Hyderabad House at Nagpur

Before i start on praising this resto. I have to confess here i did not pay for the food, it was a treat from a friend who is a big fan of this place and is a regular order er. It was my second day at the wonderful city of Nagpur staying at the Hotel Heritage i did not miss on the free breakfast that comes with the stay. I hogged myself on a sunny side up egg, uthapas, veg sandwhich and a cup of tea, this was at 10 am.
Then we drove to our friend Jaideep's house where we chatted a lot till 2 pm. Then stepped out for lunch. Jaideep an avid animal lover, a journalist to the core, is a foodie himself and one of his favourite hangout is Hyderabad House.

There is no fancy to this resto, its purely for those who love the cuisine. Housed inside a residential building, this two gala resto has two entry doors. Full ac restaurant serves the most delicious food. In all we were seven adults and two children. So we started with starters, malai kebab, lamb seekh kebabs, and veg seekh kebabs. The lamb kebabs were authentic, this i can say because they were reed in color and its melted in the mouth. Then if you are at a Hyderabad house, one cannot do away with eating lamb biryani. So we ordered a family size biryani serving, to be eaten among the four of us.

The biryani without POTATOES is what authentic biryani is. It is in West Bengal and Bohri style biryani's or the north indian biryani's which have POTATOES. Trust me its a show spoiler. The biryani rice was perfect, lots of lamb and deeply cooked flavours that made the biryani rich.
A friend of ours Satish who is a vegetarian challenged us to finishing the serving and we four took to it and showed him the empty bowl. After that came the khobani ka meetha and kesar firni. The sweet was the perfect end to a sumptuous lunch. After that we couldnt walk a push from somebody to me and i would have fallen. My wife prachi then took me to a sweet shop Nand Bhandar at Dharampet and she kept on telling me to try the sweets and i said, sorry i am standing with my back to the shop and please finish the shopping quickly.

PS: A nagpur visit wont be complete if you haven't visited Hyderabad House. 

South Indian Food at its best at Indian Coffee house Nagpur

INDIAN Coffee house in Nagpur on Sadar road housed inside the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) building is one place which citizens of Nagpur the central place of India relate with. Few years back this small eatery where there is no waiters but share holders was a topic of discussion even among the Congress Top brass who were flooded with request to waive of the steep rental charges levied by the public undertaking.

Indian Coffee House a cooperative society has been in the business for decades. The small company resto serves excellent south Indian food, be it their crisp Onion Uttapa, medu vada's or the superbly delicious Veg cutlets. At my recent visit to Nagpur, a local friend who has grown over the resto by sipping its coffee and cutlets invited us to meet over there.

In Nagpur there are five outlets of Indian Coffee house, all off them are all the times flooded with people. From the lawyers, journos, theater, film personalities or just the locals. The one i visited is close to civil lines on the busy Sadar road near Tulli International hotel.
We were a bunch of six to eight persons, to start with came the Onion Uttapa, then medu vada, dosa, veg cutlet, toast butter, rounds of coffee and a bill of Rs 800. Of course by mumbai standards for me it was cheap comparing it to the quality stuff we got to eat. The only thought to my mind that came is why is this place not in Mumbai, cant the udipis learn a bit or two from ICH.
Anyways, leave that for them and mumbaikars who seldom enjoy food flavors. I just know one thing that when i visit Nagpur again, find me at ICH.

PS: Don't be surprised if you see the waiter who served you ride a scooter or bike back home after work.