Biryani at Khazana

Gaurav — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 12:16:59 +0000

If you have seen me, you could probably tell that I am a foodie! Its quite obvious And one of the simplest yard sticks I use to judge how good the food at a place is, is by eating the Biryani served there. Obviously this works only at places that serve Biryani! and I use a different dish for different cuisines.

Now, I have eaten Biryani at many places in Bangalore and if there is one place I would pick to go back to repeatedly, it has to be Khazana – a little hole in the wall restaurant in Johnson Market (down the road from Fanoos).

I was passing by that place at lunch time today and there was absolutely no way I would miss a chance to eat there! Now you must realize that this is not a fancy shamancy place that I am talking about, its a really small joint on the road side that I was introduced to first by my guitar tutor, Mr. Alan Rego (who is a regular there!)

Infact, Khazana has a very loyal regular clientelle. I remember landing up there from work with my colleague at 12.15 PM for lunch and the place was closed, so we wait outside knowing it will open any moment soon. 5 minutes later, we see there are 4 more people waiting there for it to open and when they open the place by 12.30 PM, there were 12 of us ready to go in there and sit.

In Khazana, you just sit on whatever chair you can find, and you just (hopefully) become friends with the person you are sitting with, if you don’t already know them! But that is optional of course

In many ways, Khazana is a perfect model of what an ideal restaurant should be. A dedicated clientelle, a specialist menu (I will come to that in a moment) and really cheap prices! A great tasting fully stuffing meal for 2 would cost you about 100 rupees per head which is much better than many fancy restaurants in town!

The menu at Khazana has 16 items, there is no concept of starter, main course, dessert or any such thing! and the costliest item on the menu is 67 rupees! I love the quote on the menu and the disclaimer, “Food is subject to availability!”. This is completely true and on most days, they run out of a majority of their menu items in a couple of hours after opening.

If you are in the mood for some great cheap non-vegetarian food, I totally recommend the ‘Beef Biryani’ and ‘Beef Kalimirchi’ combo at Khazana! My mouth waters as I write this

PS: The quote reads – “Almighty gave us exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them tasty and serve them to you“

Gaurav Vaz » Alan Rego

Biryani at Khazana