Rude Travel by Vir Sanghvi: Take a reign check

Falaknuma Palace is one of Hyderabad’s last Nizam-era gems, as biryani gives way to shawarma. But with Hosa leading a new wave of bold restaurants, there’s hope yet

I don’t really agree with Michelin’s hotel keys for India. The idea is to replicate the famous star system used for rating restaurants to judge hotels. Only, instead of stars the ratings are called keys.

It’s a very good idea and has worked very well in Europe. Unfortunately it is less reliable when it comes to the two Asian destinations I know well. The keys for Thailand make little sense and I have yet to meet anyone who understands the logic behind the keys awarded to Indian hotels.

Only two Indian hotels have three keys (like three stars for top restaurants) which makes no sense because hoteliering is something Indians do well. ( London alone has eight hotels with three keys.) On the other hand, there is no doubt that the two Indian hotels that have won three keys are outstanding. Udaipur’s Lake Palace is spectacular and Hyderabad’s Falaknuma Palace is a real gem.

Between the two palace hotels, Falaknuma is the lesser known property. This is because it isn’t located in Rajasthan where you expect to find palaces. It’s located in Hyderabad and was never the primary residence of the ruler.

Falaknuma is a late 19th century building and was constructed by a Hyderabadi noble who sold it to the Nizam for a token sum of ₹20 Lakh in 1897. The Nizam used it as a guest house for visiting royalty: the Prince of Wales, the Grand Duke of Russia etc. It appealed to European royalty, perhaps because it isn’t designed like a typical Indian palace but looks a little like a grand English country estate built in the manner of a Venetian palazzo.

In the post Independence era and especially after the princes were de recognised by Indira Gandhi’s government, the palace fell into a state of disrepair. Princess Esra, the Turkish wife of the Nizam, began a conversation with the Taj to restore it and run it as a hotel. The conversation began in the 1980s but only amounted to something approaching a deal in 1995. In 2010 the Taj finally opened it as the most exclusive palace hotel (only 60 rooms) in India after years of restoration.

Hyderabad has grown in a different direction in recent years so Falaknuma is quite far from the fast growing tech district (where the ITC Kohenur is king) but for anyone who loves a combination of great hoteliering and historical splendour, Falaknuma is one of Asia’s finest hotels. It is extremely well run by Anmol Pancholy and his team.

With each passing year the Hyderabad of the Nizam seems further and further away. One reason why I love Falaknuma is because it lovingly recreates that bygone era. When I shot here a decade ago the hotel found me a master perfumer to interview about the city’s dying fragrance tradition. This time they found me a tailor who made a nawabi achkan in just 24 hours. An expert on pearls was on standby to offer a tutorial. And the chef cooked me an excellent Shikhar-style meal under a tent pitched on one of the hotel’s terraces.

But this is a vanishing (if not already vanished) Hyderabad. In food terms alone the city’s tastes change with remarkable speed. Twenty years ago I came to shoot a program on biryani and Nizami food. I only found it at private homes. The restaurants served an all-purpose hybrid cuisine.

I came back a few years later and the well known biryani places mostly served rubbish. Each allegedly famous place in the old city made its real money from bogus Chinese food and Gobhi

Manchurian was easier to find than good biryani.

I came back again some years later to check out restaurants for the Culinary Culture ratings and discovered that many vast new places had opened but that a) very few had any interest in Nizami food; b) they were more interested in Andhra/ Telangana food ; and c) most of them were not very good.

This time I found many new restaurants: parts of Hyderabad may have the highest density of restaurants per square mile than anywhere else in India. But there was very little that was genuinely exciting.

The biryani tradition was fading away. Instead there was a strong tilt towards the food of the Middle East. As Arabian food is a second rate cuisine compared to Hyderabadi, I found this surprising. But all over the city, restaurants specialised in Mandi which is a Middle Eastern dish of meat and rice and tastes like it was made by a semi-skilled cook who lacked the talent to make biryani. Shawarma places abounded and restaurants had names like ‘Istanbul.’

Why would a city want to throw away its culinary heritage and pretend to be a Bedouin camel camp?

I can’t work that out.

Obviously i am not the only man to feel that Hyderabad’s restaurants are about quantity not quality because India’s top restaurateurs are all opening branches of their restaurants in Hyderabad.

The big boys are all here and the biggest of the big boys, Rohit Khattar, has taken Hyderabad by storm. I went to Hosa his modern South Indian restaurant twice and not only was it packed out but there was a queue outside the door.

Hosa is a quality operation headed by Chef Harish Rao (who was part of the opening team at the original Avartana in Chennai ) and I would happily queue up for Harish’s food too . But Rohit has also introduced authentic Thai food to Hyderabad at Fireback. The cuisine is overseen by the great David Thompson so there are no compromises on quality. Fireback was jam packed too. ( If you do go, order the Massaman Curry.)

There is more to come. A week or so after you read this Rohit will resurrect the All American Diner his legendary original Delhi restaurant in the space next to Hosa. I am a sucker for hot dogs, hamburgers etc so I loved the food. My guess is that Hyderabad will too. And there is still a huge new Comorin to come. Hyderabad is on target to become Rohit’s biggest operation: Bigger than Mumbai or Delhi.

If it all works out then Hyderabad will finally get the restaurants it deserves. Which is great: Though it still puzzles me how any city can abandon one of India’s great culinary traditions to eat shawarma and Mandi instead!

- Why hide the papers? Why keep the conspiracy theories related to Netaji Subhas Bose’s death alive? And why deny India the truth about the death of one of its great freedom fighters?