Hyderabad House

Hyderabad is in south-central India. And Hyderabad House is in Parramatta.

The food of Hyderbad is a combination of Turkish, Arabic and Indian cuisines.

The best example of it is haleem, a Middle Eastern stew as thick and starchy as a glob of partially baked dough. The texture comes from pounding wheat and ground meat (Hyderabadis use lamb) into a paste, and then cooking it for almost an entire day with spices and lentils. Toppings include ground nuts, crisp-fried onions, fresh coriander and a boiled egg.

It is the opposite in many ways to Chicken 65, Hyderabad-style junk food. The mysteriously named dish involves battered fried chicken being refried with a spicy, vibrantly red, curry leaf-mottled yoghurt mix.

The most popular and locally renowned dish, though, is biryani. The mixed-rice dish is found all over India and the entire sub-continent, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. But the and Hyderabadi version is dum biryani, meaning “layered”. All the finished ingredients are mixed together in a single, enormous pot. It’s lighter, more herbal and aromatic (the cardamom is particularly noticeable). It’s also demanding to make; it takes the kitchen team several hours, so you’ll have to wait until 12.30pm to order it. Alternatively, get a standard-style biryani from the buffet – it’s $16 all you can eat.

You’ll find a lot of the usual Indian standards in the buffet and on the menu, too. Including butter chicken roasted in a tandoor, which gives it and the gravy an earthy barbeque-like flavour.