Utsav

All vegetarians in the city, including the ones from out of town, have at some point been to this restaurant. It is one of the few purely green joints in these parts, and it's pleasant, reasonable and whips up some serious bliss in its kitchen. With The Nest now gone (and much-mourned), Utsav reigns supreme.

Although Chinese and Continental is also served here, it's desi grub that they specialise in, especially cuisine north of the Vindhyas. Service is warm and the restaurant's interiors are done up so you'll always have enough space to yourself. One of the nice things about this place is that even though it's very popular and has quite an impressive crowd waiting outside for a table, they haven't given in to the temptation to cram a few more tables in there. So overall the feeling is one of pleasant airiness.

Make sure you're good and hungry before you get here, but get something to nibble on while you wait for main-course to arrive, because this takes a while. The threaded paneer, corn 65, and spicy money bags (also with paneer) are well like. The Dakshin thali is good value-for-money at Rs. 85. But if you go a la carte, get the stuffed kulchas. They're heavy but not too greasy, as they tend to be at other places.

Kulchas or rotis go great with any paneer gravy, like the tawa masala, kalimirch or makkai mattar. The paneer here is extra soft and succulent and this coupled with the spicy yet subtle gravies that is the Utsav trademark, makes for quite a deadly combo. You'll see why most every table has a paneer something-or-other on it.

With the pulao or jeera rice, you can also get the tarkari jugalbandi, mushroom masala or the maharaj ki pasand (chef's choice), which is nothing to write about but comes highly recommended.

Many also prefer to get Chinese, and the soft noodles are a common choice. Try the house specialty with crispy or ginger noodles and shangai vegetables or babycorn in hot garlic sauce. The creamy macaroni au gratin is the favourite in the Continental section. The best way to go about trying a little bit of all the nicest tastes is the multi-cuisine buffet, which goes all out on the weekends when you have more to choose from and the choice is that much tougher.

For dessert try the assorted sundaes, rasmalai and gulab-jamun. A huge restaurant, by any standards, Utsav has managed to keep the interest alive and its waiting room packed simply by hanging on to a good thing - delicious food. This is how it all started and this is still what keeps them coming back

Corn Club

This is one of the few places in the city that has thrived on word-of-mouth. And how. Considering it's out of the way, embedded irredeemably in the chaotic Ameerpet commercial area and surrounded by depressing high-rises and office buildings, CC draws its immense popularity from one thing alone - the idea of enjoying bhutta all-year-round. And CC does such amazing things with the golden kernel that you'll have trouble believing this stuff is actually healthy for you. And they make everything possible with corn in it - sandwiches, samosas and even biryani. The steamed Corn On Cob is excellent. Also try the Bake, with its generous helping of cheese and veggies, the Mexican Pizza, the Nachos and the popular Frankie. The Grilled Corn Sandwich is the best of the lot and quite a meal at Rs. 25 for a large portion. The Corn Bhel is another much loved dish here. The Samosas and Patties tend to be too oily, but the batter-fried Baby-corn Fingers is very good. For a more substantial and thoroughly economical deal, try the Makkai Ki Roti with Sarson Ka Saag (Rs. 39) or the Veg. Corn Biryani (Rs. 38), both of which are good value for money. Mandatory nutritional facts: corn, of course, is full of wholesome fibre, but CC goes one step ahead and uses only cholesterol-free oil. So, horror of horrors, you might, in fact, enjoy yourself on a diet. Not to mention, on a budget.

Minerva Coffee Shop

Minerva means different things to different people. Steaming, fluffy idlis. Super-crisp 70mm paper dosas. Mushy rice pongal with coconut chutney. In short, all those delish dishes that are clubbed together in the South under that succinct title - tiffins.

Look around you any time of day, and you'll see that Minerva attracts people of all kinds. Swarms of students descend for breakfast after their morning classes, office crowds come down in twos and threes for a quick lunch, and late afternoon will find families and shoppers happily digging into their large vegetarian thalis.

While it isn't exactly cheap, Minerva is considered good value for money, taken all around. You get good sizeable portions - the dollop of butter on the masala dosa will satisfy even most conscientious penny-pincher -, the accompaniments (sambar, chutney, aloo curry et al) are excellent and once you've had the onion rawa dosa here, nothing else will come close. Other must-try dishes are the button idlis, onion uthappam, and only up till 11am every morning, the rice pongal, served with a special tomato pachchidi and freshly ground coconut chutney. To die for.

