The popular perception about the food scene at Radisson Hyderabad Hitech City has so far been focused on The Oriental Blossom, their Pan-Asian restaurant. Often recognized as one of the top places for oriental cuisine in Cyberabad, the restaurant has a steady footfall from loyal customers. In the recent times, to provide some more top notch gastronomical experiences to its clientele, the hotel has launched two more interesting restaurants, offering cuisines as diverse as Brazilian, Punjabi and Lebanese.
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| Coxa De Frango from the Churrascaria |
Chama Gaucha (which literally means “Flames of the South American Cowboys”) is the rooftop restaurant which brings Brazilian food for the first time to Hyderabad. Located on the rooftop next to the swimming pool and Velocity bar, the al-fresco seating overlooks the open kitchen. Churrasco in Brazilian is essentially barbecued meat, and the restaurant specializes in this. A churrascaria grill has been installed in the kitchen to prepare South American style barbecue. The imported meat grilled in the kitchen uses select South American spices and marinades.
Apart from Brazilian, the restaurant serves Lebanese cuisine too. Mezze platters, falafels, shawarmas and shish touks, as well as sweets like Basbousa and Baklava, are all available.
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| Mezze Platter |
At a bloggers table, the restaurant served some signature dishes from the menu. We started with some bread varieties served on the table, the highlight of which was
Pao de Quijo, a small and round Brazilian cheese bread.
Mezze’s (hummus, labneh, and moutabel served with pita bread) and a couple of salads were next.
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| Fried Camaros (Prawns) |
Among the starters,
Chicken Shish Touk and
Fried Camaroes (crispy fried panko prawns) impressed. However the main dish from Churrascaria was
Coxa De Frango, chunky chicken pieces marinated in a Brazilian sauce and grilled. The chicken, served along with rice and
Abacaxi Assado (honey glazed grilled pineapple) was excellent.
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| Not So Caesar Salad |
On our request, the chef prepared some
Australian Lamb Churrasco. The meat from the skewer was directly served on the plate. The rock salt rubbed on the meat made the preparation a bit salty and the meat, in my opinion, was a tad overdone, but still, I liked the smoky flavoured dish.
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| Australian Lamb |
The place also serves pizzas, pastas, and burgers, of which we tried the
Chef’s Special XXX Burger with fillings of roasted chicken and chicken salami.
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| Chicken Shish Touk |
The dinner ended with
Dulce De Teche Tiramisu, which lacked the coffee flavour.
I would revisit the place for mainly the grills. A few dishes on my radar are
Costeleta De Porco (Belgian pork chops) and
Seared Lemon Tuna.
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| The Bar at Horn Ok Please |
The second restaurant launched by Radisson is unique in a different way – it is the first drive-in dhaba in a star hotel. The dhaba named
Horn Ok Please (a message frequently seen on the back of trucks) is located in the basement of the building and you can actually drive your car to right in front of the restaurant and park it there. The décor of the dhaba is very similar to those found on the highways – with charpais and colourful autos and scooters parked inside. The bar is housed in a converted truck just outside the dhaba. One drawback of the place is that it is not air-conditioned, it has only coolers. So in Hyderabadi summer, the basement eatery can become quite stuffy.
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| The Driveway at Horn Ok Please |
The colourful menu also is in sync with the rustic ambience. It has two parts –
Pind da Chaska, the food menu and
Daru Sharu. We started with a
Masala Chaas with the starters. But soon we graduated to some cocktails from the place –
Patiala (with vodka, rum, and gin) and
BC (vodka again with mint, jaggery and jal jeera).
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| Nimona Tikiya |
For starters to accompany the drinks we had
Highway Murgh Tikka, a typically smoked chicken preparation found in the dhabas. The chicken had taken in the marinade well and tasted good. The other starter was
Amritsari Machli, the most famous Punjabi fish dish.
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| Makai Pyaaz Ki Seekh |
I was even more impressed with the vegetarian short eats –
Nimona Tikiya, a soft and flat patty with peas as well as the corn-based
Makai Pyaz Ki Seekh. The menu has a few more names –
Gosht Gilafi Seekh looked interesting to me.
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| The Main Courses |
The main courses were served with a variety of Punjabi bread. The tomato based
Nukkad Da Kukkad, the restaurant’s version of butter chicken was decent, but the
Khade Masale Ke Gosht disappointed. There were too many whole spices in the dish spoiling the taste.
Dhabawali Daal and
Paneer Tikka Masala were the other dishes served. Among the dishes which I made a note for the next visit were
Gosht Belliram and
Rahra Gosht.
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| Nukkad Da Kukkad |
What struck me about this place was that though it is located in a star hotel, the pricing is quite reasonable. Most of the veg dishes are priced below Rs 300 while the non-vegetarian dishes have a maximum price tag of Rs 400. To make things even sweeter, the eatery has an introductory offer where beer is available at MRP. With time, the restaurant will be able to iron out the initial issues, and I am optimistic that it will become a popular place.
It is nice to see a star hotel try to do things differently, like launching a Brazilian churrascaria or transporting a whole drive-in dhaba in its campus. Kudos to Radisson Hyderabad Hitech City for the initiatives. I would definitely like to see more fine dining restaurants come out of their comfort zone, and be innovative in their offerings as well as approach.
Location:
Chama Gaucha is located on the rooftop, whereas
Horn Ok Please is at the drive in cellar of
Radisson Hyderabad Hitech City
Hitech City-Gachibowli Road
Gachibowli, Hyderabad 500032
Telephone: 040 67696769
Disclaimer: The review is based on invites from the restaurants
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