Skip to main content

Quest for best Hyderabadi Biryani


As I landed in Hyderabad, the foodie inside me woke up and my belly was carving for Hyderabadi biryani. It was raining heavily when I reached my brothers  place and was ready for the trail of Best Hyderabadi  Biryani.

Born and brought up in the region of awadh my heart always goes for Non-Vegetarian food and I was in Hyderabad whose delicacies Biryani and Haleem had risen and accomplished a cult status. Biryani in Hyderabad is known to be a lot spicy whereas Lucknowi Biryani is moreover like a Chicken pulav where emphasis is given more on Meat than Rice. Idris and Wahid Biryani are like Institutions for authentic Lucknowi Biryani. Bengali biryani is known for using Potatoes with meat while Kashmiri biryani uses asafetida as their speciality.

It was dusk when I started my journey. My first stop was Paradise in Hi-tech city Kondapur region. Paradise is one of the most famous eateries and has many eateries around Hyderabad. We ordered Full chicken biryani, it was served soon and as I couldn’t stop myself  more I grabbed my share and started my culinary journey.

Biryani in Hyderabad is served with quite less meat pieces and serves more rice. It may be because of Andhra belt where people prefer more rice in their meal. If a normal restaurant in Delhi or Mumbai serves Biryani in the ratio of 60:40 where 60 % is rice and 40 is Chicken. It gets reduced to 80:20 in Hyderabad.

Paradise biryani rice was quite less spicy than I had expected. There was nothing unique about it. The meat was cooked well but the aroma of meat was missing in the rice. It was not something you can call authentic. It may be the best biryani in past but definitely not now. It has changed its texture, may be to serve to larger audience from other parts of the country who don’t like spicy food. You can easily find taste of Paradise restaurant biryani in any cosmopolitan restaurant of your city. It was dark and I returned back for some more food which was waiting for me next day.

Next day I was in Char Minar area and many of friends had suggested for Hotel Shadab. Shadab is around 500m from Char Minar. It is two storey building where ground floor was open eatery. We headed upwards which is their AC restaurant. To fulfill Paradise disappointed, we ordered Mutton biryani. The ratio of biryani was same 80:20 for Rice and Mutton respectively. The biryani was quite spicy and their mutton pieces were cooked for long with the spices which had made it a lot tastier. The rice had traces of spices in it which had made it a lot for enjoyable. So, Shadab was a clear winner than the other one.

After visiting heritages places of Hyderabad, I was in Tolichowki where I headed towards another famous restaurant called Shah Ghouse. Shah Ghouse is considered pioneer in keeping authentic Hyderabadi biryani alive. In Shah Ghouse, we ordered Chicken biryani which was served beautifully with Mint leaves. The chicken was quite spicy and cooked perfectly because if you cook it for long, its pieces gets somewhat mashed up. But it was cooked well and due to that the rice was having a spicy taste. It was giving Biryani a sumptuous flavor. Overall the Biryani was something we can call authentic. It was a close competitor to Shadab but I will pick Shadab over it, probably because of my preference of Mutton over Chicken. But Shah Ghouse biryani was great and highly recommended. People sitting next to me suggested for Café Bahar and Bawarchi. But there was no time for that and I had to leave now.

So, good old Shadab came first in my food trail. Shah ghouse comes proudly second and Paradise will come third.

Do let me know if you had Biryani in any of these places or you want to suggest for some other options which we should try in your City.

Comments

  1. Ahhhh the ultimate Hyderabadi Biryani - I searched for it as well when I was there 2 years ago, and came away somewhat disappointed. I'll need to try your recommendations when I go back. Thanks for this!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. U are welcome.
      I hope next time u will enjoy it more

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Allahabad - Exploring the Land of three Rivers

The land of Prayag or Allahabad where Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati meets was always a special place for Hindus. They continue to come here from different parts of Globe to take a holy dip in Ganga and ask forgiveness for their Sins in life and free them from the cycle of rebirth. Once called the Oxford of the East, Allahabad has lost its glory in this Modern world. It was once the capital of United Province, now called Uttar Pradesh at the time of Britishers. From Asoka to Akbar, the City was a center of Statesmanship, art and culture. The time has gone and so is its glory, but it has protected its heritages and past to get vanished in current time. I visited Allahabad a few days back and found there are many places of my Interest. They can be a mythological place or a Modern architecture. The City has seen it all. I am listing out a few of my experiences and will welcome if you want to add anything in the list:-- 1)       Take a holy dip in Sangam The two great rive

Ultimate guide of Eating Out in Pune

I am born and brought up in North India but am living in Pune for last four years. This is the place I call home. I love eating out and on various occasions people keep asking me about my favorite eating places in Pune or where they can find Best Punjabi or best Biryani in town. So I thought let’s make a list of my favorite places to eat in Pune so that it can be a reference to someone searing for some good food options. Before starting my list, I am making few confessions to help you understand how I made the list. Let me clear you that it totally depends on my taste. People taste differs and it can happen that you don’t like a place where I love to eat. It’s also not correct to say that I have eaten at all places in Pune and then I am making a list out of that. I am not a fan in eating at those five star restaurants and only visit them when it is sponsored by someone else. I will not include any chain restaurants or places which I think is not Puneri. I am a teeto

The mysterious levitating stone of Shivapur

Front side of Dargah The quest for untold and unusual places had brought us to a small village near Pune. The village called Shivapur is known for an unusual Dargah of a 15 th century saint named Qamar ali darvesh. Someone from the twitter world had shared an image about the place and from there only I came to know about the story behind it. Till then, I was not aware about this fascinating story. So, Shivapur has a Dargah of a saint named Qamar ali darvesh and apart from that Dargah it has a large stone in its complex. The story goes like this that whenever eleven people will try to lift the stone by their index finger shouting the name of Qamar ali darvesh. They would be able to lift the stone above their head and if there are more or less people trying the same thing they won’t be able to lift it up. A man trying to lift it all alone I don’t believe in these kinds of stories and decided to check that out. We reached Shivapur and easily found the Dargah. The

The Souvenir of Hadi Rani

a Rajput warrior with his horse As a part of rural tourism in Rajasthan, I had visited few villages in Salumbar region of Udaipur. After travelling to few villages of Bheel community, I was waiting for Rajasthan State Road transport bus when it started to rain. Due to the heavy Rain, I was totally drenched and therefore decided to ask for shelter from one of the villagers. I reached the doorstep of the closest house and knocked the door. An elderly person, maybe in eighties opened the door and asked me to get comfortable. When I told him I am traveling all of Rajasthan and collecting stories about the rich culture of the state. He told me there is a story which not many know, but is an incredible part of the heritage of Rajasthan. It is one of the greatest stories of courage and duty. I urged him to tell me the story and he gently agreed. A kid had brought tea from inside and we took our cup and on the sip of tea, he started telling the story: This story is about a p

Going the Hippies Way

The sun had embraced the sky and their blend had turned it into red. The Water in the sea had increased its association with the shores at the time we reached Arambol,  a village which is a Hippies Haven in Goa. In Eighties, Anjuna was used to be most preferred location for the Hippies. This was the case when Goa had not turned into present Touristic and crowded Goa. People from all over the world used to come for an affordable and peaceful holiday. But as local crowd increased its presence, either the hippies from Anjuna moved to a different place or they made it their permanent home. I came to know about Arambol from a fellow traveler who had lived in goa for 6 months and advised me to must visit Arambol for authentic goan feel. At first sight, it seems a quiet and peaceful beach where not much crowd comes but as sun starts to go down the horizon, you realize why it is that the hippies have made it their new home. The ambience turned it into such an exciting and