Dine in Japan, Dance in Bali, All Without Leaving Hyd

Hyderabad has stopped building restaurants. It has started building worlds now! One night you are sitting under the shadow of a temple pillar, the next night you are in a quiet corner of Japan, then in a courtyard in Turkey! Because, the city’s architects aren’t asking what’s on the menu, they are asking that how should it feel when you walk in, actually? In fact, the restaurant floors have officially stopped being floors! They are making game boards now as you roll the dice and play ludo on your way to the table.

DESIGNING JAPAN IN HYD

Sarah Sham, principal designer behind Hyderabad’s Koko and Foo, built Asian restos that was never about just hanging lanterns! “We consciously stayed away from anything overtly Asian,” she says. Instead, the idea was to bottle feeling. Sometimes, that feeling arrives through colour, pattern play and quiet touches of Japaneseness like a cherry blossom tree or a strategic splash of red. Take the example of the sushi counter she made! Its height is calibrated like a stage.

“You can actually see the craft happen in front of you. And a bar stool keeps it casual, conversational and not stiff and formal.” For Koko, the soul of the Japanese design came from a family memory. Founders Ryan and Keenan are third-generation restaurateurs where Koko means ‘big brother’ in Chinese and their grandfather, the man who first brought Chinese food to the city, used to fold origami for them as little boys! Working with artist Adigami, the team created those viral origami snakes that slither through the entire space. And then there’s the Sakura element in other restaurant. “Sakura season in Japan is a metaphor for life, even the most beautiful thing doesn’t last,” Sarah says.

“Anyone who’s experienced Hanami understands how very much cultural that is in Japan.” But for all the poetry, Sarah is also blunt about where Hyd restos actually stumble. “Acoustics,” she says. “They’ll get every visual right, but you can hear sound bouncing off every wall!”

TELUGU DESIGN IS ALSO SPEAKING & HOW

Telugu-style architecture is having a new moment in Hyd’s resto scene and the wave is proudly vernacular. Load-bearing walls in Karimnagar brick, Tandoor stone floors, Cuddapah stone, temple-inspired palettes, hand-painted pillars and portraits of Telugu women framed by Kala Gajjalu, its all rooted and far from retro! Architect Swetha Gautam, the mind behind Theta Theta Telugu and Coffee Sangam made Telugu culture contemporary, not cliché in the city’s restos. The showstopper is the community table — cast in cement on site but hiding a secret of a banana leaf inlaid in stainless steel with PVD coating! “We chose the colour so the table melts into the landscape,” says Swetha. “It’s a small detail that flips the telugu narrative that tradition isn’t framed on a wall here, it’s where you place your plate. That thinking runs through the entire project. We stuck to locally available materials, but reimagined how they are used,” she said. “It’s a modern twist on age-old Telugu elements!” Then there’s the staircase everyone’s photographing. Amid the big, sweeping round staircases going viral across Hyd, the one at T3 is more than Instagram bait. “We wanted it to be a bold statement,” says Swetha. “You glide from the ground to the first floor, with views unfolding as you climb.” Even the floor tells a story.

Look down and you’ll spot leaf motifs scattered like muggus. “It’s our subtle Telugu identity,” she says. “Just as a muggu makes a floor ornamental, we translated it into a contemporary language. Architecture in restos are coming full circle. We are going

back to our roots.”

WHEN HYD WENT MEDITERRANEAN

Aamir Sharma doesn’t do restaurants by the dozen but when he does one, he does it in style! The celeb interior designer, whose luxe residential portfolio includes farmhouses for Allu Arjun and Ram Charan, takes on just one hospitality project a year. “We design theme-based, because even we want every project to look different!”

That freedom gave Hyd two of its most talked-about spaces right now Anthm and Anaganaga. For Anthm, Aamir went full mediterranean-cum-maldivian. After months of detailing, he and wife Hameeda Sharma locked in chalky whites, raw textures, greens and water all around giving it a greeky vibe. “The owners were very passionate about their food, so we planned the theme around that and that’s that Mediterranean midas.” There the showstopper is a 50-feet-long bar counter with a crushed metal facade — impossible to miss, impossible to forget. It’s a Mediterranean fantasy built for Hyderabad. Its design also marries the charm of a Maldivian resort with the lines of a luxury cruise deck, set against still waters! Hyderabadis still remember opening day —walking in and thinking, wait, this is in Hyderabad? And, Anaganaga, opened just a week ago and already going viral!

It means ‘once upon a time’ in Telugu and starts its story mid-air with the viral sculptural staircase! “The OG site was a temporary structure with metal pillars all over,” Aamir recalls. “We clad them with fibre-based pillars.” Walls wear parametric brickwork, ceilings are left bare and historic screens printed and backlit add drama. And that’s the colourful piece that’s going viral on social media now making it a talking point about how hyd restos architecture is going so swanky all of a sudden.

BRINGING BALI HOME

These tropical jungle kind of restos are also popping up built around dense artificial greenery and nature sounds to feel like an indoor rainforest! Expert landscape architect Meghna Dulani, the creative mind behind Hyderabad’s famous tropical hotspots Taro, Halo, Cara Cara & more says the city’s jungle obsession is really a Bali souvenir. “During and after Covid, so many people travelled to Indonesia. People came back with that lush, green Bali aesthetic in their heads. Everyone wants to reconnect with nature again,” she explains. According to her, plants like Alocasia may not be native, but they stay green all year and instantly layer a space with different shades of green, making it feel fresh and alive! That’s why Hyderabad is relating to the tropical look so much right now. On DIY-ing the jungle look, she warns the biggest mistake is mixing the wrong species. “Plants create their own habitat. You need to know which ones can thrive together and which will fight each other,” she says. The other common blunder is light: sun-loving plants placed indoors die and then people blame the vendor or the architect. Her own go-to palette is to keep it native and low-maintenance! “We use a lot of bougainvillea, a lot of palms, they just thrive in any soil. We love using fruit trees everywhere, not just in kitchen gardens,” she shares. For flowers, it’s Ixora, hibiscus and Nandi Vardhanam, plants people already know and relate to in Hyderabad.

Projection mapping walks into dinner!

Forget changing the menu; restaurants are transforming their walls. “Projection mapping holds immense potential, not just for interiors but exteriors too,” says Aagam Mehta, co-founder of Floating Canvas Company. “Especially for restos in heritage structures where you can’t touch anything.” From highlighting architectural details to enhancing live acts, the trick is subtlety. “Projection mapping need not be loud. That perception comes from concerts,” he says. Hyderabad’s newly opened Asembli is a case in point.