Budget
Taj Mahal Restaurant
One of the original "Udupi" style restaurants, this is strictly vegetarian and does not serve alcohol. It is part of the Taj Mahal Hotel, not to be confused with the nationally famous Taj chain of luxury hotels. The food in the restaurant is tasty and good, and like Udupi restaurants, serves South Indian, North Indian and "Chinese". You are advised to stick to South Indian. The ambiance in the A/C section is old-school.
Kholani's Kitchen
Try the excellent malai kebabs chicken and apollo fish
Cafe Bahaar
Biryanis and meat curries, moderately priced.
Bowl O'China
This is a chain restaurant started by the same folk who run Hyderabad House. It is present in multiple locations all over the city. Average Indian Chinese food.
Rayalseema Ruchulu
Mildly spiced food from Rayalaseema, rustic decor. Not for vegetarians.
Shadaab
Famous for its Hyderabadi Mutton Biryani and Jabda Gosht available only in the morning, served for breakfast.
Chutneys
Vegetarian, and quite well-known in Hyderabad. South Indian dishes like dosas, idlis and uttappas. "North Indian" also available, but best avoided. Is extremely crowded on weekend nights, and there is awaiting time of upto 30 min. Does not serve alcohol.
Paradise Restaurant
This restaurant is one of the oldest places serving Biryani and of late has lost some of its sheen owing to explosion of business Also serves the best falooda in Hyderabad. It has both a sit-down restaurant and takeaway. They do have branches, but confusingly imitators with similar names have sprung up all over the city. A new branch has recently opened up at Masab Tank crossroad & Hitec City near Shilpakala Vedhika.
Hyderabad House
This is a chain of restaurants, serving Hyderabadi style food all over the city. There are also outlets that comprise just a takeout counter. Try the Lukhmi. Vegetarians will have few choices.
Baawarchi
Biryanis
New Astoria Restaurant
Midrange
Celebrations
A complex of four restaurants and one bar.
Aangan
Mughlai, Chinese and Hyderabadi dishes.
Olive Garden
Do not be misled by the name and expect Italian. It serves passable Mughlai and Punjabi fare. Close to Hi tech city, so this is an option if you are looking for a quick place to eat.
Serengeti
Cuisine is from the Northwest Frontier Province while the decor tries to create the ambience of an African safari. The food is good, the wine list is extensive and quite good. For a change, the dessert menu does not suck.
Ginger Court
Close to Hi tech city, Mughlai and Indian Chinese.
Our Place
Has received great reviews for its kebabs and tandoori dishes. But avoid the Thai stuff, as it looks like a pale imitation. The ambience is great, the seating is outdoors amidst much greenery. Often, they have live gazal music for dinner.
Nanking
Hyderabad's oldest Chinese restaurant.
Zafraan Exotica
A rooftop restaurant with an exotic ambience. Serves Mughlai and Chinese.
Southern Spice
Highly rated for Andhra delicacies like ragi sangati and gongura mamsam
Malgudi
The name is inspired by the fictional South Indian town created by R K Narayan. It has an ambience that suits the name, with waiters clad in dhotis. On the menu, you will find foodstuff from the four southern states that are rare to find in other restaurants, like gutti vankai or kodi pulusu. Service is extremely fast. In Hyderabad, it has 3 branches:
Chinese Pavilion
Makes an attempt to move away from Indain Chinese.
Sahib Sindh Sultan
Themed on the eponymous 19th century train. Seating is available inside the "carriage" or on the "railway station". Waiters are dressed in turbans and railway announcements are interspersed with the music. The food is good, the pickles interesting and you have a good choice of drinks. Try the licchi ki taheri for dessert.
Chung Hua
Try out the Thai varieties, nice, cosy place. Present at 2 locations
Utsav
Indian vegetarian cuisine, has got good reviews.
Angeethi
The ambience is of a Dhaba, complete with a pan shop, a well and a quack peddling herbal remedies for "marital problems". Interesting variations on traditional Punjabi dishes, but the dessert selection is meagre. The beverage menu has a quirky location at the end of the main menu.
Terrace Bay
A fairly successful attempt to recreate Mexican cuisine in Hyderabad. To be visited more for the food than for the ambience.
MoMo Cafe
Mughlai, Chinese and Hyderabadi dishes.
Ming's Court
Mostly Indian Chinese.
Mainland China
Excellent Chinese place, though it tends more towards Indian Chinese. Try the dim sums and the darsaan for dessert. Good ambience and excellent service.
Moksh
The Rs 199 Non-Veg, Lunch-buffet is really tasty. Service, ambience and the lake-side location is awesome.
Wang's Kitchen
An upmarket Chinese restaurant, present at two locations:
Ullaasa
Nice ethnic ambience and the rooftop setting is amazing, and the food is excellent.
Villa No 1-8-46
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Bombay Palace
Has a decor that reminds you of Mumbai. Menu specialities include ragda patties and other items popularized by Mumbai's streets in addition to Mughlai and Hyderabadi dishes. Live Ghazals every evening.
IndieJoe
Serves global cuisine. Only buffet for lunch and only a la carte for dinner.
Tulips - The Coffee Shop
Famous for its midnight biryani and buffet.
Tex Mex
Indian and World cuisine.
Top end
Kebab-e-Bahar
Kebabs from all over, including Hyderabad and Northwest Frontier.
