Amazingly suck-ulent

Mary had a Little lamb

Who never knew any hate!
Mary's poor little lamb, sadly
Landed on my plate!

Plates and forks clink and clatter as waiters, bustling around with activity, multitask and manage things while the families are chatting and relishing the biriyani while kids devour their plate of noodles. Yes, you guessed that right. It's Hotel Paradise Biriyani! Known for its creamy Irani chai, succulent mutton kebabs and fragrant Hyderabadi biriyani, it has two proud outlets in Chennai, Perungudi being one of them. A piece of Hyderabad in Chennai.

The ambience also scores well, having a calm, relaxing feeling. The walls tell stories on the ancient history of this revolutionary dish.

As we go upstairs, we reach the main hotel. After a long time of waiting, we receive our Chicken garlic kebab, one of their signature kebabs. It is a creamy, mild, not-so-spicy chicken kebab with a hint of garlic and hummus.Just melts in your mouth. Seriously delicious and horribly addictive.

The biriyani at Hotel Paradise, though, was quite different from the normal Hyderabadi biriyani. The top was a layer of fragrant saffron white basmati rice, the middle layer was filled with spicy exotic masala rice, enclosing the epic burst of flavors (but it was too spicy) and then the heavenly layer of tender, juicy meat that has been marinated perfectly (no wonder the restaurant boasts about it's "World's favorite biriyani"). 

All in all, it's a drool-worthy bowl of Nawab-style biriyani until a few minutes after tasting. There starts the series of water-gulping and nose-blowing. It's quite spicy and the heat from the chilli drains out your senses of taste and makes it almost impossible to feel and enjoy the taste. It was garnished with almost-black caramelized onions which was spoiling the taste even further. 

The biriyani was served with cumin raita and a khus-khus (poppy seeds) khorma. The raita was delicious and really complimented the biriyani. Perhaps the khus-khus khorma isn't mutton biriyani's best buddy.

Hotel Paradise also has it's once-highly-popular Takeaway, which features post-meal snacks, such as falooda , creamy Irani chai, Osmania biscuits, samosas, etc. at a surprisingly nominal price.

We downed a glass of rich, creamy Irani chai to wash the heavy meal down. The milky cream on the tea was just a cup of leisure. The Osmania biscuits just melts in your mouth like butter, leaving a whiff of oatmeal on you.

This is definitely a place people would want to visit another time. It was a royal feeling, when you sniff like a prince, eat like a nawab and burp like an emperor. My first taste of Hyderabadi biriyani will stay etched on my memories forever.

Name: Hotel Paradise Biriyani
Venue: Perungudi, OMR
Specialities: Mutton kebabs, Biriyani and Irani chai
Cost: Rs.500 for two (approx.)