Hyderabad Food Guide

Check out my other Hyderabad posts as well. This was based on a December 2023 trip. I’m sure much has opened since then, though I haven’t heard of anything significant since my trip and the bulk of this should remain relevant.

There’s a lot of really good food in Hyderabad, though I only had a few truly great meals, and those cost a pretty penny (one at someone’s home, another at a five star hotel). There is a lot to explore here as there are multiple local cuisines on offer, with the Hyderabadi cuisine being unique to the city and with Hyderabad being a great place to try Andhra and Telangana cuisine for those of us who haven’t explored the two states. A good food trip here would be a balance between the Hyderabadi and Telugu foods. 

Overall, I wouldn’t rank Hyderabad among my favorite food cities. Of India’s major cities, I’d actually say it’s my least favorite. I should note that I’m vegetarian, which is definitely a factor here, but for me the bigger issue was that most of the local places served food that was excessively spicy, salty, and oily, only a few places offered some refinement, and there was little of interest outside of the local cuisines. There’s a great cafe scene, and it appears there are a number of places to get competent if unadventurous versions of various global cuisines, but there’s not much depth there and there don’t seem to be any exciting chefs doing creative stuff (outside of some pop-ups). Restaurants in Hyderabad are probably more aesthetically appealing than anywhere else in India, there’s a lot of focus on architecture and interior design, but food wise it’s a pretty conservative market. I don’t want to discourage people, though. You can eat very well on a trip here, so read on. 

I’ll start with sections on the local cuisines, then I’ll have a brief miscellaneous section of other noteworthy places (which includes a writeup on the great bean to bar chocolate factory Manam), and a section on cafes to work from. 

For some recommended reading here, there are two different articles by Vir Sanghvi that are both worthwhile for recommendations and for his views on the cuisines of the city. I trust Vir’s taste above almost anyone else’s. I unfortunately didn’t find any good city guides to share, or good food critics to follow based in the city. While searching through Twitter I found Ashish Chowdhury to be quite good, and if you search intelligently through his archives you’ll find some recommendations (adjust the search terms as you desire). Mohit Balachandran was once a great resource on the city’s local foods but the recommendations are fairly old now so I’m not sure how relevant they are. Anirban Blah occasionally gives great Hyderabad recommendations on his Instagram but unfortunately Instagram isn’t searchable, but since I judge Anirban’s taste above perhaps anyone else’s I say it is worth browsing to find his previous trips. The Hyderabad based food blogger Foodaholix wrote what seems to be a good guide to the city’s Hyderabadi food, including home chef recommendations. Another food blogger Indrajit Lahiri wrote about his Hyderabad food trip. I have followed all of the above long enough to recommend them, they all are knowledgeable and passionate about food and have integrity and discernment, unlike a lot of food influencers, even though their tastes are very different from mine in many cases. Those may be helpful particularly to meat eaters, though I still think meat eaters would do very well to pay attention to my recommendations! 

Perhaps the best “food critic” for Hyderabad is the Commissioner of Food Safety, Telangana. My goodness, this is terrifying, but honestly not surprising. I’m happy to note almost every place I recommend has no issues.

Hyderabadi Cuisine

You will want to find a better guide than me for Hyderabadi food since I’m a vegetarian, but you should still read on as I have some great recommendations for everybody, and most people hardly try any proper Hyderabadi food when they come. I think Hyderabadi food can very broadly be categorized as “Mughlai” food adapted to local ingredients (tamarind!). I also think it can be argued that if you seek out the right places you are eating the royal Muslim food “closer to the source” than you can do in much of the country. The Nizam’s reign lasted longer than other major Muslim dynasties in India, and there’s a large market in Hyderabad to cater to, so it’s easier than in most former Muslim ruled parts of India to find recipes that have not been lost, diluted, or bastardized as generations have gone on, as these things inevitably happen. Possibly. Something like that. 

Unfortunately, and I am very sorry about this, my top recommendations for Hyderabadi food are very expensive. But, you get what you pay for, folks! I’m going to list my recommendations in order from most recommended to least recommended, though everything I am listing is recommended on some level and the places I don’t recommend are not on the list at all. 

First up, by far the best meal I have had in Hyderabad, and a special experience, was at the home of the home-chef Dilnaz Baig in Banjara Hills. Highly recommended, worth the splurge. The food is truly unique and distinctive, and I’m not sure a single dish I had is possible to find in a restaurant, or if you do find it in a restaurant it is likely to lack the same authenticity and craft. It’s the first time I feel I have ever had a proper aristocratic Indo-Islamic meal, where I really tasted the fusion of flavors where the food of Persia meets the food of India. These are family recipes (her great grandfather came from Iran), and you really taste the specificity in every dish rather than something that’s been homogenized for mass consumption. 

Your menu will likely be quite different from mine, but I’ll list some highlights anyway. There was a lovely salad with local greens and pomegranate. A vegetarian marag (a typically meaty soup) which is among the best soups I’ve ever had (and I’m a notorious soup hater, the one area of food where I’m fairly close minded!), somehow rich and light at the same time, heavy with dry mint in a way that felt like something I might eat in Turkey or Iran, but more robustly spiced. Aloo pasanda had a spice palette I associate with royal dishes but this was light rather than heavy. The mirchi ka salan was a radically different dish than any of the countless salans I’ve tried by that name, this was thick rather than runny, and it was tangy and sweet and kind of like a spicy jam? Sheer Korma was delicious and not too sweet, and I don’t normally like Indian sweets.

That only covers about half of it, but everything was great, and it was all the sort of thing I could eat every day, perfectly spiced, not heavy or oily. Of course, I may not even have had the “best” dishes as it is a cuisine known for its non-vegetarian fare. I never felt like a second-class diner though. This may partly have been because Dilnaz’s mother, though Muslim, was actually vegetarian by choice since childhood (for reasons that I forget), but also because it was made with a lot of care. It’s a shame food like this is so hard to find!

I should also add that Dilnaz is a very nice host who I enjoyed speaking to about the food, the city, and her family’s history. I hope I get a chance to return again for another great meal!

You can call or contact Dilnaz on Whatsapp at +919292958761 (she is not on social media). I’m not sure how far in advance you have to book, but I would try to reach out to her well in advance of your trip. It cost 4k per person for us, though prices may go up with inflation. Do know that it’s cash only! There have been some good articles about Dilnaz’s food, it’s worth googling her and checking them out. Dilnaz mentioned that Ralph Fiennes ate at her house, as did a Telugu actress, though no Bollywood celebrities have yet, hopefully my blog will find readership in the upper echelons of the industry and change that. She does pop-ups in other cities too, worth keeping an eye on if you miss her in Hyderadab.

