With their old-school burgers, pizzas and more, this Hyderabad eatery will take you back in time

It's the early 2000s, you get picked up from school, and promptly stop over at the neighbourhood bakery for some snacks before heading home. With your parents in tow, important decisions need to be made — the choice of snack for the evening. Your options? A display filled with a myriad options — burgers, pizzas and more, all occasional treats you’re allowed if you’ve been good at school. Cut to 2024, the city is now buzzing with attractive viennoiseries and patisseries serving the trendiest desserts famous across the globe. But the charm of legendary bakeries, and their unassuming yet lip smacking food remains unmatched.

This week, we were excited to step into Big Byte Bakers — Signature at Khaja guda, an iconic bakery brand that has been a crowd favourite in Hyderabad for close to three decades.

Complete with monochrome chequered flooring, chandeliers, ornate handrails and high arches, the eatery exudes a vintage, European charm. Albeit in a new setting, a familiar display of cakes, packaged snacks and an array of baked goods including some old favourites brought back fond memories. Upstairs, the setting is relaxed, with a bustling coffee bar welcoming us. We called for the Zest lemon cold brew first — a tart coffee to kick start our evening. For the iced tea fans, we’d recommend the Sparkling ginger lemongrass iced tea whose flavours were perfectly balanced with the heat from the ginger coming through.

Soon, an array of snacks arrived, starting with the Drums of heaven — chicken drumsticks doused in a fiery orange-red sauce generously tossed in garlic. We promptly licked off our fingers to get started on the Mutton chop — a deep fried minced meat cutlet so crisp, we finished the edges before getting to the meaty centre.

However, if one has never been to an old school bakery, we’d implore them to try the burgers. An old school Indian bakery style burger is a one-of-a kind preparation that has soft, sweet buns filled with a texture-rich shredded chicken filling, slices of onion and the highlight — dollops of house-made mayonnaise spread generously to fill each bite with oodles of creaminess and palpable sweetness. One bite, and the burger took us straight back to the 2000s.

Then came a Big Byte special, the Patakha pizza — a double decker pizza with shredded chicken filling encased in two layers of crust, topped with cheese, ensuring a delightful crunch.

The eatery has also launched a new cake menu, and new desserts. We’d recommend the Hazelnut mousse jar to end your meal on a sweet note.

Rs 500 for two. At Khajaguda

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