By now, each and every Bengali around me is a fan of Biryani.
To me, Biryani is of two types. One are those which we get on the streets, grab a plate, quickly finish it and walk off. Another one is the Biryani that we get at the restaurants. You walk in to a AC section, grab a seat, slowly and steadily complete your Biryani and you also try other Muglai delicacies too.
If I’m talking about the first type of Biryani – the streetstyle one, Khaza Biryani Center at Hazra is a hidden gem. Not many food bloggers covered this place till date though this road-side restaurant is there for almost last 40 years. My friend, Suman introduced me(and many para-friends) to Khaza Biryani long back (during 2005-06) and we used to have half plate of Chicken Biryani at just 30 INR/plate during that time.
The other day, I was talking with the owner of this place.
He mentioned :
We started selling biryani during a time when there was no concept of street-side biryani. When we started, a half plate of biryani (be it chicken or mutton!) used to come at just 10 bucks while a full plate was just for 12 bucks. Till date, we try to give the best ingredients but we are unable to get the best items from the market. Hence, we increase the price so that we can provide the best ingredients. The biryani masala is still prepared by us only, we do not buy it. If you come during the morning, you will see the whole spices are kept under the sun for a long time before they are hand-grinded. We sell almost 8-9 handis of Biryani a day.
Till few days back, we used to get both chicken and mutton biryanis at the same price. When I left for Hyderabad during 2013, I remember having a half-plate of Chicken Biryani for just 45 INR. When I came for a vacation during 2017, I had the same thing for 60 INR. Just two months back, it was 80 INR. I went back yesterday and found that the price is hiked by 10 rupees.
It is fine for me, still you are getting biryani under 100 INR and perhaps, one of the bests that you’ll get from the street-side section without compromising on quality. At the same time, they renovated the interiors too.
Here, you’ll get two seating options. On the pavements, you will see some red plastic tables and chair placed and if you’re lucky, you can also grab a seat inside though the stools are very less in number. Ask for your biryani, you’ll get it in less than a minute and every time, you’ll get the biryani hot.
The biryani is just the way I like it – long grains of Basmati rice, the perfect mix of white and yellow rice, not much usage of dalda or food color or meetha ittar, a perfectly boiled potato with all the masalas getting inside it, a perfectly-prepared piece of meat and enough rice to satisfy the hunger. Add 10 INR extra and you’ll get an egg with the half plate while the full plate has an egg by default. All these are topped with fresh onions and a green chili. Ohhh, wow!
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Few notes about this place :
1. They remain open from 12.30 PM to 10.30 PM
2. You can opt for take-away too but while you’re waiting for your order to be packed, do not hesitate to try their Chicken Roll. They make it perfect.
3. You can also order from their wide range of kebabs, which are freshly made. Each full plate of kebabs has 16 pieces while a half plate has 8 pieces.
4. They’ll be happy if you give cash payment but you can also opt for UPI
5. There is no need to provide a tip to the waiters, they get offended.
6. If you like Chicken Chanp with your biryani, get one plate for 80 INR.
Just a stone-throw distance away, you’ll see Tufani Biryani selling Biryani at the same price. They got some name and fame recently and if you want to try their biryani, I have a secret for you!
Take half-plate of biryani from Khaza Biryani and take another half plate from Tufani Biryani. You’ll be understanding the difference and hence, it will be easy for you to provide a rating between the two. If you ask for my rating, I will give 4/5 stars to Khaza Biryani and 3.5/5 stars to Tufani Biryani. I found that they give a meat piece which is cooked in a gravy and I do not like that personally. Check the snap below :
Direction : Get down at Hazra Moore, ask any one for Pathfinder or Hazra-Khidderpore Auto Stand and you will find Khaza Biryani standing proudly at the junction of two lanes. The lane is called Sadananda Road which heads toward Kalighat and Rashbehari Avenue.
Google Map Location : https://goo.gl/maps/fPzziNFXAr6Kh7K59
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