And Minerva serves up pretty good North Indian food also, kadai mushroom and naan is a particularly good combo. The tomato soup here is also a big hit. Soft noodles and vegetable sweet 'n sour is another popular option. Basically you can't go too far wrong with anything here, so bring your appetite and get ready to get hooked.

The Tamarind Tree

The Tamarind Tree is the vegetarian restaurant in the Yatri Niwas complex. It is housed in an attractive building, with the restaurant downstairs and a banquet hall on the first floor. This is a rather small place, neat and tidy, able to seat only 64 people at a time. But it has room for another 150 outside, on an open terrace, under the sky, shaded by lovely trees, fringed by palms and potted plants. Daunting though this may sound in the peak of the Deccani summer, we saw several tables occupied by the lunch crowd. In the evenings, it is difficult to get a place. One often has to wait for dinner. As soon as you walk into the restaurant, you should ask for Zubair. Of course, you might actually find that he opens the door for you. He is a fine young man, well spoken, helpful and ever so polite. Ask him to seat you at a table near the left wall. You will then get a nice picture of this cozy café. It is absolutely unpretentious, but it serves a variety of good, wholesome food. The menu has everything from snacks and soups to fruit juices and beverages. The Tamarind Tree has acquired a name for its dosas, idlis, vadas and pessarettus. But there are a whole lot of other things to choose from. The restaurant prides itself for the quality of its Indian, Chinese and Tandoori fare. Most items are available throughout the day. But some can only be ordered between 11.00am and 3.00pm, and again for a couple of hours during the evening. Ordering the usual snacks is never a problem in a place like this. But if you are being adventurous, or are on a splurge, do try some of the soups, the starters, the North and South Indian curries and daals, rotis and naans. You will also find a sizeable list of Chinese fare to sample, some surprisingly good, equal to the food you can buy in Singapore and Bangkok, but all strictly vegetarian! The best value for money in The Tamarind Tree is the thali. It's always a meal in itself, but here it is a work of art, a carefully thought out and lovingly presented selection of dishes that go with each other, accompanied by chutneys, puris and rice. The Tamarind Tree is a place where families come and eat and have fun. The prices are reasonable, some items marked slightly lesser than in Aangan next door. Credit cards are accepted. There is plenty of place to park vehicles in the compound.

Rayalaseema Ruchulu

You'll need to asbestos-proof your palate, they warned. Even Nagarjuna eats here, they exclaimed. This is it, they said. The ultimate, the authentic, the definitive place for all the mouth-watering treats of the Rayalaseema. And were they right? Well, sort of. Rayalaseema Ruchulu did a lot of things right: the food is good, the d?cor is totally down-to-earth, and the service is affable. But we wouldn't call this the last word in all things Andhra - and the food is certainly not as spicy as they project it. If you want, however, to find a fair cross-section of the region's cuisine, and taste some vintage recipes, then this is the place for you. Besides, it's one of the few places in town that is secure enough to base its menu entirely on one geographical area and not include Chinese or Tandoori just to play it safe. For starters, you must try the Kodi Vepudu and the Chapa Fry, both of which are spicy and crisp-fried. Order the wonderfully spiced buttermilk at the start of your meal, it's quite addictive. RR has some interesting dishes that you might not find anywhere else in town, like the Neyyi Kodi, which is made from a 100-year-old recipe and is on the heavier side. You won't need too many accompaniments with this on your plate. The Jonna Rotte here is very good, and goes great with the Gutti Vankai, the Gongura Mamsam or the Naatu Kodi Iguru. Unfortunately, there's not too much for the vegetarians to get excited about, but you do have a selection of pulusu (a sort of watered-down dal), that changes everyday. Also try the Dumpa vepudu and the Bhendi Fry, which are pretty good. Top off your meal with the carrot halwa or the Rice Payasam. The interiors are very non-fussy and with a nice feeling of space. RR is on the expensive side, which is perhaps emphasized by the disappointing portion-sizes. But if food, like your grandmother used to serve it, is one of your weaknesses then you'll be drawn to Rayalaseema Ruchulu.

