Angeethi Asli Dhaba! Banjara Hills, Hyderabad

Asli urban dhaba indeed!

My favorite part is the man permanently stationed on the machan right at the end of the place who seems to be looking at you and saying oh! You are back again, you just came here the other, bon apetite!

The ambiance feels like you are in the heart of Punjab and enjoying a scrumptious meal after a hard days work with the ever so efficient and gracious staff who are well trained irrespective of whether they are old or new.

Angeethi is a part of life now, I will not be able to count the number of time my friends and I have been there for over 7 years now, the place where it is located may have changed but the food has maintained its consistency much to the joy of fans like me.
Every time there is a dal makhni pang, angeethi is the place to go and no meal is complete without it. I cannot thank the management enough for always having it in the buffet too. Another all time favorite is the tawa fish a must have in order to truly feel that you just dined at Angeethi yet again. The rogan josh is another dish that is well made and delightful. I guess I could take each item in the menu and describe why it is good. 
Yet, the three mentioned above would be the top three in that order. 

Dining at angeethi is like a feast.

The food, the ambiance, the condiments are as the strokes of brushes in a painters painting that have been blended to perfection.

Tansen (Ohri's) Necklace Road, Hyderabad

Your first step into Tansen gives a feeling of walking into the hallway to the court of a Maharaja. The pristine white décor takes you right into a fairy tale, where the kingmen (kudos to the staff) greet you like the guest of honor. Right from the start to the end of your meal there is keen observation on what your requirements may be, whether it is water or food refill without a second to wait.

Comfortably seated, my friend who has visited this place before suggested the Spinach Shorba and I was not disappointed. A blend of Spinach and corn with a perfectly sized portion makes it highly recommended as an appetizer.

With hunger pangs taking over, we gave starters a miss and jumped right at the main course. The quintessential dal makhni was a delight and the Ghost Amritsari was delectable and succulent with a seamless blend of flavors and spices.

We experimented with the bread, ordered a rehmani parantha and a chat parantha, and were pleasantly surprised with the innovative twist to the traditional naan.

The icing on the cake was the Pan Shot at the end of the meal, which was amazing and better than many pan varieties that you get to taste across the city. I cannot wait to go again, try out the other dishes on the menu, and decide which one I should rate as my favorite.

Unique Barbeque, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad

Unique barbeque is a chilled out place with good food, ideal for an evening with friends.

No culinary masterpieces here, however, delectable, cooked to perfection food.

We settled for the buffet.  Each item on the grill namely the chicken, fish and the prawns were fresh, ideally spiced and cooked to the right degree. The chicken served separately was the highlight and very succulent. The mutton seekh kebab could be better in taste.

The main course spread was good, particular mention for ginger chicken and the potato dish, both were very good to taste and deserved second helping. The dal makhni could do with a little more cream in order to make it more exotic.

The biryani was not extraordinary but good to taste.

My friend binged on the desserts and the custard was perfectly made, just like at home.

The service was a little disappointing as the person who was serving did not understand what we were asking for and was a tad bit sloppy.

The menu could be more structured to facilitate placing an order when choosing a la carte. There weren't many items to choose from.

Would we go again? Surely.

Verdict – A nice place to hang out with friend and family, with some good food and chilled out ambiance.

Skypark Cafe, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad

Tucked away in the concrete jungle of banjara hills road no. 12, Skypark is a great place to unwind and the icing on the cake is the Italian spread. I would rate this as one of the better joints in Hyderabad. A casual dinner plan with a friend which was to end at a well known and much loved Chinese restaurant took a detour to Skypark. The décor is minimal, well lit for the sheer joy of enjoying the skyline.

Comfortably seated on the loungers with an amazing view, we were in mood for some good pasta. We ordered chicken lasagna and passed our regular coke for Limca. The white sauce lasagna was very well cooked (could have been cooked little less though). The highlight of the dish was the sauce. Simple and basic cooked to delight. The flavors were subtle with none dominating the other. We topped that up with pasta in white sauce. The same sauce which we had relished a few minutes ago. We were a little disappointed with both the sauces being exactly the same. Neglecting the fact that we ordered the same dish, we still expected there to be some difference. We spent over two hours with some good food and a road trip plan. The service was prompt and the chef was very accommodating to our whimsical ideas of what we wanted to have.

Not extraordinaire yet delightful. Will surely visit again to try other items in the menu to really judge how the place is from a food perspective. They serve Hookah as well, which we did not indulge into. However, from a décor and view standpoint, a great place to hangout with friends for a chilled out evening.

PS: The timings and great music, especially towards the end!

Serengeti (Ohri's), Banjara Hills, Hyderabad

 

If you love to stay in Hyderabad, then you love food. Of all the other reasons why I love this city, food is on the top of my list. Yet, for some strange reason I had never been to Serengeti before.  Though, I had heard rave reviews about it, my tryst with the place never happened.

So you can imagine my excitements when my friends suggested we go to that place for dinner. True to what I heard, the moment I stepped in, it felt like I walked into an African jungle. The ambiance was very serene; I noticed that there was great attention to details. The ambiance was really awesome, now a lot of my friends debate oh we’ve seen better themed restaurants, I’m sure there are, but you got to give credit where it is due.

I liked the way it was maintained, while the theme was kept intact, the area was dimly lit, but bright enough for things to be visible and the entire dining area was well maintained.

We were greeted very well by “Devi Prasad” yes I remember his name, he seemed like a new kid on the block. Those who have been to Serengeti will know that the stewards are dressed as hunters here.

Now was the time to place the orders, since it was about 10 in the night, my friends and I decided to skip starters and jump straight to the food. The menu was full of exotic dishes, the description of each sounded like a saga in itself. We finally decided to order murgh lahori.

Now in my humble opinion of the true test of a place and its quality of food lies in one and one thing only (true only for Indian or moghul cuisine) and that is Dal Makhani, so that was a no brainer. We ordered Dal Serengeti along with a bread basket (sounds international, but was a bunch of various kinds of Naan)

The wait for food was filled with our amazing conversation (which never makes any sense but is the most hilarious kind in the world) interrupted by a serving of papad, mint chutney, sweet papaya, onion and mixed pickle. Now these simple thing add the extra zing to any food, rather Indian food would be incomplete without them.

The food comes, much to our delight looks really good. The fanatic that I am, I first taste the Dal Makhni (Dal Serengeti), and it tasted really good. It was not a tomato overkill, cooked to perfection, the right blend of spices. I would rate it really good; considering there are only three other places in the city I think serve better dal makhni (out of the places I have tasted).

The murgh lahori, was white gravy with the chicken cooked just right, not more not less, and It tastes really good. The bread basket which is a mouthful, was finishing like it was hardly there, we liked the fact that everything we asked for was served without any delay. And we usually ask for a lot of stuff trust me.

Though we did not have much, we payed around 1500 bucks which I think is fair enough for three people, yes it is not cheap but not expensive either. The horror stories about it being too expensive were really false.

I’d say this would be a start of a series of post on Serengeti as I would like to explore their menu more and pretty soon.

Until the next meandering stop, Bon Appetite!!!