Bowl O’ (Oh No) China

“To err is human” – You bet! The best part is that we learn through our mistakes. I have made up my mind never to make the same mistake again. The mistake of eating at Bowl O’China. The Bowl O‘ China that I ate in, is situated in Kharkhana, Secunderabad, it also has another branch in Begumpet, Hyderabad. Bowl O’ China is a part of the famous food chain “The Hyderabad House”.

Hyderabad House is known for its mouth watering Biryani and that’s all the more reason why I was surprised when Bowl O’ China served such crappy food. I have been to Bowl O’China when they had first opened in Kharkhana. The food wasn’t that great on that day too, but I didn’t bother too much about it cause it was their first week and I gave them the benefit of doubt, thinking that they will be fine once they settle down. I guess I was wrong.

My sudden craving for Chinese food was the reason behind my decision to go to Bowl O’ China. I persuaded my boyfriend and he readily agreed cause that was the closest Chinese restaurant to Sainikpuri and therefore by going there we would be avoiding the horrendous city traffic. But little did we know that by avoiding traffic, we were compromising on a good meal. We got there and placed our order. We ordered for a Veg Manchurian (Rs 55) for starters, Veg Hakka Noodles (Rs 65) and Gobi Manchurian Gravy (Rs 60). We were really hungry and the thought of eating good Chinese food increased our anticipation even more.

We waited and waited and waited… and waited My appetite was now half of what it was when I initially got there. While we were waiting, I was observing the ambience of the place. The restaurant has used dark red and black (both my favorite colors) for the walls and the furniture. The highlights of the place are the lamps that they have hung from the ceiling. I would love to get couple of them for my own house. It is a very small restaurant with a seating capacity for 40 people or so.

While I was analyzing the ambiance my guy reminded them about our order for the second time. Finally they decided to be nice to us and brought the food. My appetite had vanished by the time they laid the plate. Then came the biggest disappointment. The Veg Manchurian turned out to be over cooked. It looked like they had already made the Manchurian and fried it again just before bringing it to our table. We somehow managed to eat it. Then we were served the Veg Hakka Noodles, and the Gobi Manchurian Gravy along with it. The noodles was nice so I was under the impression that the Gobi Manchurian will also be nice, but I was wrong once again. It was really hard and ‘kaccha’ you know what I mean right. It was like I was eating raw cauliflower soaked in some weird soya sauce gravy. That was the heights; we called the Manager and told him that this was not what we expected. He apologized and had the order changed to Veg Manchurian Gravy.

The Veg Manchurian Gravy arrived after we had finished eating more than half of the Hakka Noodles. It was the same starter we had had at the beginning of the meal, put in the same weird soya sauce of the previous gravy. We dint eat it. Why should we? Don’t we deserve value for our money? This was the first time in our lives that we had wasted so much food, and didn’t feel bad about it.

Bowl O’ China is all show and no quality. It is a sad attempt by Hyderabad House to satiate the needs of the Chinese food lovers. I think they need to improve or shut down and just stick to making what they do best, Biryani. The only thing that I liked about Bowl O’ China was the decor and the lamps.

For those who are still interested in checking it out, here is the address

Bowl O’ China, Plot No. 28, New Vasavi Nagar, Karkhana, Secunderabad.