Indulge in comfort food at the new branch of Cream Centre in Hyderabad

With the onset of New Year, while some make resolutions to experiment with new things, others like resorting to their comfort food to reflect on the year that just went by. The new branch of Cream Centre in Begumpet, a fine-dine variation of the classic place in Mumbai, will let you reminisce old memories.

While the branch in Hitech city is a smaller version made to give the feel of a fast Mumbai set-up, this fine-dine is spacious and slow-paced to resemble the culture of Hyderabad. While they have retained the old motifs on wall décor and some old-school furniture, they have given the place a very contemporary and minimalist look with no elaborate statement elements. The restaurant has a large window with a road view which lets in ample sunlight, making the place look even more spacious.

We started our meal with the classic Onion rings. To elevate the taste, we sprinkled some chaat masala on top. It was served with tomato ketchup, a salsa sauce which they gave an Indian twist to with dhanya, and an interesting, tangy chutney made of rajma and spinach.

The second dish of the appetisers was Paneer tikka, made with a very soft melt-in-the-mouth malai paneer. The subtle flavoured tikka marination was delicately soaked in by the paneer, and perfectly complemented the dominant malai flavour.

We also tried their famous Nachos, a rather homely preparation. The chips were made in-house with maize flour, and the cheese sauce drizzled on top was light, subtle and flavourful. The dish was garnished with thin capsicum strips.

We then went to the main-course which was elaborate. Known for their chaats, they first presented Pav bhaji, with their in-house pav served with onions. With the perfect amount of butter not making it too greasy, the bhaji was very flavourful, but subtle enough to bring out the taste of each vegetable. The bhaji was served in a floating fondue pot with a candle under to keep it warm. Another classic we sampled was Chole Bhature — a large ballooned bhatura served with old school black chole. The chickpeas were large in size to allow the spices to marinate well. We could taste a dominant fresh coriander flavour in it.

A course of chaat can not be complete without quintessential Dahi puri. The puris were large to incorporate the potato filling, mint chutney, a sweet chutney and a thick sweet yogurt topped with chaat masala and chilli powder. On taking a bite, all the flavours exploded in our mouth. Another south-Indian typical dish, Bisi Bele Bhat seasoned with cashew nuts, reminded us of the comforting one-pot meal with a soothing flavour of homely ghee.

We finished the meal with a Sizzling brownie with their in-house vanilla ice cream, the Malai kulfi ice cream and Queen of rose ice cream. While the brownie was fudgy, the ice creams were dense and rich. A wholesome end to our meal indeed.

INR 1,200 for two. At Begumpet.