The second best Hyderabadi meal I had, also not at all cheap, was at Dum Pukht at the ITC Kohenur, which I picked because ITC tends to excel in its food and my one meal at Dum Pukht in Mumbai many years ago was exceptional. The menu here has a mix of dishes served at other Dum Pukhts in India and special Hyderabadi dishes unique to this location. While Dilnaz’ food was in a category of its own, the food at Dum Pukht is more in line with what Hyderabadi restaurants around the city serve… it’s just much better crafted than what I had at any other restaurant (though I didn’t eat at any other 5-stars). You can order a la carte or do a set menu, which you have to ask for. They have a set menu of Hyderabadi dishes, a set menu of Awadhi dishes, and a set menu that does a mix of them, and when I went they’re around 4k each, while a la carte dishes are mostly above 1000. 

Of course I got the Hyderabadi menu, which I believe came with every vegetarian Hyderabadi dish on the menu (I tallied it up and two set menus came to around 400 rupees cheaper than ordering them all a la carte, alas no sharing for the set menus, if only). Great food, even if nothing was revelatory or mindblowing, but it was all well-prepared with balanced spices and no excess oil in anything, which I can’t say about any other Hyderabadi restaurant food I had in the city. Nothing was heavy. Dishes included the dakhni chowgra, which is a mix of local greens including sorrel which makes it tangy (this is awesome, it’s a shame this hardly shows up on menus in Hyderabad, I think it’s only served here and the other 5-stars), the bagara baingan (actually only my second favorite in the city, but this was the only non oily one so it gets a special achievement award), a yummy potato sabzi with almonds, a dal that was kind of boring but in an interesting way (this is a compliment), two very good kebabs, and a trio of desserts, of which I especially liked the badami kheer which was not too sweet, though I was too full to really enjoy it.

By the way, in the hotel lobby bathroom there is a scale. I made the point to weigh myself before and after the meal. I gained 1kg during the meal. I wish I could do this for every meal. My wife said there is no scale in the women’s bathroom.

Whether this is worth the splurge is up to you, and if it really is a splurge for you. I always feel like hotel restaurants are needlessly expensive (and as a vegetarian I often feel like I’m subsidizing the meat eaters, who are probably getting a better value than me), and for the same cost I’d rather go to one of the high end tasting menu restaurants that cities with better food scenes have, or do a special home chef experience, but ultimately I couldn’t call this overpriced since nobody is making this quality of food at a lower price. In Mumbai and some other big cities, the food scene has caught up to the point where the food at much cheaper standalones is competitive with the five-stars (though the Dum Pukhts are still in a class of their own, I think), but in Hyderabad it seems the five-stars still have a monopoly on a certain type of quality, at least in most categories, not to mention restaurants that don’t have excessively loud music and lots of people taking selfies. I don’t see any reason why good quality, high end Hyderabadi food couldn’t be offered at half or even one-third of the price, but either restaurateurs are unimaginative or the market really just wouldn’t support it? But anyway, the prices here are about the same as the average middling Indian restaurant in the US, so for my foreigner readers I highly recommend this, at least if you are staying nearby.

I wish I could say how this compares to other five stars in the city, but alas I only have so much money and stomach space. Maybe next time. I of course really want to eat at the Taj Falaknuma (had planned to, but caught a cold, and didn’t want to go for a $200+ meal when I had the sniffles), and I’d also like to check out The Park where they have awesome sounding fusion desserts such as chocolate double ka meetha and qubani millefeuille, which sound more appealing to me than the traditional desserts! The food at the new Leela looks great too.

Thankfully, the rest of my Hyderabadi food recommendations are much cheaper. None of them were extraordinary, and many were hit and miss, but I found the following meals worthwhile enough to include (listed in some order of best to worst, but keep in mind there are a few others that I’m not bothering to include). For the most part they all have fairly typical menus of Hyderabadi restaurants. My first two recommendations are homechefs I ordered delivery from, listed first not for any organizational reason but just because the quality of the food stands out!

One exception to the typical Hyderabadi menu formula is a homechef named Asra Sultana who I ordered delivery from, you can reach out to her on Instagram @cookingbyasra, orders must be made at least a day in advance. She has all of the typical Hyderabadi dishes on the menu, but she also has a lot of unusual stuff, and I of course went for the unusual stuff, which were simple vegetable dishes. It was interesting food, not really like any of the other food I had in Hyderabad. We got bhindi salan, which was in a light, refreshing tomato sauce, a sorrel sabzi, a seasonal beans salan which was semi-dry, fried karela (the only thing I didn’t especially care for, but I don’t like fried dishes much, but I still couldn’t not order my beloved karela), and my favorite dish was probably the spine gourd salan, which was semi-dry and slightly sweet from its own juices. Nothing had much spice, nothing stood out as what I think of as Hyderabadi, but it felt like a simple north Indian homestyle vegetable based meal with the local produce of the Deccan. I don’t know the background of the chef or the stories of the cuisine, but to me it was a good meal to show the diversity of Hyderabadi cuisine in a way that goes beyond stereotypes and expectations. If I came back I would like to order more food from her.

I had another good meal from a delivery based homechef (or cloud kitchen?) called Abidi’s Kitchen which is on Swiggy and Zomato, or you can order directly. I loved the bagara baingan, though I had to drain the oil out, and liked the tomato chutney and kaddu dalcha. The only other veg dish on the menu that day was an aloo cutlet which I skipped, but the non-vegetarian menu has a lot of options. Overall a good place to get some typical Hyderabadi dishes.

I wanted to try some more homechefs who do deliveries but ran out of time, and anyway they all had pretty similar dishes so I didn’t feel the need after a certain point. One of the homechefs I contacted, Shahnoor Jehan, specializes in unusual heritage recipes but told me she couldn’t make any veg food for me, however she felt bad and invited my wife and I over for tea, which is a great, very Hyderabad story. (I planned to take her up on the offer but we caught colds shortly after the invitation, maybe next time if the offer still stands!)

Now to the restaurants, though I didn’t try a ton because as a vegetarian the offerings are limited, and of the ones I did try I only had a few dishes available to assess the quality, so keep that in mind. Still, I think this should be useful to everybody, not just vegetarians. 

The standout restaurant may have been Hyderabad House, though mainly on the basis of the bagara baingan (which they may not have every day). It’s a small chain that had closed down but semi-recently reopened on a limited scale. We went to the Begumpet branch. I’m not sure if all branches are the same formula, but this was a “QSR” restaurant, and I believe most of the food is made in their central kitchen and then sent here. It is fairly inexpensive, and you can get half portions of dishes, which I wish every restaurant offered. As a vegetarian I have a hard time recommending it since the options are really limited, and I assume they change day by day, but I’m glad I went and it is worth checking out if you are near one of the locations. 

