The Grand Wok is yet another from the recently-sprung crop of restaurants/lounges/bistros/whatever that cater to the upmarket and so-called-chic clientele who’re looking for something different (meaning anything apart from a Biryani!). It offers Chinese and Thai cuisine and to suit all wallets, it has three different kinds of buffet lunches – priced at INR 149, 225 & 299 + taxes for lunch & INR 299 to 375 + taxes for dinner.

Our team of 20 odd people made a beeline for it one busy weekday and the initial warm feeling of a new place, nice ambience and kindly service was quickly replaced by one of surprise when we came to know that it was not a spread-at-a-table kind of buffet. Instead, there was a prefixed menu and items which would be served at our table! Now the concept of a buffet stems from the fact that one gets to choose what he or she likes and in what quantity, most often from a wide array of choices available. But here there were hardly any choices!

The 225 buffet consists of choice of veg or non-veg soup, 2 veg starters, 2 non-veg starters, veg fried rice, veg noodles, 1 veg gravy dish, 1 non-veg gravy dish and dessert. Pretty meagre, considering we get to see an array of 15-25 dishes in a standard 200+ buffet. The inclination towards the prefix menu & served-at-table comes from their belief that unlike a spread-out buffet, here your food is made-to-order, thereby eliminating the chance of the food getting cold just lying out there or losing its taste due to the constant camphor-heating. Quite a good idea, I first thought.

The menu that day consisted of veg hot n’ sour soup & chicken sweet corn soup, both delicious and piping hot. Veg starters included crispy fried vegetables – which was very delicious, and veg. manchurian – which was kinda soft and soggy. For the non-vegetarians there was chicken schezwan and chicken lollies or drumsticks. They were bland and not all too well-done. Its good that these were unlimited because what followed was a disappointment. The fried rice was sticky, with small rice and plain bland. Ditto the noodles! Without the accompanying gravies, they were tasteless. The veg in Cantonese sauce was alright, with mushrooms, broccoli, carrots, spinach all fresh. Chicken balls in schezwan sauce was good, with the right blend of flavours. Dessert was fried daarsan with choice of ice cream.

For someone with a voracious appetite (as me & most of my friends are), this is somewhat less. And we look stupid if we ask for another round of starters once the main course has arrived! But given it is reasonably priced and that it was for lunch, which is not quite the heaviest meal of the day for me, especially on a weekday, it was alright.

The ambience of the restaurant was good and the staff were courteous. But there was an inordinate delay between courses. I like to sip my soup while munching on starters but they insisted on finishing off the soup, clearing the bowls and then bringing on the starters! Again, the main course arrived a good 5 minutes after the starter-plates were cleared off. Ditto the dessert. I know it is tough to handle a motley crowd of 20 people, especially if the restaurant is partly full and I’m inclined to give’m the benefit of the doubt but there’s definitely room for improvement.

I’ll probably pay it another visit, maybe at dinnertime to check out the other dishes that they have and get to like it better but till then, I’ll begrudgingly recommend it.

Think of Irani Chai and the image that comes up in your mind is that of a porcelain cup n’ saucer with steaming hot tea, maybe with one or two osmania biskut for company. For the true blue Hyderabadi, this might be the quintessential stuff from the past but as things change, this concept has been taken to a next level by a group of Hyderabadi entrepreneurs who’ve collaborated to bring us the Irani Chai Lounge Bar and Restaurant. Located in Rd #10 Jubilee Hills, Irani Chai is a restaurant that opened recently and caters to the niche audience who prefer Nizami food over some gupshup, a puff of a hookah and at a quiet and serene location.

Situated on a quiet road away from the hustle and bustle of the city, Irani Chai operates out of a bungalow converted into a restaurant. The first floor houses 8-10 four-seater tables and is fully air conditioned but the best place is out on the first floor balcony. Shielded from the sun by a tarpaulin top, the balcony houses four sets of five-seater sofas around a centre table and is the place to be seated if you wanna have one of those flavoured hookahs that the place doles out. There’s seating space out on the second floor terrace also and that’s where us folks plonked down on a lazy Saturday afternoon. The canopy of lush green trees above us and the calm breeze couldn’t make for a better setting for a long gupshup session.

