed proximity to food.

The GM, Mr Praful, personally came over and enquired whether we are satisfied with the food and service. Amazing to note that the top guys take so much interest. Wish they were successful and a name to reckon with but they are slowly catching up.

My original post : http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...ml#post3025627

Hospitality business is very tough in Hyderabad. It is not easy to attract new clients and much more difficult to retain the existing ones.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by ranjitp1

IMHO-If we people become that wee bit more conscious,it would lead to hotels stopping this atrocious practice of eat-all-you-can kind of buffet meals.There is only so much that a person can eat.I always felt that a buffet concept is just not right in a country like India.

+1 on this thought. I completely detest buffets and many a times i just get carried away with the VFM pricing. but, 99% of the times, i never enjoy buffets.

My mom plainly states that they keep all previous day remains for buffets as its so easy to get away with it.

Give me ala-carte any day and I dont mind paying more for it but, atleast i can enjoy what I'd like to eat and more importantly in peace ( not the cat-fights that is normally scene at buffets)

Originally Posted by Honda2k

In a buffet spread, everyone can exercise their individual choices, and choose what they want to eat from the spread. Plus, in an acutely price sensitive country like ours, a buffet makes great economic sense to individuals. Like you said rightly, there is only so much a person can eat, but a buffet can make people try out newer and varied options/ciisines and thus, become more adventurous in their eating habits, at the end of the day, everyone wants a bigger bang for their buck, so if I get to try out 15-20 different things as opposed to 3 or 4, for the same or lesser price, guess which way I'm gonna want to go ? . Peace !

I agree that you get to taste a variety but, iam sure you will know that the supposedly large variety of items is just for show to attract unsuspecting customers

When you call a hotel and ask for items in a buffet, they boast of 40+ items and include salads, papad, pickles as no of items

Out of those 40+ items, Iam sure a maximum of 4-5 items will be worth eating ( where you would like to go for a repeat, if your tummy permits)...so why not order the same 4-5 dishes or maybe less and have a more enjoyable meal?

Buffets according to me are very rarely good. VFM if it's at an expensive restuarant (5 Stars, 4 Stars) which has 50% off and has a good array of dishes where majority of food is good ( which again is a rare case). Do try out the Marriot Dinner Buffet for Rs.450 through a snapdeal coupon. It's practically garbage

For e.g, I love the midnight biryani at Green Park at some Rs.380 per head. I can recover the cost in Paya, Haleem and Biryani and I dont care for rest of the food line-up which in anycase will not be good.

Anyways, long story short, I am with people who like ala-carte and will fight tooth and nail with people who say they love buffets...LOL !!!

P.S: A new punjabi resturant called " Sardarji" opened in Himayathnagar in same building as Rayalseema Ruchulu. They opened last week i guess, saw some fanfare while passing by. Finally a punjabi restuarant in Himayathnagar....Will check them out this week and report back

O.T: For the car and especially VW buffs, there is a VW showroom opening at Hyderguda (opp. to Haiking Chinese Restaurant)

[CtrlAltDel]

Originally Posted by mobike008

I am with people who like ala-carte and will fight tooth and nail with people who say they love buffets...

+1 to that! I too detest buffets because they have the same, or similar, menu where ever I go. And as you said only 3 or 4 items would be worth a refill.

I reluctantly end up in buffets only as part of an official team lunch coz a-la-carte for a big group would be a nightmare.

That said, the only buffet I really feel is VFM is the one at Indijoe. Many of the items are usually different from those in other places.

[ranjitp1]

For the benefit of people in and around Kukatpally-Miyapur-Malaysian Township areas,the new Manjeera Mall on the JNTU-Hitec City road would be ready shortly and the place has an entire lower level of Hyper City,2 levels of Shoppers Stop and 2 levels of the famed Multiplex Chain named Cinepolis-5 screens.