The menu has a decent number of options, including many local specials, but they were out of most things. When we went, the only vegetarian main courses were paneer butter masala and baghara baingan. We got both (I never would have gotten the paneer if there were other things available…) and a veg seekh kebab. The kebab and paneer were both unremarkable but pretty good (the paneer gravy was better than most places at this price point but the paneer could have been better quality), and then the bagara baingan was exceptional, one of my favorite Hyderabadi dishes I ate in the whole city. Though I could have done with less oil, the flavors were so specific, with a balance of the richness, the tang, and a sweetness that no other bagara baingan has had. Is it traditional to make it this sweet? I don’t know, but I loved it, and the flavor reminded me of fessenjoon! That is a huge honor. I liked it so much I wanted to give the restaurant some more chances so I got dessert, there was anda ka launj, which is like a mix of egg custard and an Indian sweet, and a sweet with a name I forgot which was like a dal barfi sort of thing. I’m not that into sweets so I can’t say they excited me, but both were good, not too sweet. So I recommend this place, though note that vegetarians may not have many options. 

Lamakaan is a cultural space/homestyle canteen type place in an old house in Banjara Hills with some local options, very cheap. Not a ton for vegetarians but a few options. I liked the khatti dal and kaddu ka dalcha, which are pretty similar. The veg curry changes depending on the day, when we went it was palak paneer, and they also have some other basics like aloo methi. Non-vegetarian foods are perhaps more novel. Nothing exciting, but all solid, pretty homestyle food, and there are fried snacks and chai. For a cheap healthy snack we got boiled chana. 

It’s a cool space, I like that there’s a large, comfortable, cheap local hangout place where people can go and spend all day in a peaceful environment, and they have interesting events even though none interested me (see their Instagram to find out what’s happening). There’s a great rock in the outdoor section. I didn’t spend much time eavesdropping, and anyway most of the conversations weren’t in English, but you get the sense college kids come here and espouse the virtues of communism and whatnot. I wondered how many unproduced screenplays were written here. We planned to work from here but ended up just eating because their wifi was out, and it’s not a great place to work from. It’s pretty crowded, it’s hard to get a proper table, there aren’t many plug points, my wife found the environment excessively male heavy, I suspect the bathrooms are below my standards should duty call, etc. But it was cool. I went twice and would go back, bring a book, and hang out for a while, at least in the winter, it might not be as fun in the summer.

Chicha’s is a well known and well loved place (see the Vir Sanghvi articles I shared above) near Lakdi-ka-Pul metro station that isn’t great for vegetarians but is overall recommended. I just had the khatti dal and the mirchi ka salan, both were quite good. I liked the breads, especially the roghni roti. There are a few other vegetarian dishes but nothing interesting, so I skipped them. Got the double ka meetha for dessert and it was way too sweet, I don’t recommend it.

The last place I’ll include is Mountain: Taste of Hyderabad, though I was mixed on it. Fancy place in Banjara Hills, but prices aren’t bad. They had some interesting menu options, much more specific than most restaurants, and I heard good things about this and the chef’s earlier restaurant. We started with a vegetarian shikampuri kebab which was excellent. The base was a thick yogurt, and it was delicately spiced in a royal way, rich and creamy without being heavy, aromatic and tongue tingly without being overspiced. Then for the mains we got dum ka paneer, rogani mughlai gobi, and turai methi, the last which I was most excited for, as it was the most distinctive. Alas, all three were the sort of rich, heavy gravies that I’m not especially fond of, and despite being three very different dishes, the consistent richness and spiciness made them all feel homogeneous. We had plenty of leftovers but I didn’t feel compelled to take anything home. I wouldn’t say I disliked the food or that it was bad, but I’m not fond of “restaurant style” Indian food very much and prefer something more refined. The kitchen team clearly has some skills (and the paneer itself was good quality), and I certainly wouldn’t mind trying more starters, but overall I was disappointed. Go for kebabs, and ask them to make the mains less artery clogging? Or maybe you like very rich food more than me? Foodaholix liked it, different strokes…

Don’t forget to try Munshi Naan in the old city. Excellent stuff! No yeast, just flour and yogurt hung overnight (I went great lengths to procure some Amul butter to eat with it, eventually buying a 10-pack of small packets, but the naan was good enough to eat on its own, have it fresh). I wish I had more old city recommendations as this is the hub of local Hyderabadi food. If you eat meat, do a food walk? Better yet, do a Ramzan food walk. An early morning heritage walk in the old city took us to Hotel Nayyab, so presumably that’s a good place to go, but I wouldn’t say the veg stuff was anything remarkable. Not bad though (paneer and a local soupy saag dish). They also have lukhmi, a Hyderabad special stuffed fried pastry that not a ton of places have, they have both veg and non veg options. I’m rarely in the mood for fried foods, alas (I ended up having a decent lukhmi at Niloufer, it was basically a differently shaped samosa, but maybe the non-veg ones are more novel).

I mentioned Ru further down which has some Hyderabadi dishes, including a good jackfruit haleem, and I also really liked the veg haleem at Niloufer which is only available during Ramzan.

And yes, I got through this entire section of Hyderabadi food without mentioning the B-word!

Hyderabadi Sweets

I thought I’d make a quick section for this. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, I dislike most Indian sweets which I find excessively sweet and one note, and I disliked most of the Hyderabadi desserts I had as I usually do (though note some of the stuff I liked above). However, I had some great stuff at a nice sweet shop called Meethe Miya in Banjara Hills (they also have a Hitec city location). It’s a fairly small selection (for an Indian sweet shop) with only Hyderabad specials. I only tried andey ka lauz (an egg custard barfi like thing) and double ka meetha (like bread pudding) and really enjoyed them, neither were too sweet so they were nice, ghee rich treats. I would like to go back and try more. 

I also went to Hameedi Confectioners right across from Moazzam Jahi market for their famous Jouzi Halwa which they supplied to the Nizam. A bit too sweet for me but fun to try. I like the story of the place, and most of you will like this. Another old school Hyderabadi sweet shop is Imperial Sweet House, their story is also interesting, with their recipes coming from Muslim communities in Madras before marrying into a Hyderabadi family. They have two locations, one in the old city not far from the Salar Jung museum, and the one I went to in Shantinagar Colony, Masab Tank. They’re famous for badam ki jaali (just almonds and sugar shaped into a star, basically like marzipan) and ashrafi (the same thing but unbaked and with saffron and a stamped coin design). They also sell variants with cashew. They’re pretty and it's fun trying these local specials, but I found them to be far too sweet. I salvaged them by melting 100% dark chocolate and crumbling the sweets in and stirring. Not bad, and I've started to do this with Indian sweets in general, recommended. I did like their winter special laddoo a lot, good with and without the chocolate. 