The menu is predominantly Hyderabadi with non-vegetarian items outnumbering the vegetarian ones. One can choose from a non-veg or a veg shorba and then there are a variety of kebabs to choose from – veg, meat, chicken & seafood ones. Main course choices include Roti, Naan and the quintessential Biryani. Curries include the usual mughlai stuff. Thankfully, there are NO Chinese items on the menu (would seem so out of place!). They also serve a variety of milkshakes and desserts include the evergreen double-ka-meetha and qubani-ka-meetha alongwith the usual suspects. And oh yeah, there are also the spirits to choose from, Beer, Whisky, Rum, Gin and Vodka are on the menu alongwith some very rich wines.

My recommendation would be the combo meals of which there are four varieties to choose from – veg simple, veg executive, non-veg simple and non-veg executive. The simple ones have a shorba, kebabs and biryani served with salan & raitha whereas the executive ones add-on rotis, a gravy curry and dessert. The a-la-carte menu is pretty decent enough and recommendations from that would be patthar ka gosht, paneer nizami, achari aloo for the starters, masala gosht or kali mirch chicken & chicken or veg biryani for the main course. There’s no kheema biryani though, only kheema pulao . The prices are slightly on the higher side but reasonable enough. Starters are priced at Rs. 120 for the vegetarian ones and Rs. 140 onwards for the non-veg ones. The simple combo at Rs. 125 and the executive combo for Rs. 175 is paisa vasool and so is the biryani at Rs. 150. The portions are slightly small for the starters but when it comes to the biryani, they are big enough. In fact, one executive combo will be sufficient enough to feed two people! Spirits are priced on the higher side though.

All said and done, Irani Chai is a welcome addition into the sparse milieu of restaurants in and around the Jubilee Hills area. With its reasonable pricing, good ambience, great value for money and the tasty food that it serves, it ought to be a popular place. Only downers would be the slightly tardy service but considering that the place is still under upgradation, I guess its understaffed. The location isn’t too accessible if you don’t have a bike/car of your own (ample and valet parking is available, by the way) and is slightly faraway from the corporate offices that dot the KBR Park area but the quietness and ambience of the place will draw much repeat audience I’m sure.

Website

6 Pack Cuisine is a chain of health food eateries that have opened across various locations in Hyderabad over the past month or so. They serve healthy food which is both balanced and highly nutritious. And by health food don’t think that it is all diet food! For there is on offer mainstream items like Chicken, Chhole and Rajma and also high-protein low-fat food like Soya and Tofu. One can choose between the Rice and Wrap options – Choices being Green Rice (Spinach Rice) and Brown Rice (Unpolished Rice) & wrap that is made from a Whole Wheat Chapati. Side-dish would be a Non-Vegetarian or Vegetarian Curry. Like Subway, they have a daily menu with grilled chicken, lemon basil chicken, chilly chicken and southern spicy chicken as the non-veg choices and Chhole masala, rajma masala and schezwan tofu as the vegetarian choices. Chicken keema, chicken tikka and ground soya being available daily. Rice dishes are accompanied by mixed vegetables (beans, carrot, cauliflower florets etc) and Wraps come with a yoghurt-based dressing and varied seasoning. There is also the option of Hyderbadi Biryani! What? Biryani and healthy? They answer this incredulous question with the fact that “While biryani is typically loaded with fat, cholestrol and carbs, 6Pack biryani makes this Hyderabadi favorite a balanced, delicious meal. We use no dalda, animal fat, or ghee and use a healthy, blended oil in small portions. Our biryani is high on protein, fiber and vitamins and low on fat, carbs and sodium – and absolutely delicious.”

I was enlightened about this eatery by a friend over at FreeHyderabad Discussion Boards and whilst he recommended the brown rice option, I was slightly apprehensive of it (since I was always used to eating pressure-cooked polished rice!). I opted for a Vegetable Biryani and Schezwan Tofu. The biryani quantity was exactly measured out and served (500 Gms of it) and it comes with a complimentary gravy. Though it lacked the succulence of the Paradise or Shikaar’s biryani, it was tasty enough. The vegetables were slightly under-cooked (I understand that’s because boiling them fully would destroy their nutrients) and the oil content was minimal. The Schezwan Tofu was delightful. One can almost mistake it for Paneer, so tender it was! And the spiciness was just about right. I know, the combination of deccani biryani and chinese schezwan sounds bizarre but that is what is variety

