The one thing that strikes your mind when you hear the word Rayalseema is super spicy food. So I was all prepared to spit fire when I got an invite to check out this humble looking place located in Indiranagar called Rayalseema Ruchulu (RR), which translates to Taste of Rayalseema. The brand which was set up in 2004 brings out the best in traditional style cooking of the famous Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. I was here for lunch on a weekday along with a couple of friends, and this post here talks about my dining experience.

Drinks we ordered

We ordered drinks from their ‘Today’s special Mocktails’ menu which probably keeps changing every fortnight. We had Mango Mountain, Spicy Punch and Choco Twist, all of which sounds pretty straightforward with respect to the ingredients, but what caught us was the addition of Pineapple crush and Guava juice in Mango Mountain which could have been avoided. Spicy Punch was a nicely done, the presence of green chilies and ginger mixed with aerated water gave it a very refreshing touch.

Royyala Vepadu

Karivepaku Kodi Vepadu

The food menu here lists dishes whose names are inspired by traditional Andhra names. We started with Royyala Vepadu which is prawns fry and Kaju Kodi which is deep fried marinated boneless chicken tossed in cashew nuts. This was proceeded with Karivepaku Kodi Vepadu and Mokkajonna Fry, where the former is fried chicken marinated in curry leaves paste.

Mokkajonna Fry

Mokkajonna Fry might interest the vegetarians (fried Babycorn) but the taste here was slightly bland, it’ll be a good buy for people who do not prefer overly spicy food.

Our Main course

Our focus then shifted to Main course and we decided to order 3 curries, they were Gongura Kodi Kura, Karivepaku Kodi Kura and Royyala Pulusu. Royyala Pulusu here is prawns tossed in a tangy curry (spicy as well), true sea food lovers might get slightly turned off as the dish is more of masala and less prawns. Gongura Kodi is one of those many traditional dishes available here, Gongura is a famous element in Andhra cuisine which is basically used to make pachadi and pickles, it was good to see a non veg preparation based on it. Karivepaku Kodi Kodi Kura is chicken cooked in Curry leaves based gravy, it was moderately spicy and went well with the Phulkas.

Ulavacharu Kodi Pulao

Post this we tried the Ulavacharu Kodi Pulao which is chicken and horsegram pulao, sounds simple but the dish just ticked all the boxes of a perfect preparation (it has a creamy flavor).. this is definitely a must try when you are at RR.

Carrot Halwa (L) .. Sorakaya Halwa (C) .. Khubani ka Meetha (R)

Finally it was time for desserts. The menu here lists it as ‘Dessert of the Day’, it can get confusing as you need to ask the staff for the available options. The day we visited, we had 3 option and we ordered all 3 and they were – Sorakaya Halwa, Khubani Ka Meetha and Carrot Halwa. My pick was the Sorakaya Halwa which is basically bottle gourd (or lauki in Hindi) based sweet. I loved the fact that nothing was overdone except Khubani ka Meetha which was overly sweet and that taste remains on your taste buds for quite sometime.

I agree with this message!

On the whole, Rayalseema Ruchulu is a good option if you want to indulge in authentic Telugu cuisine, their starters and main course are a good change compared to a lot of places in the vicinity. I felt the spice levels to be pretty good and it was not on the extreme side (which is good if you ask me personally). Service is good, the staff was aware of the dishes listed in the menu and helped us make the right choices and we spent around 2 hours to have all of this which was pretty quick. The prices here are Value for Money for the quantity that you get, a meal for two might cost you anywhere between 800-1000 (approx) which is great considering the place is located in a prominent location like Indiranagar. Will I visit them again? Yes!!