Andhra/Telangana Food 

I’m not sure I had any Telangana food (maybe from the ladies selling thalis on the side of the road?), so this is really just about Andhra food.

I had many Andhra thalis in Hyderabad, though I don’t feel especially knowledgeable about the cuisine and its regional variations. My impressions from what I had, compared to other southern states, is that it’s spicier, tangier (a lot of tomato based gravies), and doesn’t use much coconut. Is that correct? What else is notable about it, other than ghee podi rice? There was a notable use of sesame and peanut, which it has in common with Maharahstrian and north Karnataka cuisine, and I suppose Andhra cuisine is sort of what you’d expect based on its geography. I once read that in parts of rural Karnataka tomatoes replaced tamarind as the most common souring agent since tomatoes are cheaper (which I find very surprising, or maybe it is because cooking tomatoes is faster?), I wondered if that was the case here as well, since the only very tamarind heavy dishes I had were at more upscale places. I had lots of beans, okra, and eggplant. At the upscale places I got ragi sangati a few times, otherwise I was only ever served white rice, unlike other southern states where it is not unusual to find unpolished rice and/or millet on offer even at cheap local restaurants.

I will need to travel and eat at people’s homes before I really have much to say about the cuisine, I don’t think I got a great feel for its nuances. I didn’t eat anything I would describe as very unusual or special, whether in the preparation or in the ingredients. I browsed a Telugu language cookbook and saw all sorts of awesome looking stuff, including an oddly shaped bitter gourd which I am determined to find in person one day. The only homemade meal I had was at Oorna farms which I wrote about in my weekend getaways section, that was definitely the best Andhra food that I had. Big city restaurants are rarely the best places to try regional cuisines. I still have much to learn. 

There are a lot of Andhra and some Telangana restaurants in Hyderabad, ranging from very inexpensive places (mess restaurants) to more upscale places. The Andhra mess restaurants are easy enough to navigate, they serve Andhra meals and I go in and buy a meal token and eat, but the more upscale places confused me. There are tons of them, none seemed to stand out, they all have similar multicuisine menus, nobody has written about them, I had no clue where to go or what to order, I have no clue how authentic any of these places are. There’s no equivalent to a Bangalore Oota Co or Kappa Chakka Kandhari (two restaurants I loved and wrote about in my Bangalore post) here in terms of the specificity of the vision and the refinement of the food. I mostly had thalis and mostly at “local” places, so I missed out on a lot of specialty dishes but on future visits I’ll focus more on a la carte dishes at more upscale places. There’s a new fancy “Neo-Telangana” restaurant called Terrai, maybe that’s good (there's plenty of paneer on the menu, but no noodles, so that's a positive sign). I really just want to eat homemade food though. I didn’t find any Andhra homechefs, and the one Telangana homechef I found said they only make non-veg food. Dear readers, invite me over.

I enjoyed much of the food I had but I don’t think I had a single meal that wowed me. Maybe it is because I have spent a lot of time in South India in recent years and have had many meals which set the bar pretty high. Some of the meals from highly regarded places in Hyderabad were excessively oily, salty, and spicy (I’ll admit that I eat a much lower ratio of rice to sabzi than pretty much everyone in India and especially everyone in Andhra/Telangana, and the excessive salt/spice would not have been an issue with a ratio in line with the locals, but I never had this issue in other parts of South India). The thick dals were always good though. I’m all about a thick, non-runny dal. Despite being a local staple, gonguura (sorrel) hardly showed up, I think only in one vegetable dish and in some pickles. I was looking forward to gonguura but ended up primarily having it in the Hyderabadi cuisine. 

I’ll list the places I ate in some order of preference, though I had a hard time ordering them.

My top recommendation for Andhra food is probably Simply South, an upscale but casual and reasonably priced pan-South Indian restaurant. I went to the branch in Film Nagar (now relocated to Jubilee Hills), but there’s also a Sattva Knowledge City branch. The chef Chalapathi Rao was brand chef for Dakshin at the ITC (where I once had a very good meal in Mumbai, though I felt it wasn’t worth the money for the most part) before going solo with this Hyderabad restaurant. Despite it not specializing in Andhra food, I chose it partly because of the chef’s background, and partly because all of the upscale Andhra restaurants all have a bunch of paneer starters in the local section in addition to full Chinese and North Indian menus, so I thought a pan-South Indian, paneer and noodle free restaurant would suit my needs better.

It’s a large menu separated by state (like Dakshin, which, by the way, is probably a good place in the city to get Andhra and Telangana cuisine if you have the money, though on my budget it didn’t seem worth doing). There are Andhra and Telangana sections (including some Hyderabadi dishes), in addition to a thali at lunchtime. I got a thali along with two a la carte dishes from the Andhra section, and I would love to go back and try more from both sections. I regret that I only went here once.

The flavors in the thali were all very clean and balanced. Nothing really stood out to me as exceptional, but it was all very good, a simple homestyle meal.

Ordering a la carte I got gummidikaya bellam pulusu (a pumpkin gravy dish, I didn't see it on any other menus) and ulavacharu (horsegram gravy which is an Andhra staple that doesn’t show up in any of the thalis though most of the upscale Andhra restaurants offer it, and one is named after it, I didn't try it anywhere else). Both were delicious with well balanced flavors, and neither were oily, but it was poor ordering since both were fairly similar, with predominant tamarind flavors. Also, both portions were way too much for two people, which is why I often hate ordering a la carte at Indian restaurants. I hope to return one day with more people so I can order the rest of the Andhra dishes, and then again to order the whole Telangana section.

[2025 update: on a brief trip to the city I tried a few more upscale places, both fairly new.

Anirban Blah raved about Telugu Medium so I made it a priority to check this out. I was alone so I couldn't try much. I got gutti vankaya, served with ragi sangati, and "thotakura liver fry" made with steamed amaranth leaves and dal. I thought the food was pretty good, and I'd go back and try more if I lived there, but I'd still rather go back to Simply South where I felt the food was more homestyle and the menu had a more interesting, unusual range of dishes. The menu here is the same as every other upscale Andhra restaurant, it seems? It was a notably gorgeous restaurant though!

I was also there right before the Ugadi festival and was looking for an Ugadi meal. A number of places had them over the weekend, but because I was leaving in the afternoon on Saturday I couldn't make it for any of those. However, a restaurant I hadn't heard of called Aidu had an Ugadi lunch during the week. I can't say how the regular menu is (though it's focused on regional food from across South India), but the Ugadi thali was excellent. Very pretty restaurant, too. I would go back.]

After that, it was all thalis, mostly from small local places. It’s hard for me to rank them. I liked most of them, I wouldn’t say any are necessary to go out of your way for, but they are all good if you are nearby. 