Fishland

Fishland is a wonderful restaurant on the congested Punjagutta-Sanathnagar-Kukatpally section of NH 9, close to the Ameerpet crossroads. Do not get confused by the name - it is indeed a place to eat. Park on the roadside - courtesy of MCH, as long as you pay the fee in due course - climb a flight of steps, and enter. You will notice straightaway that there is nothing pretentious about the place - pink walls, a large primitive painting of a bucolic scene, brass plant holders, standard fans, simple furniture. Very basic, but clean. The menu here offers all kinds of fare - vegetarian, non-vegetarian, Andhra, North Indian, Chinese and Tandoori - but if you have come because the pisceatory name attracted you, stick to the fish and seafood. You won't regret it. Experts tell me that some of the cuisine is an excellent example of the cooking of the Andhra coast. To begin with, I sampled small helpings of Fish Biryani, Prawn Biryani and Andhra Prawn Curry. These was served with spiced coconut gravy, curd chutney and sliced onions. All the combinations I concocted were simply delicious. More important, the flavors were new to me, and are now very much a part of my education. As the main course, I ordered a Fishland Special Meal (Rs. 95). This is, without doubt, one of the most outstanding bargains available in Hyderabad-Secunderabad - a wide variety of dishes, hot, beautifully presented, and amazingly reasonable in price. The basic meal is served in a thali. I got Tomato Soup with Croutons & Cream, Mixed Fried Vegetables, Tomato Daal, Sambhar, Drumstick Curry In Gravy, Rasam, a bowl of Biryani Rice, Chutney, Curd, Papad, Tandoori Roti and Rice. Along with this came Fish Pulusu, Roast Chicken and Mutton Curry. For dessert I was given a slice of strawberry ice cream. It was a hearty meal, and I enjoyed it to the core. My companion stuck to a simple combination of Rice & Prawn Masala (Rs. 75/-). I sampled a small portion of his lunch and understood straightaway why he looked so replete. Fishland has become very well known for its biryanis and snacks. The take-away part of the business is doing exceedingly well. (I was advised to take home a portion of Boneless Chicken and Nellore Fish Curry, which I did, and subsequently found both to be delicious.) The restaurant is open from 11.00am to 11.00pm. It seats 100 at a time. On holidays and over the weekends, it is advisable to reserve tables for dinner. The air-conditioning is centrally controlled. Quite candidly, I would have liked it a little cooler when I was there. But perhaps the Andhra spices were making me sweat more profusely than I normally do! Smoking is not allowed on the premises. All credit cards (except American Express) are accepted. You will get the most courteous, attentive service if Captain Guru happens to be on duty in your vicinity. He is a wonderful host and will willingly give advice on what goes with what. He will also tell you what seafood is not available on a certain day because the fresh supplies have not come in. We were unable to eat curried crab, and a variety of what, from his description, sounded like sardine. Incidentally, there is another Fishland at Lakdi-ka-Pul, Saifabad, right opposite the Police Station. The telephone numbers are 321-0847 & 661-1538. I have not been there, but am told that it offers the same sort of fare at the same prices as this outlet in Ameerpet. For me, Fishland is the find of the year. Not only shall I go back to dine, but will take my guests with me. Seldom have I eaten so well in Hyderabad. And that is saying a lot.

Coastal Spice

Lovers of seafood are not easy to please. After all they're spending almost double the amount herbivores do, so they're sticklers for quality and freshness. (Ever met a person who's just had a plate of bad prawns? Not a pretty sight.) Luckily, these foodies won't have much to complain about at Coastal Spice. While the look of the place is nothing to write home about (the home-delivery section is popular), you won't have reason to crib, and the service is efficient and attentive. This restaurant is definitely worth a try, because it actually keeps the promise of its name and serves up some eye-and-mouth-watering concoctions of fish and prawns. If you want a tour of what the regulars order every time they're here, then it would go something like this: for starters, the NTR Pakodi or the Bangala Dumpa Vepudu (potato fry). At main-course, rice goes great with the mildly tangy Nellore Chapa Pulusu, or the Bummidayu Pulusu (made of a special tiny variety of fish). The prawn fry and Kodi Iguru (chicken) are also pretty good here. Desserts include ravva laddoo, semiya payasam and kesari. Popular North-Indian dishes include butter paneer, malai kofta and chicken 65. And in Chinese, people prefer, soft noodles, vegetable chow chow and ginger chicken. CS usually has some promotional event happening all year round - food festivals, tie-ups with beverage companies and the like - so you might want to ask for the deals on offer. On the whole, this is the kind of place you'd go to for a reasonably priced taste of the finds from the coast.