Overview
- Signature Dishes: Hyderabadi biryani
- Opening Times & Days: 10:00 am to 11:00 pm, daily
- Address: Hospet, Karnataka, India
- Contact: N/A
- Reservation: No
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Summary
As the name suggests, Hotel Charminar is a restaurant specialising in Hyderabadi cuisine with a major focus on Hyderabadi biryani. We loved this restaurant for their delicious Hyderabadi biryanis and other Indian dishes. The service is unusually friendly, warm and hospitable while the value for their meals is very reasonable indeed.
Hotel Charminar Hospet Restaurant
Hotel Charminar Restaurant as the name suggests is a restaurant specialising in Hyderabadi cuisine with a major focus on Hyderabadi biryani. Having just arrived from Hyderabad ourselves, and having had a taste of delicious Hyderabadi biryani in Hyderabad, we felt like we needed more doses of that fabulous dish. So on both evenings while staying in Hospet we decided to dine at Hotel Charminar which is located in the Islamic area of Hospet.
The service at Hotel Charminar is wonderful and refreshing. We were made to feel very welcome and the waiting staff was very patient in helping us select our meals for dinner. His English was excellent for Indian standards so we could converse with him in English.
The decor at this restaurant is simple and plain as is the case with most budget restaurants in India. The restaurant was clean and spartan which was good enough for us.
For our first dinner at this restaurant, we chose a Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani and Chicken Hariyali with tandoori rotis.
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Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani is a rice-based dish made with spices and chicken. Biryani comes from the Persian word beryā(n) meaning fried or roasted. This dish was introduced when Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb conquered Southern India. The blending of Mughlai and Telugu cuisines in the kitchens of the Nizams, rulers of Hyderabad, resulted in the creation of Hyderabadi Biryani.
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Hyderabadi biryani is usually served with Dahi chutney (yogurt and onions) and Mirchi ka salan – a green chili curry. Mirchi ka salan is a popular chili and peanut curry of Hyderabad which accompanies Hyderabadi biryani. These side dishes add more flavour to the biryani and give some moisture to an otherwise dry dish.
The presentation of this dish was uninspiring when it first arrived on the table. The rice didn’t have a lot of flavour to it; the chicken was lightly spiced and moist. However, it was the sauce that made this dish as it gave a lot of flavour, moisture and depth to the biryani.
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Hariyali Chicken is a dish made with chicken which is marinated in an intoxicating paste of spinach, coriander, mint and green chillies.
Hariyali Chicken is a famous chicken dish of Punjabi cuisine. In this dish boneless chicken is cooked in a rich and creamy gravy of spinach, mint and cashew nuts.
Hariyali Chicken has a thick gravy which is made by combining all the green vegetables such as spinach, coriander, green chillies and mint leaves. A fine paste of these flavors gives a rich and green twist to the chicken. Hariyali chicken is generally served with tandoori rotis or butter naans; we opted to go with the healthier tandoori roti option.
The serving of chicken pieces in this dish was generous, while the green sauce was where all the flavour and interesting texture in this dish existed. It was the thick gravy that made this dish stand out. This dish went really well with the tandoori rotis because of the thick sauce.
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The Tandoori rotis were crisp and doughy and were really tasty especially with the thick gravy of the Hariyali Chicken dish.
We returned the following night to have another meal at Hotel Charminar. Since it was a Friday, we ordered the special for the day, Special Mutton Biryani as well as a Chicken Curry with tandoori rotis.
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Special Mutton Biryani is only served on Friday since this is the day of fasting and prayers for the Islamic community. This dish was presented so beautifully with sliced boiled eggs, fried cashew nuts, coriander and bhujia mix sprinkled over the top of the biryani.
The biryani had more flavour than the regular chicken biryani due to the flavoursome mutton meat. The mutton was well marinated and still had a nice, firm texture. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much meat to this dish given it was mutton which tends to have more bones than meat in India. It was still a delicious dish even thought there wasn’t enough meat to go around as the additional eggs and herbs gave it a different flavour combination which was quite refreshing.
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The Chicken Curry we ordered was a special chicken curry made with home bred chicken instead of the regular poultry chicken. As a result, the chicken pieces in this dish were smaller portions; however the meat was juicy, tender and falling off the bone. The gravy was thick and delicious, while the flavour was filled with aromatic spices, cashew nuts and lots of coriander. The curry tasted like it had been cooked for a long time to combine a real chicken flavour and spices into a nice rich curry.
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During our second meal at Hotel Charminar we were recommended to try an Indian specialty drink – Jeera Masala drink. This was an interesting drink that I had had before however Graham had not tried before this day. It is a version of Coca Cola; however, instead of being sweet, it is a combination of sweet and salty with a strong cumin flavour. It is quite an acquired taste due to the strong cumin flavour. Nonetheless, it is very good for digestion which is why Indian drink it quite regularly.
Overall, we loved this restaurant for their delicious Hyderabadi biryanis and other Indian dishes we had not tried elsewhere. The service is unusually friendly, warm and hospitable which was refreshing. The best part about this restaurant is the value for their meals which is very reasonable indeed.