The mess restaurants are fun, I think best for lunch since, so I’ve heard, many of them only make the food in the morning. I went to two of the most famous Andhra mess restaurants, both in Ameerpet, called Sri Kakatiya Deluxe Mess and Harsha Deluxe Mess. I liked both overall, but found them to generally be too spicy, oily, and salty. Though it’s a simpler spread, I liked the food more at Sri Gayatri Bhavan (Mess) near Dilshuknagar metro station (but there’s probably no reason for most people to go there), where the flavors were better balanced and the bean sabzi had a nice cinnamon kick in the tomato sauce. I also had good food at Apoorva Mess in Basheer Bagh (not far from Assembly metro station, you may end up nearby), which had at least half a dozen police officers eating lunch there. That was cool. I felt like I was in a Telugu cop movie. 

As always in Indian thali restaurants, I am astonished and disturbed by how much people stuff themselves. I usually ate about half the portion of the first serving of rice that they served, while many diners would eat two full rice portions. This might sound like a totally random aside, but you'll understand once you see the rice portion.

The best cheap local place was probably S.A.V.E. Organisation (near Indira Park, not far from some places you may go to), which I think is run by the nearby Emerald Sweet Shop. Good, clean, healthy food, and the point of the organization is something to do with organic farming, indigenous seed varieties, and desi cows, all very important things for sure but I’m too lazy to figure out what this organization is. If I lived nearby I’d probably not bother cooking lunch and would just eat there every day. I’m not sure where it ranks among my recommendations, though, because it is a pretty simple spread and not as outwardly Andhra as some of the other places. When I went the mains were just dal and paneer in addition to all of the fixings (I would normally scoff at paneer at an Andhra restaurant, but since their goal is to promote good dairy products from happy desi cows I’m okay with it). Still, very much worthwhile. They also sell seeds there. Emerald Sweet Shop is worth checking out, too. I got some spiced hot milk drink without sugar, and I hope to try more things there in the future, they have some hard to find Andhra snacks, and there are a few branches around the city. I go for a walk after every meal, and that was difficult when eating in Hyderabad since the roads are terrible for walking, but Indira Park happens to be one of the nicest in the city, so that’s another plus point here.

[2025 update: I went back to S.A.V.E. Organisation and had another great lunch (eggplant pachadi stood out), and went another day to the Banjara Hills Emerald Sweet Shop where they also serve the same lunch. These remain my top picks in town!]

I went to two more expensive places (but still pretty inexpensive) for thalis, Palle Vindu in Gachibowli (which has a village theme, and they get bonus points for playing old Telugu songs, I recognized a few Ilaiyaraja songs) and Kakinada Subbayya Gari Hotel (they have a handful of locations, I believe all the same owners but I’m not positive, I went in Ameerpet). Compared to the mess restaurants, these were bigger meals with more dishes (to me not actually a good thing), and they were cleaner flavors. I’d give the edge to Palle Vindu but I thought both were pretty good even though neither knocked me out. I wondered if I would have liked them more if I had them before the other places, as I may have been kinda burnt out at that point.

I also had good thalis from aunties selling them on the streets. I only did this twice because I was afraid of getting sick, but I liked these more than most of the restaurants. I went to two streetside thali places right across from each other at Banjara Hills road 10, the landmark is around here, but there are sari clad ladies selling food all over the city at lunchtime. Probably not recommended, but is it really any riskier than the mess restaurants? I’m not sure. Good to support your local aunties. Recommended if you’re the kind of person who will be eating lots of street food anyway.

One other semi-upscale Andhra place I went to was Rayalaseema Ruchulu, ostensibly specializing in food from the Rayalaseema region in southern Andhra but I’m not sure I noticed a difference. This was the Jubilee Hills branch, which is their only branch offering buffets, though like the other branches they also have thalis and a la carte. I went for the buffet, which I regretted, because I hate buffets and it’s way too much food on offer to appreciate anything. But also, several dishes were way too salty and/or spicy. This was my most expensive Andhra meal, and also my least favorite! To be fair, I’d consider going to another branch and ordering a la carte. A friend of mine liked the buffet so much she went twice in one week on a recent visit. She declined to comment. 

Not wholly Andhra but I loved the healthy homestyle thali at Vibrant Living. 

I wanted to go to Paaka Cafe but they were closed, they may be open in a new location by the time you read this though. Their Instagram says they’ll be back in 2026. That looked like a good authentic village style place.

I never made it to Spicy Venue in Jubilee Hills, which is one of the most renowned of the semi-upscale Andhra places, but I ordered delivery from them on my last day (as a rule I almost never order delivery from restaurants, but we were packing our suitcases and I thought it was a good chance to try out one more place before going). I went with the avakaya mudapappu annam and their signature dessert Apricot Delight (which they invented, but it’s now a staple on Hyderabad restaurant menus), both recommended by Anirban Blah on Instagram. The former is an Andhra style khichdi with mango pickle pre-mixed in, and it was delicious! I can’t say the dessert excited me, but I actually liked it more than I expected, it was not excessively sweet. I don’t think it’s really worth trying, but people seem to really love it so what do I know. “I liked it more than expected” might be high praise for an Indian dessert from me. It is a Hyderabad specialty, so if you like sweets you might want to try it. Anirban called it an apricot tres leches, I should note that I’ve never liked tres leches. The original recipe at Spicy Venue (which other restaurants have altered) is overnight soaked apricots cooked in sugar (so far like qubani ka meetha, I think) then pureed and put between two slices of sponge cake, and then topped with runny custard, milk, and cream. According to this article the restaurant also has a revolving assortment of seasonal chutneys, including raw guava, if I had known that I definitely would have gone for the thali. 

I don’t really like the Andhra “paper” sweet putharekulu but I love the way they make it.

South Indian Breakfasts / Tiffins

Since I’ve spent a lot of time in South India in recent years I can’t say I was blown away by any of the breakfasts here, nor did I have anything especially novel, nor did I make eating these a priority, but I had a lot of really good stuff, most of it is better than anything you can get in Mumbai. 

I say the famous, semi-upscale Chutneys chain is the best place to go in Hyderabad. Their Hotel Babai idli is super soft and delicious, that’s my top pick here. The karam podi dosa was good but maybe too spicy. I enjoyed the range of chutneys. It is best to get some plain idlis, dosas, or uttapams (or vadas if that’s your thing, but what’s the point in having a blog if I can’t attempt to impose my values on the world and tell people to skip the fried food?) to appreciate the chutneys, if you get something with podi it is overkill, though you can get a mix of things.  

