Hyderabad House

The owner is very arrogant and misbehaving. I ordered Goat biryani and I overheard them saying it would take 30 minutes. As soon as the owner came in he was shouting at his workers saying rudely to tell us that it would take 2 hours to cook. Man he is not doing us any favour by giving us food. We are paying for it. Gosh!!! What a moron.

This place isn’t fancy but for what it is, it’s great! The Chicken 65 is a great dish. Always very consistent here.

My favorite Indian food in the bay area… It is all good, and the dishes can get nice and spicy.

This is the only resturant that actually made me barf into my napkin because it was so gross. Next time I’m walking a few blocks away to the *other* indian resturant by the train.
Save your tummy and skip this place.

mmm. Tikka Massala. yummy!!!
I normally order the lunch special (meat) for $ 9 but i love the Tikka Massala for $ 11 that has rice and naan.
Chicken is very tender and the rice is cook just right. the portions are defenetly sharable for 2.
The place is very small so I usually take it to go. They close from 3 to 5.

This is definitely one of the best indian food places places I’ve been to. No fancy service — it is an order at the counter, and you get your own utensils and dishes thing.
I love this place because the dishes are flavorful (and rich, if you get butter chicken or something like that), and cheap. The owner is a cool/​nice guys too. The kitchen knows what they’re making.
Come only if you know how to distinguish good food, not if you judge food by the service it comes with — the owner is nice but this is a self serve place.

This is the best indian restaurant in Palo Alto — and I have tried them all. The food is flavorful, delicious, and served in large portions.
My recommendations in order:
Buttered Chicken
Mali Kofta
Karahi Paneer
Chicken Biryani

This is my go-​to place when I crave Indian. It’s inexpensive, quick, and only 3 min walking distance from my house.
Depending on the evening (maybe they have alternating chefs?), my chicken tikka masala is either scrumptious or boring w/​o a zing, but generally it’s pretty good.
Compared to a few other Indian restaurants nearby that are way over-​priced, this one, I don’t come out of the restaurant upset.
They also accept $ 25 vouchers from
w/​minimum purchase of $ 35 + 15% mandatory gratuity added prior to discount for dine in only. Last time we ended up getting samosas and 3 entrées and took leftovers home.

This place is pretty awful. Ordered tandoori chicken for take-​out. It took 20 minutes. It was dark meat only and paltry portions, bony and little meat. Not that tasty.
The salad was romaine dark leafed, no iceberg. Again, not that tasty.
The lamb kebab sausage was rawish, ground meat. Limp and not particularly tasty.
For $ 30, there was hardly any food. Avoid it.

I enjoyed my lunch today from this Restaurant that’s why I am giving it 4 stars and that’s that.
Chicken Tikka Masala was superb. The spiciness is perfect. The diced chicken in it are cut just about the right size. The rice smells good and was cook right. The garlic naan is heavenly. Make sure you have your mint with you or your breath will stinks so bad the next person you will converse with will pass out.
Serving size is good, me and my colleague actually split it. Lunch today $ 12 (Thanks Erika)
Burrrrppppp!!! Ooooppsss, excuse me. :)

A source with extraordinarily good taste in Indian food recommended this place highly; I’m not sure it’s that wonderful, but there is a pleasantly authentic edge to their curry (my chicken had bones in it, and a slightly more interesting mix of spices). It’s nothing fancy, but I’m not sure why the other Unilocalers hate it so much.

I loved the #2 Special
Nan, Rice, Chicken, Spinach Sauce, All SO GOOD! The guy behind the counter had so much patience for me and my friend who couldn’t make up our minds. There’s not a lot of space in this spot, it can get crowded. We barely beat the lunch rush. I say it’s decent, and the food good and affordable.

Relatively quick, affordable, friendly service, and solid flavors… why is this place not even cracking three stars on Unilocal?!?
If you Indian food, know what you want and what you will like, head to Hyderabad House for a solid meal. If you are looking for all-​you-​can-​eat crap buffet, head elsewhere as they know better than to offer a buffet!

