Charles Haynes wrote: > > I'm in Hyderabad through Friday, and wanted to visit as > fun/cool/delicious/interesting places to eat as possible. > > So what are your favorite places in Hyderabad - and why? >
Having spent more than 10 years in Hyderabad: this is a comparatively short list. You'll get heated debates from the locals on just where to try the biryani and haleem - but they're generally all quite tasty (I know some people who can do fairly accurate blind tasting of the tea / biryani from the various Hyderabad irani joints..) The biryani and, as you say, haleem, now that it is Ramzan, are particularly good in several places, as is the "irani chai" tea Cast iron stomach required, some of those places are going to be quite poky looking. But very tasty. * Irani chai - Blue Sea near the secunderabad bus station (thick, sweet, milky and absolutely perfect tea). Similarly, Imroze at the Ameerpet crossroads (Ameerpet is kind of equidistant from Hyderabad / Secunderabad), and various other places. * Biryani - Paradise / Persis etc (at the Paradise cross roads in secunderabad) is the safest bet. Tasty biryanis elsewhere too - Alpha near the secunderabad railway station, Medina in the old city .. Garden (near the clock tower, that's like 5 minutes from Paradise) isn't bad either. Garden, Medina and Alpha have very famous Haleems as well (Imroze at Ameerpet was my "local" - like a couple of minutes from my apartment when I was in Hyderabad - for 10 years + - has a pretty decent haleem, too). There are other "famous" irani hotels as well - Nayaab / Shadaab in the old city are really famous too (nayaab at nayapul, shadaab near charminar - bang opposite Medina, so if you are going to hang around the charminar area for long, there's your lunch and dinner sorted out, let's say biryani for lunch and haleem for dinner), "other" eats - try Gokul Chat (if it is back to normal after the bomb blast there), and then DEFINITELY try "Famous Ice Cream" in Nampally. Plus Dakshin / Southern Spice if you want more upmarket food, and also the Mor / Havmor etc restaurant complex in Basheer Bagh. Typical coastal Andhra meals - plenty of places, some upmarket and some downmarket - but try "Sai Leela Mess" in Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar (SR Nagar), just down the road from Ameerpet - it is quite famous (downmarket-ish, and a favorite with a lot of bachelors who live in the ameerpet / sr nagar area and work in one software outfit or the other in the cyberabad area ..)