The next best tiffin thing I had was probably the karam podi dosa at Pancha Kattu Dosa (they have multiple locations, I went to the one opposite KCR Park, which is a great place to walk). This is Rayalaseema (southern Andhra) style, what that really means, I don’t know. I also had great idli and dosa at (I think I got ghee idli and ghee onion dosa) Sree Purna Tiffin Center at Sri Krishna Nagar (not far from Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills). 

In the old city, I enjoyed the less traditional but incredibly popular Govind Ki Bandi cart, I got some special dosa with semolina and the tawa idli. Not a ton of vegetarian options in that neighborhood, so it’s something for some of you to keep in mind.

I think that’s all I got, other than a few random places which didn’t stand out. I didn’t feel like I needed to try more, though I’m sure there’s plenty of other very good tiffin joints. 

Miscellaneous

Outside of the local cuisines, I don’t think there’s anything worth going out of your way for in Hyderabad. No highly creative chefs doing interesting things. No high end tasting menus with gonguura tempura, spherified qubani ka meetha, zinda tilismath sorbet, highly realistic pineapple shaped pineapple mousse, etc (I'm joking, that mostly sounds tacky, I want the gonguura tempura though). No non-Hyderabadi cuisines being cooked to such a high standard that they are worth seeking out for non-locals. I suspect things will improve in the coming years (I hear Fireback, the Indian mini-chain of Thai restaurants with David Thompson as the consulting chef, will soon open in Hyderabad, I could never turn down a chance to eat the food from the legendary David Thompson), though it remains to be seen whether there will be any true destination restaurants like most of the other big cities in India have. For now, though, I think there are a few places that are worth a look. Some of these do have some local options, or at least local touches. Read on for a fancy Indian restaurant from a Michelin starred chef, Somali food, a bean to bar chocolate factory, jamun sorbet, a restaurant called Eat Cock, and more!

Ru is a fancy restaurant/bar in Jubilee Hills with the menu put together by chef Deepanker Khosla who has a Michelin star in Bangkok. When we went it had only been open a few weeks, which I usually avoid doing, I like giving places some months to find their footing, but I wasn’t staying so long. The restaurant is really beautiful, incorporating Hyderabad’s rocky landscape into the architecture, and you get really nice views from the rooftop seating (unfortunately there was no non-smoking zone outside). This is the only “sexy” restaurant in Hyderabad that I went to where people go and dress up and order cocktails and take pictures and stuff. I hate those kinds of restaurants, but if you want one, go here. I liked it though and recommend it, and I would go back on future trips. 

The food, which is pan-Indian (and mostly traditional rather than modern) with some local dishes, is very good. There are also pizzas and Asian dishes… gotta satisfy the market. Overall I felt it’s a good restaurant held back by the market, unable to push much beyond the formula, but it seems some of my concerns have been alleviated since I went there and they’ve added some more interesting dishes to the vegetarian menu. Overall, the non-vegetarian side of the menu seemed more adventurous, while the veg stuff is more conservative and mostly sticking to a typical North Indian restaurant script. 

The best dish I ordered was the starter bhuna baingan badin jaan, which is fried eggplant topped with tomato sauce and sour cream. It’s an Awadhi recipe that I’ve only ever seen at Dum Pukht before, but never tried. It’s not all that novel, it’s exactly what it sounds like, but it’s delicious. It feels like something that you could get in Turkey or Sicily but with a bit more spice (comparing what I ate to the ITC recipe, it seems about the same but with a fancier presentation). It’s also, when I went, one of the only actual vegetable dishes on the menu, and the waiter tried to talk me out of ordering it. “It’s just brinjal sir.” “It sounds good.” “Sir, it’s just brinjal." "I happen to like brinjal." "Why don’t you try jackfruit chop instead?” I tried ordering the pumpkin ghee roast starter but they didn’t have it that day. None of the other starters really excited me but I’m sure they’re good. The only other vegetable in that section was tandoori broccoli.

For mains, I got the jackfruit haleem (one of only two veg haleems I found in the city), artichoke mussalam (the tanginess of the preserved artichokes went really well with the rich gravy), and paneer rezala. I enjoyed them all, my favorite probably being the haleem, but three rich (though well prepared and not grossly heavy) dishes was overkill and made the meal overly homogeneous. There weren’t really other options though. The alternatives were paneer lababdar and dal makhni. I looked jealously at the non-veg section of the menu with its pickled raw tamarind gravy, it’s drumstick pulp curry, its gongura chutney, etc.

Also, the gravy dishes had too much gravy and not enough artichoke/paneer. Three bites and it's over. I’m aware that a high proportion of Indian vegetarians don’t actually like vegetables and only like paneer, potatoes, and gravy, but it was a bummer being reminded of that at a high end restaurant with a Michelin starred chef behind the menu claiming to specialize in “Art Cuisine” (seriously, their Instagram actually says that). Thankfully, the recent menu update has added vegetables and local dishes. There is veg chowgra and dakhni saag! That’s enough to get me to go back. 

The food prices are quite reasonable for this sort of place, while the cocktail prices are very expensive, which is a good thing because you shouldn’t drink alcohol anyway. That said, my wife loved whatever drink she got from the locally inspired menu, some “Begum’s Secret” or something. When I was there they hadn’t set up the dessert menu yet, which is good because you shouldn’t eat sweets either, but they have since updated the menu and the desserts sound fun, I would get their take on double ka meetha.

Hyderabad has a historic Yemeni population, though I didn’t try any of their food (mandi is very popular). I was surprised to learn that there is also a Somali population, and that they have some Somali restaurants, and that some of these restaurants serve fresh camel milk. Of course I had to go. I’ve gathered that some Somalis came as refugees and some continue to come for education and healthcare, and Hyderabad has the largest community in India, clustered in Tolichowki, where incidentally Shahrukh Khan once lived. The neighborhood caters heavily to Arabs and Somalis, and there are a ton of restaurants, but I couldn’t find any info from anybody who has really explored the food scene around there. 

I went to Makhayad Arabi, chosen only because it had a lot of google reviews mentioning camel milk. It appeared to be mostly Somalis eating there (and everyone seemed to know each other), but I’m not sure how authentic the food I got was, because it was very spicy, and I don’t think Somali food is meant to be so spicy. Perhaps they profiled us because my wife is Indian and we ordered vegetarian.

We got ukun shakshuka (kind of like Indian scrambled eggs, not like the more trendy dishes classified as shakshuka), mushakal (mixed vegetables), and fasolia (kidney beans). The last two had similar tomato sauces. It was all quite good, and cheap, and not oily unlike most Indian food you get at this price point. We ate it with an Arab bread made fresh at the shop next door, and a spongy Somali flatbread called canjeero (evidently from the same language family as injera, which it is similar to texture wise, though this was just refined wheat flour, but they use different grains in Somalia). Nobody else ordered vegetarian food, they all got massive plates of rice and meat and sometimes pasta and banana (see “federation”, if you don’t know now you know). And everybody got tea, except for us because it was nighttime. For dessert we got masoob, which is just torn up chapatis and mashed bananas served in cream and topped with honey. Similar to what I make when I get hungry at 2AM. It was great. (The least sweet dessert you can find in all of Hyderabad, scratch that, all of India.)

