Hotel gem is one of three restaurants Ive been in Hydrerabad that serves Kerala dishes, the other two being Utupura in banjara hills and malabar in nampally. Unlike the othertwo the menu in Gem is not limited to Kerala dishes, Hyderabadi, north Indian and Chinese dishes are also available and all in veg a well as non veg.
The overall look and feel of the hotel is similar to the hotels around the place and the furniture and all used makes it look like a normal hyderabadi restaurant than a Kerala one. It ca accommodate 30-40 people is a spacious, ambiance may not be that good but it is very clean.
Ive been there only times and both time during lunch. We ordered kerala meals both time. The platte is larger than the malabar one and dishes were quite ok. We also ordered extra dishes both times. First I Think it was chicken and beef curry each.Chicken was okay, but the beef tasted stale, we left it as it. Actually because of this reason we ddint visit the restaurant for quite sometime. The second time went exclusively to have fish, we ordered two types of fish curry and fish peera, all of them were quite okay, but by that time we were accustomed to tatse at utupura and this was not a match and cost wise both are about the same. We only went there as it was nearer and would’ve saved us the trip till banjara but we stuck with utupura.
Overall the menu is quite extensive, even with just the Kerala dishes it is much larger than the one of malabar and quite comparable to utupura. Items I remember included puttu kadala, appam, kappa, different types of fish dishes including pollichatu, curry, peera, fish mukaku curry and many more. Coming to chicken there was atleat 5-6 varieties of Kerala style, also mutton and beef. There was also Kerala style biriyani and I think crab and prawns also was available. And all this accounts for only a quarter of the menu.
North indian veg and nonveg and also indo-chinese dishes, both veg and nonveg( fried rice, noodles, chilly, manchurian chicken and gobi an the like) are also available.
The service is also quite good and food is served fast. The location is opposite to the secunderabad station, it is in a row of building and is actually below the level surrounding road and you may not easily find it.
The cost is similar to that of normal restaurant with such extensive menu, chicken dishes cost from just under 100 per plate to over 200, and mutton and fish dishes are slightly higher than that, like most similar restaurants.
But with all these features there is some quality missing and for someone wanting Kerala cuisine I would recommend utupura in banjara and for some onewanting a cheaper daily option, hotel malabar in nampally.
But this is still an ok restaurant and no problem dining from here.