While we have world renowned outlets like Chili's and 5 star outlets such as La Cantina - Novotel, what they offer is American take on Mexican food perhaps ?
There were fleeting attempts to serve Mexican food at Mexitaly - Levels Bistro, we never quiet got there.
Habanero tries to fill that exact gap - authentic Mexican , along with Tex-Mex and the Americanized items.
Habanero is more or less home grown. Started by husband-and-wife team Griffith David, a native of India, and Elizabeth Bowden-David, a native of the US. Together they spent years in the American southwest, soaking up the region’s cheerful culture and the flavors of Mexican border cuisine - is probably where Habanero's seeds were sown.
Habanero is located in the same building as Starbucks , Eagle Boys Pizza, Hello Curry and CIbo hose . Thats like a United Nations of food outlets in Hyderabad.
Located on the 4th floor of the said building, it has bright colors as part of its decor. Some places look and feel like walking into a set of the Atlantis / Pocahontas movie.
The entrance has a huge colorful Habanero mural that greets most visitors.
I settled by the glass wall and looked through the menu. It also happened to be the day Maharashtra enforced the beef ban and i could only smile at their misfortune
Decor wise, it looks very upbeat and lively. It also has 2 private sections, one glassed and the other open air. One thing that i liked about them was that they were ready when they opened unlike many other places where all the licenses are not in place and staff is not adequate enough to handle the crowd
I expected them to tell me that their liquor license is not in place, but it was and i was pleasantly surprised.
Since it was a work day, my orders were pretty limited to what i could consume in an hour. I ordered for the smoked chicken - make my own burrito , a mocktail and churros for the after noon
The firs to arrive was the burrito and the mocktail
While the plating was pretty nice, the sour cream and guacamole were some of the best dips ive had in recent times. The perfectness of the guacamole is dependant on how ripe the avocado is, something that even Chili's had got it wrong on my last visit.
The pico-de-gallo , the sour cream, the avocado combination was refreshing. The burrito on the other hand tasted good as long as the smoked chicken was present, once that part was exhausted, the experience started going south.
To add to that, the portion size was rather small. The portion size should be definitely something the organization should think about.
The churros were also rather disappointing. The cinnamon sugar dusted on it wasnt doing enough. The sugar used was normal sugar - which wasnt quiet adding to the dish in anyway
Considering it was their first official day , some slip ups are acceptable but i do believe they have a lot of potential to do well provided they cross all the Ts and dot all the Is.
The whole meal cost about 916 INR but wasnt filling enough. 20mins after the meal i was hungry again.
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I was reached out by Eulogy PR to be part of their official launch/grand launch . Being under the weather has its disadvantages , and probably the worst time you could get called for a launch.
I finally made it to the launch which was already underway with other bloggers. I was welcomed by the team and seated in the private dining area.
I was already an hour late and the food was being served. The short while i was at the venue, i tasted the chicken wings, the nachos , the queso dip, the onion rings and probably a few sips of the margarita.
The chicken wings were pretty nice, but my bench mark for good wings are the Chicken wings with Heavy metal sauce served at hard Rock Cafe. While these wings were good, they just scratched the surface.
The queso dip was phenomenal. Everyone loved the dips. Even the onion rings were pretty nice and consistently battered and coated.
Dan gave us a demo of how to make a pick de gallo ( originally wanted to make guacamole but avocados weren't available )
I unfortunately couldn't be part of the entire event t but i did manage to let Griffith know about the tweaking of the quantities because when you spend 1000rs you generally dont expect to go home hungry.
picture courtesy - Sheetal Thamke
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