But I really came here for the camel milk. I asked if I could get a glass, but they said it’s only by the bottle, and pointed to the fridge where they had a few plastic water bottles filled with camel milk. I was very excited and we asked them to set aside a bottle for us. It was a fairly big bottle (a liter?) for 150 rupees, which is a great deal for camel milk. I kept turning around to check the fridge, and halfway through the meal I started to panic when I turned back to see the fridge and there was only a small bottle of camel milk left. We reminded them we wanted them to save a large bottle for us, and they said, “Yes, in the fridge is the batch from morning, but the fresh batch is coming soon.” Five minutes later a guy came in with a giant bag full of camel milk filled bottles. That’s right, this place gets two batches of fresh camel milk a day! (This was on a Sunday though, I don’t know if this happens every day.) I was going to take it home to boil it, but they insisted that I drink it raw, and said it splits if you boil it, so I poured it out and had it fresh right then and there. And I have to say, it is to date the best camel milk I have ever had. They said it will last several days, so I took it home and had it for breakfast the next few days. I hope to return to get more fresh camel milk. I am interested in seeing how the flavor changes seasonally. I suspect the post monsoon camel milk will be the best.

Anyway, fun experience, and India doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to eat non-Indian “ethnic” foods made largely by and for their own people, so this is fairly unique. Also, for people who aren’t anti-social like me, it would probably be fun to talk to people and hear their stories, and I think it was the sort of environment where that would be appropriate and welcome, as long as you order tea. Recommended.

A few places I wanted to go but never got around to: Once Upon A Time, modern Indian, I usually don’t bother with those unless I hear great things and I didn’t think it looked special, but I have heard very good things about this, and for non-vegetarians they have a modern Hyderabadi set menu. I really wanted to go to Pink Elephant (pan-Indian, mostly traditional, some local stuff) which I heard great things about but has mysteriously closed shortly after opening, maybe it will reopen? I loved Chennai’s Isha Life restaurant called Mahumadra which they have in Jubilee Hills as well. It does great, healthy, homestyle South Indian vegetarian meals at lunch (maybe dinner as well? In Chennai it was mostly snacks at dinner). I think it’s more Tamil style, but they have food festivals every now and then, and not long before I came there was a Telangana food festival. Check out their Instagram to see if there’s anything cool going on, or check it out anyway. 

Since I left I heard about a new weekend popup homechef experience called The Long Table. Looks nice, more fun and creative than the restaurants in the city, making good use of local, seasonal produce. They did a whole mango menu during the season, I would have loved that. Another special meal to look out for are occasional ones hosted by fermentation specialists Opika, though these aren’t so frequent.

Some places I liked for good healthy food, which can be frustratingly hard to find but is really all I want to eat when I’m not having local food, and there are local elements at all of these places, they aren't just generic cafes:

Vibrant Living - Film Nagar, but they have another location, also amazingly at the airport. A nice organic store/cafe. Great homestyle thali, better than most I had, great healthy pies, nice drinks, meh sandwich. It’s all vegan but very well done here, no fake processed stuff, there’s nice homemade rice “buttermilk”, they make their own vegan milks, etc. Not cheap but it’s the sort of place that if I lived nearby and had the money I’d eat there every day. A decent place to work, too.

Sage Farm Cafe - Jubilee Hills, I went to the main branch but they have a cafe at a nearby mall. Many ingredients are from their farm and they make everything in house from the mozzarella to the ice cream and kombucha. Healthy cafe food with local touches, shoutout to the ridge gourd pizza served with mango pickle and the sorrel leaves in their salads. I had a nice time working from here. Their Baby Elephant Farm around an hour outside the city does a massive South Indian lunch that I hoped to go for but never got around to.

Terrasen - [Edit: They've closed down and moved to Auroville.] Banjara Hills, vegan, more focused on being vegan than on being healthy per se but they still had some good options. I went a few times since I lived walking distance from there and I generally enjoyed what I had though some of it was on the spicy/salty side, very much a Hyderabad palate sort of place even when ordering salad. I liked their range of homemade fermented drinks, including kombucha, ginger ale, fermented basmati rice beer (non-alcoholic) and rice chaas. I believe stuff like the vegan cheeses and pumpkin seed tofu are made in house, desserts are without refined flour/sugar/oil, and for vegetarians it’s a good place to get veg haleem, though I wished it were jackfruit instead of soy. The seating isn't good for working.

Yellolife - Jubilee Hills but this was also the only good semi-inexpensive healthy option on Swiggy. Everything was pretty good except the rasam rice bowl which was deadly spicy. Everything is whole grains, unprocessed oils, etc. Not bad to work from.

Now onto not so healthy stuff. Almond House is a very nice local chain of Indian sweet shops which also have chaat and homemade ice cream under their brand Indulge. I didn’t try much of their sweet offerings, as I’m not really a sweets person, but I went to a handful of their locations at various points in my stay because it was a nice inexpensive place to sit and relax and use the bathroom and get coffee (the Banjara Hills location had a surprisingly very good iced latte, the other locations I tried didn’t use as fancy of a machine) and a snack (they have a healthy three bean chaat thing). You can try some Andhra sweets here, I don’t really like the paper sweet, and everything else looks kind of like what you get in other states, like the ladoos. They also have some Hyderabadi sweets like ashrafi but I never tried any. For me, the real star of their offerings is their ice cream. I’m not an ice cream connoisseur but I felt the quality of everything was good, and the ingredients seemed good. I wish they had more unique and unusual flavors, but they do have jamun sorbet, which I loved. The almond butter and pistachio butter ice creams were very good. There’s also the elusive vegan almond milk ice cream, which I only had a taste of, and it was sold out when I went back to multiple locations to get a full scoop of it. That was excellent, more of a smooth creamy aromatic almondy taste than the rich thick almond butter taste. Vegan ice creams are underrated, unfairly tarnished by the vegan label and more interesting than the substitute implies. I loved their millet cookies, too.

From the same owners as Almond House is Manam (on google maps as Manam Chocolate Karkhana), Hyderabad’s premier bean to bar chocolate factory. I’ve included them in my post of favorite bean to bar chocolates in India, and as a factory/shop/cafe it is among the best I’ve been to anywhere! (The only comparable chocolate factory/cafe in India is probably Subko in Mumbai, which is more cool and hipsterish while this is more fun and family oriented, Subko is more my thing from an F&B perspective but I’m glad I got to go to Manam rather than Subko before seeing Wonka, if that makes sense.)

