No cocktails, no Insta bait. This Hyderabad restaurant is all about the food

If you’ve been to any of the buzzed-about eateries lately, you may have noticed restaurateurs’ obsession with one thing: creating an experience that is unique for the Instagram diner. Most often it means vibey interiors, showy plating, and unnecessary theatrics in bringing cocktails to your table—everything that passes for content today.

Like me, it’s a grouse that has troubled Suresh DC too. The founding chef of Hosa, Goa—a restaurant that entered ‘best restaurants’ lists soon after its opening in 2022 and has remained there since—found himself on consulting gigs in Hyderabad often. The Bengaluru native, who also started Jhol in Bangkok, a Michelin select restaurant, found that eating out in the city left a deep impression. To be exact, it pissed him off. “Every time I came to the city I ate the same food. Every fancy new restaurant spent a lot of money on the interiors but not on the food—finally, you expect to eat the food, not the ambience,” says the chef.

In this sense, Tuya, the restaurant that Suresh recently launched in Hyderabad, is an outlier. Tuya, which means ‘pure’ in Tamil, is the first restaurant that’s emerged from his firm Nexar Hospitality Pvt Ltd, and with it, he is laser-focused on food from the five southern states. NB: There’s no drinks menu (not even the non-alcoholic kind, though you will be served fresh lime soda on request) and the space itself is so comfortably unpretentious that the food becomes the centrepiece of the experience.

While the decor hints at mid-century modernism—there are exposed-brick walls, cane-backed chairs, potted plants, and a triptych of ribbed glass windows at one end—it’s clearly not catering to social media aesthetics. Jazz plays over the speakers, complementing how chef Suresh has riffed off on street and traditional South Indian food, tweaking them and mixing them with unexpected notes from the West.

Dining out, I rarely look at the vegetarian fare. In Hyderabad, the green part of the menu is either fried or uninteresting, stagnant in triumvirates of aloo, paneer, and Shimla mirch, or zucchini, broccoli, and baby corn. But Tuya’s menu sends a thrill down my spine. There’s an array of vegetables I don’t normally see, and in combinations I don’t expect: Yam 65, jackfruit gassi, cut mirchi and mushroom, cauliflower ghee roast, green tamarind prawns, and plantain majiga pulusu (buttermilk). All the ingredients are chosen from what’s locally available; nothing is flown in.

The thoughtfulness of the menu is also reflected in the unfussiness of the dishes—it’s easy to use your hands to tear the buttered bun and soak up the gravy of the green chilli as it is to break off a piece of dosa to dunk in the mutton curry, or lift the Karaikudi jackfruit in its ragi roti shell for a bite.

But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and it’s delivered here in the form of two perfect starters: a crusty, creamy, tart avocado sarva pindi that I hold in my hand and bite into, and a crunchy but light-as-a-cloud muntha masala. The sarva pindi could be described as the Telugu version of the besan chilla, but in chef Suresh’s hands it takes the form of a crostini topped with avocado, peanuts, and spring onions, a moreish starter that somehow manages to be clean and rich. The latter is a version of bhel with white pea ragada, sev, tomato, and gongura tempura instead of mirchi bhaji, taking inspiration from what’s served on the beaches of Visakhapatnam. It’s an outstanding balance of sour and savoury, the familiar and unfamiliar.

The butter garlic prawns with their curry leaf butter and masala toast are all fine, but it’s the mutton ghee roast that really shines. There’s a deep, gorgeous red that only emerges from slow, well-roasted red chillies that is the signature of a curry that is perfectly hot but not incendiary. This Mangalorean mutton ghee roast has it. My eyes jump to conclusions before I’ve even taken a bite. And they’re not deceived. The mutton is tender, the curry unctuous with hints of garlic and ubiquitous fried curry leaves that add depth to the gravy. The slightly sweet aftertaste of the butter dosa is the yin to the savoury yang of the mutton, making you want that next bite and that hit of fire.

The two desserts I try at Tuya are flavours I would normally run away from. First is the Rajahmundry frozen milkshake. It looks pretty enough to photograph: frozen shavings are arranged lattice-like over a vanilla rose cake that absorbs the shake as it starts to melt, and it’s topped with sabza, or basil seeds, and mixed nuts for a satisfying umami bite. It’s sweet, foamy, cake-like, chewy, crumbly. I, unexpectedly, finish it all.

Hosa regulars may be familiar with the combination of coconut and jasmine. And in my creamy dessert, the coconut is flash-dried, and served with a reduced jasmine sorbet. The first taste is a shock to the system—like eating jasmine aromatherapy—but then the hint of nuttiness from the coconut kicks in and keeps you hooked.

Tuya is a continuation of Chef Suresh’s ambitious attempt at bringing the depth and goodness of South Indian food to the palate. I’m reminded of Toni Morrison talking about using her imagination to yield a kind of truth, and that seems an apt analogy to describe chef Suresh’s approach to pureness at Tuya. In traditional recipes that are sometimes deconstructed, sometimes reconstructed, the truth here can manifest in the essence of the dish.

Meal for two: ₹1,750 (without drinks)

Address: Plot No. 95, Road 44, CBI Colony, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad - 500033, Telangana

Timings: 12 pm to 11 pm (Monday to Thursday); 12 pm to 11:30 pm (Friday to Sunday)

Reservations: +91 9008410 690