Fiery barbeques to keep you warm

Kholani Barbeque’s alfresco seating, with its view of the city lights, the winter breeze and the spicy, fiery grills; makes it all value for money, and an overall pleasing experience

Kholani, with its two outlets in Tolichowki and Banjara Hills has been quietly and surely making its way into the hearts of food lovers that are hooked onto Hyderabadi cuisine. Recently, in addition to changing the interiors of the Banjara Hills outlet, the owner Mohsin Kholani has launched a barbeque place on the second floor.

The tastefully done, simple and elegant interiors and the well-laid out alfresco are the two seating options at the barbeque place. One does tend to choose the alfresco with its pleasing view of the city lights and winter breeze, which continues to be comfortably cool at this time of the year, setting the right ambience to taste the hot and sizzling kebabs and grills from the live counter. There is a barbeque pit on every table, where the 80 per cent done skewers are placed to be finished to perfection.

In addition to the chicken, prawn, fish and pineapple on the skewers, the live grill counter serves unlimited servings of pathar ka gosht, murrel fish marinated in kasundi, quail, chicken marinated in Malaysian spices, fish grill done in the Thai way, chicken terriyaki… Our tasting left us fuming over the spice – green chilli and red chilli powder that made the grills fiery. Apparently that is the way majority of guests like it, according to Mohsin.

If you are done with one grilled item after the other, and you still have the space in your tummy, head to the buffet spread with its predictable, yet popular line – that includes Hyderabadi biryani, butter chicken, paneer, fried rice, vegetable manchuria, noodles, etc. The icing on the cake is the dessert menu with its yummy kesar phirni, litchi kheer, khubani ka meetha, pineapple soufflé, etc.

At the end of the meal that leaves you quite full, one surmises that it is indeed value for money at Rs 670 (all inclusive), and yet pines for the Indian, especially the Mughlai and Nizami kebabs that the Kholanis are known for.

By:Rajeshwari Kalyanam