A Celebrated Biryani Spot Spins Off a Full-Service Second Location

Hyderabadi Zaiqa has opened in Curry Hill

Served with yogurt raita, goat dum biryani is the flagship of the Hyderabadi Zaiqa fleet, with massive quantities of meat concealed underneath.

It was August 2023 when Hyderabadi Zaiqa debuted in Hell’s Kitchen. It brought to Manhattan for perhaps the first time a type of restaurant that had become common in Jersey City’s India Square, specializing in biryanis associated with the historically Muslim city of Hyderabad in southern India. Known as dum biryani, the recipe originated in Persia. The adjective “dum” refers to a cooking technique using a lidded pan, by which flavors are sealed in as the rice cooks. Of the 15 or so options available, some types are vegetarian while others incorporate goat, lamb, chicken, fish, and shrimp. The biryani was so good, Hyderabadi Zaiqa was designated as an Eater Restaurant of the Year.

Massive murals of Charminar grace the walls of the new Hyderabadi Zaiqa.

Now a new branch has opened at 184 Lexington Avenue near 32nd Street, a couple blocks north of the agglomeration of Indian restaurants known as Curry Hill. While the original, still open, is a shoebox of a place slightly below street level, with only a few tables, the new place is far grander, seating four times the original. Tables fan out from a broad order counter, mainly for takeout since there’s table service at the new one. The main decorative element is a giant color photo of Charminar, a former mosque and municipal building symbolizing Hyderabad, its four minarets pointing skyward. Far above the main floor is a balcony that overlooks the restaurant.

The menu has also expanded, with northern Indian vegetarian dishes and further South Indian, Indian Chinese, Mumbai chaats, additional desserts, and a children’s menu that offers mozzarella sticks, French fries, and chicken nuggets. The new branch has added some Muslim-associated dishes also common in Pakistan, not available at the original branch. The new restaurant now has a typical Indian restaurant menu, but with more emphasis on spicy Southern fare and biryanis. No dosas, however: They are plentiful enough in Curry Hill proper.

Chettinad chicken curry, dotted with black mustard seeds

I went at first by myself and started out with what I thought would be the perfect meal, and it was — a Chettinad curry ($15) associated with the city of Chennai, once known as Madras. A red chile perches on top of a dark brown sauce enriched with coconut milk and flavored with curry leaves and ginger. The chicken was all thigh meat, and every bite left me smiling and sweating. A powerfully flavored garlic naan proved the perfect mopping mechanism — all curries at Hyderabadi Zaiqa come with plenty of sauce.

On a subsequent visit, I brought a tableful of friends and tried a broader range of dishes. First off was haleem ($18), a puree of ground lamb, wheat, and lentils that looks like gray mud, with a boiled egg implanted in the middle. The dish comes with frizzled onions on top and traces its roots to northern India and Pakistan. By contrast, chicken vepudu ($12.49) hails from the southeastern coastal state of Andhra Pradesh and features chicken tidbits coated with a spice-laden gravy thickened with yogurt, giving the sauce a tart edge.

Clockwise from lower left: chicken vepudu, haleem, province naan

The list of breads is relatively sparse, with only five choices, but the standout for our table was province naan ($5.49), a puffy yeast flatbread sprinkled with herbs, including rosemary and thyme, unusual flavoring for an Indian restaurant. It went especially well with Kolhapuri subz, a recipe from a Maharashtrian town famous for its leather slippers. This mixed vegetable curry was thickened with tomato, and the bread-curry combination would almost have been at home in an Italian restaurant.

The fiery Malabar shrimp curry was the essence of South Indian cooking, sauced with major amounts of chile and coconut milk, the whole thing a lovely pink color. But the primary “don’t miss” dish is Hyderabadi goat dum biryani ($19). Shining on top is basmati tinted in pleasing shades of yellow, pink, and brown; underneath a motherlode of boneless goat chunks at every level of fattiness, with a gravy boat of yogurt rife with shredded cucumbers, and carrots, to be ladled over every bite.

Once you’ve tried it, you’ll want to visit again to taste other varieties of biryani, among them avakaya chicken biryani (flavored with mango pickle) and gongura vegetable biryani (made tart and slightly bitter with sorrel leaves).