Kuchipudi is a lesser known restaurant in one of the not so popular Hotels, Katriya(for foodies at least) for amazing food. It professes to have pure Andhra cuisine with a mix of all the flavors like Rayalseema, Seemandhra and Telangana.
I was here for a special dinner organized by Hyderabad Foodies Club on a Sunday night and with moderately high expectations. I liked the ambiance and the setup but what was to follow didn’t impress me that much.The welcome drink was too sweet for my liking. It was jaggery based and was not so balanced. I loved the Sol Kadhi in one of the similar restaurants but this drink didn’t impress me even though others liked it.
For Starters I liked the Kanda Vada made of Yam. Mokkajona(corn) Garelu was not so tasty and pretty average. The Keema vada was outright bad and didn’t taste like mutton on any sense. what stood out was Kuchipudi Kodi even though it wasn’t remotely authentic Andhra and in fact it tasted sweet. But I liked the taste enough to recommend to anyone because of it was similar to any chicken starter you would normally get with a red color.
Next up was the main course. Royyala(Prawn) Iguru had a raw unrefined taste that I started liking after a few spoons. It was quite good actually once you got the taste of it.
Bommidala(small long fish with bones) Pulusu was also good but eating that fish gave me a hard time as always.
Bendakaya(okra) Masala was very good, I especially liked it. Punugulu(a kind of andhra style vada) Pulusu was very average but I liked the softness of the Punugulu.
The let down was the Mamidikaya(mango) Pappu(dal) which had less of salt and less of mango punch. I have tasted a lot better and I love this variant of dal so we asked for a reworked version with specific directions. The result was outstandingly tasty. Got to have plain rice with it.
Now the disaster of the evening was the Chicken Kunda(pot) Biriyani which tasted really bad because the flavors in the rice just didn’t come out even though it looked beautiful and was highly recommended. One of their off days it must be.
We ended with a very tasty Semiya Payasam and an interesting Pootharekulu(thin rice sheets with ghee).
Overall, I believe that it was maybe an off day for them because I had heard really good recommendations about the place but it did disappoint me to some extent. I have definitely tasted better authentic Andhra Food a lot of times but Kuchipudi that night wasn’t one of them. Maybe it is good to try them in A’la Carte.
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