Mocha Café & Bar at Jubilee Hills

Contemporary cafes and bars are quite popular in Hyderabad, and Mocha Café & Bar is the latest addition to the Jubilee Hills food scene. An outlet from Riyaz Amlani’s Impresario group (well known in all metros for their Social and Smokehouse Deli chains), it is a transition from being just a coffee shop, which Café Mocha was nationally known for, into a bar with a difference.

Outdoor Seating at Mocha Cafe & Bar

Zaiqa-E-Hyderabad, a family destination for Hyderabadi food

During the month of Ramzan, a huge temporary food court called Zaiqa-E-Ramzan comes up at Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad. This has become extremely popular, as under one roof one could taste all types of delicacies from Hyderabadi cuisine, starting from Paya Shorba, Bheja Fry to Murgh Paiga and Double ka Meetha. Buoyed by the success of the venture, Food Krafters and Services has now started a dine-in restaurant at Banjara Hills offering mainstream Hyderabadi cuisine, and aptly named Zaiqa-E-Hyderabad.

Kacchi Gosht Ki Biryani

Quick Bytes: The Executive Set Lunch at Ohm, Avasa Hotel

During the busy weekdays, many Hitech City office-goers look for a quick but delicious lunch. The few parameters that they look for a good meal are good quality food (possibly innovative), a turnaround time of 30-45 minutes and finally an attractive price. The new Executive Set Menu at Ohm, the signature Pan-Asian restaurant of Avasa Hotel in HiTech City satisfies on all three counts. At an attractive price of Rs 800 (all inclusive), the menu is designed in such a way that the guest can complete their entire dining experience within 40 minutes, and get to taste some of the delicacies from contemporary oriental cuisine.

Dim Sums Galore

New Place In Town: Tatva, A Vegetarian Food Lovers Delight

Hyderabad is lately seeing a number of quality vegetarian restaurants enter the market. Quattro and Spice Klub ventured in from Mumbai with its signature recipes based on molecular gastronomy, and now Tatva, a swanky place in Jubilee Hills brings their signature multi-cuisine vegetarian creations.

La Dolce Vita, the Italian promotion at Deccan Pavilion

Hyderabad has quite a few speciality Italian restaurants in both fine and casual dine categories. Some of them stick to authentic Italian food and some tend to localize the cuisine for the Indian palate. But still, one must say that as far as Italian food goes, Hyderabadis have graduated well past pizzas and pasta and have started enjoying the classic dishes and desserts from the beautiful country.

Pollo Pomodoro

Festival Feed: The Chettinad Food Festival at The Westin Hyderabad

The Chettinadu area in Tamil Nadu is known for its savvy business families or Chettiars, who for generations are one of the top trader sects of South India. Apart from their business acumen, they are known to be avid food lovers, and their cuisine is replete with spices from different areas which they brought back from their trading journeys. Chettinad food with its fresh ground spices has gained tremendous popularity all over the world, for its flavours and taste.

The Chettinad Spread

Festival Feed: Smokin Sizzles at The Novotel HICC

The regular readers of this blog know that I am a big fan of pork. I rue the fact that restaurants in Hyderabad do not serve enough pork dishes, and make it a point to visit any place having a good pork on their menu. A few months back at the Fajita Fest in La Cantina, Sous Chef Saurav introduced me to some delicious pork slow cooked over eight hours using the sous-vide technique. The meat after hours of cooking in a sealed bag retained its juice and flavours and was almost a complete melt in the mouth (an unusual comparison of that feeling is the legendary cold Maghai paan from Banaras). So, my first query after Novotel invited me for their new sizzlers and grills festival “Smokin Sizzles” was to find out of any good pork dishes were part of the menu, and I was not disappointed.

Tequila Lobsters

Sizzling BBQ Nights by the Poolside at Taj Vivanta

Taj Vivanta is located very close to my house in Begumpet and it is often my choice to get a quick meal. Whereas Viva and Thai Pavilion have been visited many times, I have never set foot at The Grill, their poolside restaurant. So, when I received the invite for an evening of grilled food here I was quite interested.

New Place in Town: Themed Bars in Hyderabad to Enjoy Your Evenings

The watering hole scene in Hyderabad has improved a lot in the last one year with a few microbreweries opening their doors. On the other side of the spectrum, interesting themed bars have sprung up offering ambience and menu based on a particular concept. A couple of new ones in the Kondapur area have created quite a buzz and are attracting the food lovers and the tipplers of Cyberabad area. They are built around novel ideas and it will be interesting to see if they can retain the fancy of the customers in the long run.

Sly Tech Bar