Chasing Old Glory

 Hyderabad has traditionally occupied a place of pride in the Indian culinary scene. But is the cookie crumbling? At least in the recently launched TasteAtlas “100 Best Food Cities” in the world for 2025 suggests the same. Hyderabad (50th) fared worse than Mumbai (5th) and New Delhi (45th). Experts point out a number of reasons for this downfall:

Margins over meaning

A lot of restaurants in Hyderabad today are chasing margins over meaning. We’ve got too many businessmen and too few chefs shaping the city’s food culture. Everyone’s copying everyone, and menus are all over the place—why is Lobster Pasta on the same menu as Chicken 65? In Delhi and Mumbai, you can taste the world—Tibetan, North Eastern, and Ethiopian—often cooked by the communities themselves. That kind of diversity and chef-led ambition is what Hyderabad needs more of.

— Nidhi Varma, Founder, Nomad’s Tacos, Hyderabad

Consumer too price conscious

A point to be noted is people in Delhi and Mumbai (from my experience) are not afraid to pay more for a quality food experience. The case seems to be opposite here. As a cafe owner, I have observed that people desire a fancy ambience but often settle for mediocre food. They stick with old-school dishes, which is great, but they don’t accept experimental new flavours. Coming back to Hyderabad specialities, I would blame the quality lapse on two factors. Firstly, people refuse to accept higher prices. Secondly, Swiggy and Zomato compel restaurants to operate on smaller profit margins due to their commissions, which leads to a decline in quality.

— Disha Agarwal, Owner and Chef, Kami

Hyderabad Café Promote better

It has nothing to do with the taste of Hyderabadi Biryani. We have not been able to market Hyderabadi food to the world. If you look at our popular things, it is only the Biryani and Haleem that people outside know about. We don’t talk about Shikampur or Marag and other items. So people have a perception that Hyderabad is possibly a two-dish kind of place.

That is why if you look at Mumbai or Delhi, you will find about 20 iconic places. You will find at least three to four cuisines flourishing there. For example, in Delhi, there are Mughlai, and Punjabi. In Mumbai, there are Marathi and Malvani cuisines.

— Sabyasachi Raychaudhuri, food and travel enthusiast