Paradise Persis - Best Biryani Restaurant in Hyderabad

Hotel Paradise Persis at the Paradise circle in Secunderabad (forms part of Hyderabad - north of Tank Bund lake) is the best restaurant to relish the Biryani in Hyderabad. Offering a rare combination of authentic hyderabadi biryani served in a place with good ambience with good service from the staff. Plus, the rest rooms are very well maintained. Also, the restaurant is centrally located so it is easy to find both public tranportation or an auto / taxi. If there is only one place you can go for Biryani in Hyderabad, then go to Paradise Persis Restaurant.

There are a lot of restaurants in Hyderabad that get the authentic biryani part right - however, they fall short on either ambience, hygiene or hospitality.

One thing to remember; this is a very large restaurant - that caters to many segments of customers. One section handles mostly blue collared and construction worker kind of people. There is also another section that caters to beverages and snacks. Then there is the Garden - which used to be great place earlier. But due to the pollution around this area, you should avoid it. Finally, they have Persis Gold and Persis Platinum that are more upscale.

At one time, this place was not as big, so the experience was much better. However, after they constructed a gigantic new building - things can be very impersonal sometimes. It is likely that everytime you come, you may have a different experience.

Plus remember, restaurants in Hyderabad like big group of people. So if you turn up alone or with another person, you may feel a bit neglected.

If you are caucasian you are fine. If not, dress well - they have some staff who will classify you and direct you to an appropriate section of the restaurant based on their 'profiling'. You are better off dressing sharp.

They serve good biryani both chicken and mutton. They have a variety of kebabs(chicken and lamb) which are delicious. Some popular entrees (dishes) are dumkha chicken, butter chicken, and kadai chicken. They serve an assortment of Indian breads - tandoori roti, naan and roomali roti. Overall, stay with the standard dishes. For desserts the authentic desert is Qubani ka meeta (made from Apricots) and Double ka meeta (made from bread fried in oil, then sweetened along with Indian cheese). They are good and the taste is gold standard. This is not a place to try novel dishes - rather a place where you get to taste the authentic moghlai food.

The food is spicy with many Indian spices. However, the use of hot chilli pepper is a little mild compared to other restaurants in town. However, sample the food and make sure you can handle the spice. Most of the dishes are cooked in large volume - the ability to serve with lesser spice will be limited (even if you ask for low or medium spice).

Despite its small quirks - Paradise Persis is hands down the best place in Hyderabad for Biryani and Moghlai cuisine. This restaurant has been in business for over 50 years, so they are not in to pinch a few extra rupees from a meal. If you are new to Hyderabad hire a taxi or an auto and just say "Paradise hotel - Paradise circle, Secunderabad". Go for it and hope you like the food!

Hyderabad – No longer the best city in India

I went to Necklace road for dinner with friends on Saturday. The newly laid road looked so nice.  There were no potholes, the lanes were painted, and driving on the road was a pleasure.  I thought this must be some new technology, as this road looks really good.  This thought (new road laying technology) was on my mind, as I went walking in to the restaurant.

It was only much later on the walk back to the parking lot after dinner that it struck me.  It has been so long since the roads were good in Hyderabad that I had become unfamiliar with good roads.  So unfamiliar and not used to it – that I think of new technology for something as mundane as tarred roads! Probably will help you understand the degree of change in the public infrastructure in the past few years.

Four years back, I had gone to Bangalore seen the public infrastructure and could not help but feel proud – Hyderabad was different.  The roads in Hyderabad then were good, things got done (workers swept from mid night to early hours of the day and still do even today) Very unlike Bangalore. 

Back then, my friend worked in an MNC in Bangalore, the building was good. However, the road outside was not paved.  I incessantly teased him about it.  In order to get to Whitefield, you had to get over a bridge that had only 2 lanes (for both sides of traffic). They said there is a plan to expand the road.  However, the land belongs to the Indian Railways and it has been delayed for the past 5 years.  I remember telling a hundred people after my visit from Bangalore, how proud I was to be from Hyderabad. Things get done here, this is the best city to live in India.

However, things are different now. It is a pale shadow of its past.  Infrastructure has crumbled, legislations help special interests instead of everyone, corruption has increased, administration efficiency has decreased. There is more show and less substance. Smartness on big picture is replaced with Cleverness on small things. Greed dominates, professionalism and work ethic have taken several steps back.  The trajectory of the developments is not even flat – it is downwards!