Hyderabad No1 Biryani — Restaurant in South Riding

Update 03-16-25 The chef & owner called to get my feedback and share the process. He says they make 3 batches daily and have a few items to control quality, no msg etc just like back home. I told him that won't cut it, food service is brutal and get help asap. Reference Biryani acity and Royal Nepal as two local places with pleasant flavor balance, although styles may be different. He was very nice is receiving this feedback, said he felt bad and offered a refund without questions asked which is why I'm upping the review. Look forward to trying again when there are major references to provide you a baseline to changes made - Good luck to you and your friends on this business

Original 03-15-25 review: Food has to go in the trash.

Ordered a 2lb goat biryani for $18 or so. There was a half egg in there and just a few small pieces of goat, some of those were inedible (no meat). Most of it is rice.

The way the spices are layered in is disgusting, it's layered as dry spices to flavor. I asked for mild and it's quite spicy. So I cleaned one goat piece under water and the meat was rank, inedible.

I would give them credit for a good business idea if it worked but it does not the way they executed in it and this place will be out of business eventually

They likely have a constant temperature large pot of each biryani (lunch buffet style). There are different qualities and mixtures of different colors and qualities and hydration levels of rice.

There's nothing appealing here. Unfortunately gross and we had to throw it away and find something else to eat.

Guys I've had A LOT of biryani at a lost of diffplaces and yours was the WORST. I'm sorry but you need to hear the truth. The rest of the restaurant is kinda cute. Get a new chef.

If you want to refund receipt 5169 from this day proactively that would be great, I'll consider updating my review for not costing me both...

This is a gem! If you are tired of the routine biryani available at many places around the area. By routine biryani, I mean the unnecessary heat, chilli powder, added extra spices in the other places that kills the taste buds and sad for your gut on the day and the next. This is not a place for you if you are looking for the routine taste you find all around. This was our first time trying H1B because my family doesn’t like the routine biryani. The most flavorful biryani where the taste quality and the amount of spices are just as a high quality biryani should taste like. Very impressive the cooks didn’t follow the routine biryani and kept it flavorful and soulful. We ordered so many dishes and are so satisfied with the quality taste and the flavor of all. None of the flavors were so overpowering that I couldn’t take a second bite. There were absolutely no food color used. The spices used were fresh and the salt level was appropriate. I would recommend everyone who loves the flavor tries this place out. This will be our go to place for our biryani cravings. The dessert was amazing as well pure cardamom and flavors were spot on for all the dishes we ordered. I included a picture of their labels on the boxes it clearly delivers what it promises. H1B please keep the flavors for us, no changes at all, our family loved it, l if anyone needs added unnecessary heat/ spice/ colors please look...

This is my favorite place for biryani. I probably come here every Friday or sometimes on the weekend. At first food was excellent. Goat biryani was my go to meal, extra long grain rice, packaging. Its perfect. I don’t think so you would find a healthier biryani around in DMV unless you make it at home.

Recently, I visited few times. Noticed so many changes that’s was the reason for my 1 star rating for this place.

Food - goat biryani more rice and less pieces, that’s not H1B I was really disappointed with that. The box was loaded with rice and you may find some pieces at the bottom. This is for 2 person biryani. Shocked to find so much of rice.

Packaging - at first they had excellent packaging and food is fresh and still warm. Few times I found the packaging to be different. When I took it out from the bag, whole box was wet and biryani was spilling out. Like I said before so much of rice. Bag was damaged. It was a total mess.

Rice - previously, I have seen them use extra long basmati rice, it doesn’t bother me. From last few visits, that has not been the case. Small grain basmati rice.

I drive almost 20+ miles to visit this place. Has deeply disappointed me so much. I have to think twice to order food from here or come here again.

Advice to the owner - please bring back the old packaging. This is unacceptable that you have decided to use some useless product to pack...