It’s a fabulous place, beautiful, inviting, good quality, and with a local touch, everything you’d want from a chocolate factory. I went around four times and sampled a good portion of their dark chocolates and some of their food, drinks, and desserts, of which they have a massive range. There’s something, lots of things, for everyone, whether you’re a snooty “Only 70% and up dark chocolate is good” person like me or a normal person who just wants some sweet chocolatey stuff. They have an open kitchen and various educational materials to learn about the process, if you are interested. You can come here just to shop and get a quick dessert at the counter, or you can sit and get a meal or snack/dessert and hang out. We actually worked from here a couple of times, it’s a very nice place to sit when it’s not too crowded (though it’s often pretty crowded, but a weekday morning/afternoon should be fine).

The chocolates are the main point for me, and I spent the most time/money/stomach space trying their chocolate bars. There’s a ton to try, and they do give free samples of everything, but there’s only so much I could taste at once without having a caffeine and sugar overload. Everything was good quality. It’s a mix of Indian and international beans and I mostly only tried the Indian beans, though a few of the international ones I tasted were very good as well. I bought everything in the 70-80% range, they were all delicious, very smooth and flavorful. I made it a point to get the Andhra bars, they have single origin west Godavari (which is where their fermentery is) in addition to a single farm bar. My favorite was the Malabar, though. I like that they have small bars so I could take a handful home without spending a ton. 

Unfortunately, for dark bars in my preferred range (70+%) they don’t really have any interesting flavors, the inclusion and infusion bars are all on the sweeter side. There’s a counter where you can make your own bars, though that costs a lot more (makes for a nice gift). In general I’d like to see them get more creative and local with the flavored bars. They have a series of different experimental fermentation bars (with local varieties of mango-ginger, mango, and banana) which are great and all taste different. I dock some points overall for including “natural flavors” in many of the bars (most of it is real, though, they usually just add vanilla flavor, which bothers me less than adding other flavors), but the plain dark bars are all pure ingredient wise. 

Outside of the bars, of their products I tried various spreads, chocolate covered nuts, barks, cookies, and on and on. It was all good. I especially liked the snacking cacao nibs, curry leaf butter cookies, and the chocolate covered candied oranges. I didn’t try any bonbons or truffles, nor did I try the soft serve. 

As for the stuff you can sit down and order, the chocolate drinks are good, though I wish they had darker options (it would be cool if they had a pick your origin, percentage, and add-ons menu). The coffee is good quality. They have a big range of cakes, brownies, cookies, French patisserie type desserts, and viennoiserie items, not exciting stuff to me but it all looks good, of these I think I only tried a chocolate cake and pain au chocolat (my wife’s choices, not the sorts of things I go for) and I enjoyed both, though wished the pain au chocolat were more robustly stuffed. 

One really exceptional thing we got was the french toast (I have to thank my wife for insisting on getting it, I never would have ordered it myself). You choose three toppings to go with it, we got a dark ganache, mascarpone, and marmalade. Simple, but well executed, and with the best quality toppings you could ask for. 

I didn’t get much food here, as it’s not the point, but it generally seemed good, better than most places. The mushroom tacos were very good and the eggplant sandwich was solid.

[2025 update: Their caramelized cacao nibs and sea salt brownie with 82% chocolate, warmed in cacao butter, is 10/10.]

On the topic of chocolate, the Andhra based bean to bar chocolate maker Bon Fiction has their flagship store at the Novotel Hyderabad Convention Center, though I didn’t visit as it opened after my trip. I believe they only sell bars, so it’s nothing you couldn’t find online, but it is great quality chocolate (see more info in my chocolate post) so I recommend it if you are nearby. I also found out about the Andhra based Nui Chocolate, which was used in the drinks at Kohe, though I didn't have a chance to reach out to them and find out if they sell anywhere.

Lastly, I can’t not mention the Eat Cock restaurant. Since I am pure veg I can’t give an opinion on it, but for those of my readers who have a taste for cock, this is clearly the place to go. (Don’t miss their logo!)

Cafes To Work From

Hyderabad might have the best cafe scene in India. There are a lot of very nice cafes that are large and comfortable and great to work from and have good F&B. They’re mostly in and around Jubilee and Banjara Hills. I’m not going to say much about them, but here they are listed in some order of preference, based on a weighted rating that prioritizes the quality of the space and its suitability for working while also considering the quality of the F&B based on my impressions, though I mostly didn’t actually eat at these places, mainly just got iced lattes. A few places only served bottled water, which is unusual for India and something I find annoying, but I guess it makes sense considering these places get pretty crowded. I'd rather they cut out the middleman, saved the plastic, and charged directly for our time, though.

Katha (Banjara Hills, very nice space and good F&B, some fun events), Kohe (nice space in a quiet neighborhood, excellent fresh orange juice with cacao), Last House Coffee by the Lake (west Jubilee Hills, I think, I didn't like their iced latte, but generally the quality seems good, and the setting is very nice though crowded, the lake is great for an evening walk), Manam (Banjara Hills, as mentioned above, but just go on a weekday morning/afternoon otherwise it’s too crowded. I wonder, can one work from Almond House? I think so.), Roastery (Banjara Hills location is in a nice old house setup though the seating is a bit cramped, they have a new location as well, and they sell their own bean to bar chocolate, food here isn't great though), Sage Farm Cafe (Jubilee Hills, mentioned above for good healthy food, wasn’t crazy about the indoor seating for working but really nice outdoor seating in the winter, bring your own mosquito repellent), Vibrant Living (Film Nagar, mentioned above for good healthy food, we went twice and it was always empty, so it’s a good place if you want somewhere quiet), True Black (Jubilee Hills), Black Fuel (Jubilee Hills, very nice but crowded), Brewtique (Jubilee Hills), Wool Cup (Film Nagar), Toops (Jubilee Hills, small but I liked it, more casual and less self consciously Instagrammy than most places), Yellolife (Jubilee Hills, mentioned in my healthy food section above, not as nice for working as any of the above but quiet and not bad). 

There’s also a Subko that I didn’t get around to visiting, but those are always nice, though it looks small from the pictures, maybe not ideal for working. Karafa didn’t have wifi, otherwise it would have been great. I’ll add Lamakaan to the list as a maybe, see what I wrote in the food section above. And new fancy cafes seem to open weekly in Hyderabad.

Groceries

Ratnadeep is the nice fancy grocery store. I ordered good quality whole wheat sourdough from Samyara’s Den, otherwise decent sourdough is difficult to find in Hyderabad. I got a lot of good stuff from Daman Organic Living. Go to any medical store to buy Zinda Tilismath. That’s about it!