There is something reassuring about a restaurant that doesn’t expect every meal to be an occasion. Sometimes, all you want is good food, enough variety for everyone at the table and a place you can return to without thinking twice. That is the idea behind Central House, a new dining space at Kondapur in Hyderabad, where four chefs have come together with a shared belief that quality and familiarity should take precedence over elaborate presentations and unnecessary experimentation, basically less drama and more effort.
For founder-chef Sathish, who has spent 25 years in the hospitality business and has been associated with the Fusion 9 legacy, the idea was to create a neighbourhood eatery that people could visit several times a week. Alongside chefs Raghu, Shaji and Chandran, he has brought together different culinary influences to create a menu that travels across South Indian, North Indian, Asian and Continental cuisines.
Achayans Scotch Eggs
“We wanted to build a neighbourhood café where people can keep coming without feeling that it is heavy on the pocket. We don’t want too much drama with the food. We want it to be simple, what people like, and something they can come back to,” he says.
That thought reflects in the menu, which has enough variety to cater to different generations dining together. While the elders at the table might lean towards Indian flavours (familiarity), younger diners often look for Chinese, pasta and Continental options. “The elders will want the original Indian flavours, but the kids will go for a little bit of Chinese and Continental. So we have kept those options too. It is important that there is something for everybody,” Chef Sathish explains.
Bagara Rice with Mutton Curry
The meal offers plenty to explore. We began with aloo tikki imli chaat, Achayan scotch eggs, ghee roast prawns, jackfruit tacos, seekh kebabs and veg shammi kebabs. The David black pepper chicken and black pepper paneer are among the appetisers worth looking out for. The pepper preparations, particularly the paneer, make for an interesting addition to the Asian selection. My dining companions were equally enthusiastic about the chilli chicken, which they felt deserved a place among the must-tries.
Butter Garlic Prawns with Scallion
There is also a distinctly regional side to the menu. The vegetarian idiyappam Khao Suey brings together the familiarity of idiyappam with the accompaniments of Khao Suey, while the vegetarian kizhi parotta is a spin on the comfort food.
For the main course, the options range from corn methi malai masala and bagara khana mutton to mutton salna, Kerala parotta, kadal kulcha, butter naan and fry piece chicken biryani. The idea is not to reinvent familiar dishes but to get the basics right.
“End of the day, people want to go back to their basic food. Even after parties, people want their egg rice, curd rice and dal rice. Classics are what people come back to. Instead of having fancy names and theatrics in presentations, we wanted to focus on what people like, with the items made with perfection,” Sathish says.
This also explains why the kitchen is not rushing to offer an excessively long menu. The chef says he is observing what people order, understanding their preferences and taking feedback before arriving at a shorter, more focused selection. The intention is to eventually build a format that can be replicated across locations without losing its identity.
The beverage selection follows a similarly playful approach, with smoked pineapple jalapeno, green mango curry leaf punch and masala chaas offering different accompaniments to the food. For dessert, the apricot pudding and rose angoori rasmalai falooda round off the meal.
Blue Lagoon Mojito
Even the interiors follow the idea of creating a home-like setting rather than a restaurant tied to a particular regional identity. Sathish says he wanted the space to feel like a house, with influences that bring in a little of the Goan and Kochi aesthetic. The tiled roof and architectural details lend it that lived-in character.
What sets the place apart is the collective experience of the four chefs behind it and their decision to build a dining concept around what people actually want to eat. “I always feel food has to be simple. Even I should be able to eat it once or thrice. Only then do I feel the food is good,” Sathish says.
It is a refreshingly straightforward approach in a dining landscape often preoccupied with novelty. And perhaps that is the point: a good neighbourhood restaurant does not necessarily have to surprise you every time. It just has to give you enough reasons to come back. And Central House, I guess lives up to that principle.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