Spice Junxion
South Indian cuisine with a trendy twist. Lunchtime platters with 10 starters, 8 main course items and 4 desserts served in a span of 40 min. Regular menu items are dosa with mutton curry and idly with chicken curry. The condiment trolley has 17 different types of chutneys, pickles, spicy powders, papads and vadiyalu from South India. Desserts; paan ice cream, all-spice chocolates and traditional south Indian sweets are made in-house.
Little Italy Bar and Restaurant
Italian style, completely vegetarian.
Golden Dragon
Opulent Chinese restaurant.
Fusion 9
Lounge bar and restaurant, with an astonishing range of cuisines from different parts of the world.
Hall Of Fame
Sports Grill. American, Italian and Mexican food with sport viewing.
Waterfront
Has a nice view of Hussain Sagar lake, but the food, at its best, is passable.
Zafraan Laguna
The place to visit for Mediterranean food.
Arena
Coffee shop serves Sunday brunch. Sushi Bar.
Bakeries, cafes, sweet shops and other fast food
Universal Bakers
Great for baked biscuits, cakes and burgers. Has three outlets:
King & Cardinal
Pizzas and Burgers. Also serves Indian Chines snacks.
Ofen
Excellent place for breads and related foods - especially for health conscious. Includes breads like whole grain breads, ragi breads and sugar free cakes.
The Chocolate Room
Wonderful drinking chocolates and crepes. Also a good place to hang out and have a conversation, though it does get crowded on weekends during the evening.
My Cafe Latte
Coffee, mocktails and sandwiches, with Hollywood themed decor.
Almond House
This is a must visit for the quality of Indian sweets and other titbits that you can only find in India
Pista House
Famous bakery in Hyderabad world famous haleem only available in holy month of ramadan cost around 150 per person. once you have it, you can't wait for the next year.
Sarvi Bakers and Confectioners
Place for sandwiches, burgers and puffs.
Hyderabad has a large number of outlets that are positioned as bakeries. These are primarily takeaway places, where one can buy sandwiches, burgers and puffs to go called parcel in local parlance. Usually, there are a few chairs and tables thrown in as an afterthought.
Many Western chains have set up shop in the posh areas of Hyderabad. Among these are Texas Chicken, McDonalds, KFC , Pizza Hut, Dominos and Subway. Most of these have multiple outlets and all of them have Indianized their fare to varying extents. The Indian pizza chain Pizza Corner also has many outlets. Barista (http://www.barista.co.in/), Cafe Coffee Day (http://www.cafecoffeeday.com/) and Java Green (http://www.java-green.com/) outlets are good places to have coffee and conversations.
cuisine
Hyderabadi cuisine developed as an attempt to satisfy the palate of the Nizam, his court and his army. While heavily influenced by traditional Telangana cuisine, it is distinct from it.
The most famous Hyderabadi dish is the Hyderabadi Dum Biryani. Dum refers to the baking process where Basmati rice and meat or vegetables are mixed in a pot and heated for a long time. During the Nizam's time, the Biryani was made with lamb's meat carefully cooked with rice. Culinary delicacies of Hyderabad include Gosht, which is made from a buck/billy/young goat, and is associated with the Hyderabadi cuisine. Hyderabadis prize the meat of a male goat.Kachchi gosht ki biriyani of Hyderabad, where raw meat is stir fried with spicesmasala for couple of minutes and then covered with rice and put on dum. Today, Biryani is also made using vegetables, chicken, seafood and beef. The beef Biryani is known as Kalyani Biryani, available at many small eateries in the city. Although any Irani cafe might serve this delectable dish, there are a few places better known for tasteful food than their hygiene.
Hyderabadi Haleem is another dish which is available only in the month of RamadaanRamzan.
Mirchi ka salan — spicy chilly gravy, is another dish that serves as a tasty accompaniment to any rice item.
Khubani ka meetha is Hyderabad's preferred dessert sweet. It is made from apricots boiled in sugar syrup till they achieve a thick consistency. It looks similar to, but tastes different from gajar ka halwa. It is often topped with ice-cream or cream.
Double Ka Meetha is a dessert made from bread, milk and dry fruits.
Among the drinks, falooda is a favourite of Hyderabad. Irani chai is the tea of Hyderabad, available everywhere in the old city.
Street food in Hyderabad is better than most other cities in India and it is cheap.
restaurants
In recent times, there has been an explosion in the number of restaurants in Hyderabad, fuelled by demand from young professionals with money to spend. Quality and variety of food, however, has not kept pace. There is a disproportionately large number of restaurants that aspire to be called "fine-dining" restaurants, but the food they serve is usually indifferent. In general, keep away from restaurants that call themselves "multi-cuisine" or if you see multiple cuisines on the menu, as the chances are that they are attempting to serve every kind of palate and will not satisfy any.
The older areas of Hyderabad are better places to find good and cheap food. Places close to Hi tec city, such as Madhapur and Kondapur, tend to have expensive and bad food, while in Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills you will find restaurants that are expensive, but which sometimes serve good food. Those misled by the fact that Hyderabad is in South India and expecting South Indian food may be disappointed. While there are excellent South Indian restaurants in some of the older areas like Koti and Abids, the average South Indian food served here is quite bad.
Two of the biggest names in Hyderabad's restaurant business are Ohri's (http://www.ohris.com/ohris.htm) and the BJN Group (http://www.bjngroup.in/). It will seem as if every second restaurant in the city is run by either one or the other. BJN generally runs upscale restaurants, while Ohri's runs both upscale and mid-range restaurants. It also runs numerous fast food places all over the city, including at Prasad's Imax, Banjara Hills, Somajiguda, EatStreet, Hyderabad Central & Basheer Bagh.