No buffet at Hyderabad house, even at lunchtime. That’s OK, as long as they take advantage of the fresher food and lower prices that cooked-​to-​order Indian can offer. But Hyderabad house barely breaks even in that sense. The prices are slightly lower than your typical buffet, but the food was not all that amazing; merely good (on average). And the crowds here were a bit of a bummer; More than once I skipped to somewhere else, due to long lines.
On the visits where I actually stayed, here’s what I tried:
– Chicken tikka masala: ($ 10). Very good and a healthy portion
– Chana masala ($ 9): Pretty unexciting, though it tasted very fresh; I couldn’t stop thinking that only $ 2 more would buy a pretty good buffet elsewhere.
Both meals came with rice and fresh naan; Chai tea was also complimentary, though it was served in tiny metal cups that were difficult to drink from.
I’d would be great if Hyderabad offered any kind of combo plate, but they don’t. So I can’t get, say, butter chicken and saag paneer for lunch. The only way to sample both is to order full portions of each, with their own bread and naan — an expensive and wasteful solution.
Location is stellar: on University; kittycorner from the Apple store, and surrounded by a string of popular businesses. That’s probably half the reason for the crowds.

My companions and I eat Indian very often and while the food was not the best, to say it’s the worst as some of the Unilocalers have rated, is quite harsh. I think 3 stars would be fair. HOWEVER, having rated the food, now I’m grading on Ethics. This restaurant is far from what I consider a full service restaurant. To justify even a 15% tip from a customer, I expect 100% service from beginning to end. Not so here. You go to a counter to order your food, if you want water, you help yourself and then seat yourself down at an available table.
Here’s the issue now.
Our food order was $ 28, two mango lassis and a soda came to $ 4.50. tax at $ 3 totals $ 35.50. Our bill came to $ 48. The guy explained that with a $ 10
certificate, I had to pay a tip. Even that was not the issue. The issue is: The guy charged me $ 12.50 tip on a $ 35.50 bill!!! That’s a 33% tip! Because of the certificate, I ended up paying $ 38 but I feel taken. Not by the
certificate but by the guy at the cashier. Won’t be going back.

I’m a fan of Hyderabad House. It’s not the best Indian food I’ve had, and you order at the register, which makes it a casual dating spot at best, but it’s inexpensive, there’s always been an open table whenever I’ve dropped in, and the help is friendly. My wife and I have never had bad food there, but we’ve never looked at each other and said, «Wow!»
Still, if you’ve got to eat fairly quickly, or you’re not in the mood to spend a lot for a solid Indian meal, drop on by.

Pretty good Indian place for the price but there are quite a few better places in the surrounding area. If you go there alone try the chicken tikka masala dish.
Pros:
Good for going alone
Affordable
Central Location in Palo Alto
Fast
Cons:
Food is nothing stellar or great, just good.

Do a lot of take-​outs from here. Nothing worth gushing about. The dal and chicken curries are good. Chicken biryani is decent.

We were looking for an inexpensive meal and choose this spot. We ordered Vegetable Malai Kofta and Goat Curry. Both come with nan and rice (and apparently chai, which I didn’t know until I read the reviews).
You order at the front and then the dish is brought out to you. This is a small restaurant and wouldn’t work for a larger group.
The positives: the dishes were very tasty and closer to a home-​cooked hyderbad meal. The sauce was so good we ate every bit of it with our nan and rice. It was a bit hot but not terribly (I’d have preferred hotter).
The price is cheap (under $ 10 for most dishes).
The negatives: the nan was overcooked in some pieces and raw in the center in others. All the pieces were warm (not hot). The Vegetable Malai Kofta was equally warm but a stir got it hot. The Goat Curry was hot but very boney. Most goat curries have bones so I’d expected this but it bothers some folks.
The atmosphere is a level above Denny’s. Not a place for date night.
If our food had been hot and the nan cooked properly I would have given this place 4 stars. The dishes were very tasty and not your run-​of-​the-​mill Bay Area Indian.

Veni vidi pass. Not a fan. The food was cold and 30% too expensive than what it is really worth. Ordered their biryani which is supposed to be the house specialty. Was served cold and it was obvious that it was not fresh. It still tasted pretty decent. ~$ 11.
The chicken curry was tiny and came with 3 pieces. Was around $ 9 I believe. The paneer wrap was the best dish.