6Pack outlets are located across seven areas in Hyderabad – Abids, Banjara Hills, Jubilee Hills, Ameerpet, Himayathnagar, S.D.Road & Gachibowli. They have eat-in, take-away as well as home delivery options. They undertake catering orders as well. The website link is at the end of the post and it contains all the details of the menu and locations as well as information about nutrition, food facts and food safety. I’d recommend this place for people who’d like to eat well and eat healthy at the same time. Agreed, the spread is not too varied or exhaustive but it is indeed wholesome food – and that too at decent prices. A veg meal is priced at Rs. 60 (wrap) & Rs. 65 (rice) and non-veg meal is priced at Rs. 80 (wrap) and Rs. 85 (rice). They serve canned fruit juice and yogurt as well. I’d wish they serve some salads and sprouts-items as well. To conclude, lemme recall a pertinent point: just eating healthy food is not enough; one has to exercise regularly. [Now to practice what I've preached ]

Links: 6Pack Website | The Hindu Article on Health Food

Spotted this newly constructed building on the Jubilee Hills Rd. #10 (Opposite to the Chiranjeevi Blood Bank) which had two prominent signs scrawled across it. First one was for ‘Still Waters Multicuisine Restaurant’ and second was for ‘Sunset Grill – The Fusion Restaurant’. We decided to visit the latter since we were eager to know what fusion cuisine was all about. But to our bad luck, we found out that the place wouldn’t open until next month! So we trooped into Still Waters half-expecting that too to be closed! But we were in luck as it was open for only lunch. The “Official” opening would be on the 29th but in the meantime they would serve only lunch. Good for us!

The first thing one notices as you enter is that the place doesn’t live upto its name! Hardly any still water about the place! On the contrary, there was a fountain of cascading water to one side, giving one the feeling of sitting beside some brook. The decor was quite well-made and expensive, with intricate wooden curtains, ornate and big jade work baskets, satin-y sofas with brocaded pillows for support, expensive cutlery, wine-glasses for water, metal-encased lap napkins, the works. Almost for a moment I felt as I was at Waterfront! Ambience was kinda dull, what with no lilting soft music playing to complement the decor. We were the only ones about the place…apparently it hasn’t really been publicized and hence hadn’t caught on. Having promptly seated ourselves, we asked for the menu and instead we got two photocopied papers containing the items available! Even the printed menu hasn’t arrived yet. We silently hoped that the food better be good and glanced at the menu, nay, paper. For an apparent simple multicuisine restaurant, the rates surely were through the roof. Vegetarian and Non-Vegetarian soups were priced at INR 120 and 150 respectively. Starters were for 150 and 175 and the seafood platter was for 300 bucks! Main course too was pricey with curries priced at 160 for Vegetarian fare and 180+ for the non-veg fare. Chicken Biriyani was for 220 bucks and the Egg Biriyani was for 210. Desserts were for 175 onwards. Soft drinks’ prices weren’t mentioned but as we came to know later, they retailed for 75 Bucks per 330 ml can!!!

On any other day, I would have pretended to receive an urgent call and would have walked away but since this was our first visit, we decided to try it out. We chose the Chicken and Egg Biriyani accompanied by Soft Drinks. Service was very prompt and very courteous – expectedly so, since they were just opening. Portions too were very large and generous. Biriyani was excellent – top notch I should say. Though the sharp-tongued may find it a wee bit less-spicy, for the discerning few, it would be right. The rice was the proper biriyani rice and not the ordinary one as most hotels tend to use for their biriyanis and the masala was evenly spread out and tasty. Accompanying the biriyani was arguably the best mirchi ka salan available in Hyderabad (better than Shikaar’s, my favorite till now). We kinda struggled to finish the entire bowl of biriyani but when it was done, it felt really worth the amount we were dishing out for it. The soft drinks served were from cans and even though their MRP was 35 bucks, we were charged 75 for them Vat is extra and they also levy a (quite hefty) service charge!

A full four-course meal for two would set you back by about 1000 bucks and given that we didn’t get to sample any of the other items, I surely wouldn’t say it would be worthwhile. Maybe some other day (when the office picks up the tab) we’ll try out some of the other items and then arrive at a fair conclusion.

P.S: If you think you can contribute in any which manner towards this blog, do drop me a line via the Contact page. Thanks.