Pot Biriyani is a home cookery which serves excellent biriyani. It comes in clay pots (which you get to keep) and the usual portion for 8 costs Rs. 3,000. For 4 it’s Rs. 2,000.
Pot Biriyani is a small home cookery which specializes in biriyani. Chicken, mutton, prawn, veg. It’s takeaway or delivery and it’s meant for groups – eight people by default. As the name implies, everything comes in clay pots. You get the usual biriyani pot, kottu pot, pittu baabath pot, even dessert pot. They are nice pots (which you get to keep) and the food inside is excellent.
The Food
We ordered the chicken pot biriyani for four (Rs. 2,000). I suppose it shouldn’t make a difference what the food arrives in, but it does. Serving food out of proper clay pots rather than takeaway boxes makes a big difference to both taste and presentation. There’s also this somewhat pointless feeling of accumulation in getting to keep the pots, you feel like you’re getting a deal, even if you’ll likely never use them again. Because, you know, you always could.
The food itself is excellent. The first big pot contains with biriyani rice – it’s well spiced and generous, with egg, cashew, chicken, etc. The other pot contains BBQ chicken and onions. You also get three (plastic) tubs with malay pickle, cucumber and onion raita, and a caramelized onion sambol of some sort. As you can see, it’s a satisfying meal.
The rice alone is fragrant and delicious. There’s a good amount of egg, greens and raisins in there, along with quite a few pieces of chicken at the bottom. Dig for those, we didn’t find them till we ate all the rice on top.
Mix it all up and you get a lovely meal you can combine to your taste. One of my issues with biriyani is that too often you get just rice and chicken and maybe a spoonful of sambol or chutney. Not here. If you want spicy sweetness you can mix in the malay pickle. If you want to temper the spice down you can add raita. If you want more oniony flavor, there’s that sambol. With two types of chicken and an interesting variety within the rice, we think this is one of the best biriyani experiences in the city.
Service
Pot Biriyani is run by a family and you get excellent, personal service. The term customer service is almost not relevant here, this is a person to person business, you’ll be talking to either the husband (Waznie) or wife doing everything. They’re very friendly and the service relationship is more akin to calling a nice neighbor than anything else.
Location
Pot Biriyani is not dine-in. You need to call ahead (777330938 or 716669669) at least 3 hours in advance (for lunch). The menu is pretty basic, biriyanis are Rs. 3,000 (chicken), 3,500 (mutton), 2,500 (veg), 4,000 (prawn), or 4,500 (sea food). Those are for portions that serve eight. A pot for 4 is Rs. 2,000 (chicken I assume). They also have dessert and North Indian fare (butter chicken, paneer tikka, etc).
You can call roughly anytime from 9 AM to 9 PM and lunch pickup is at 12 noon while dinner pickup is at 7 PM. They also do delivery, and catering.
Conclusion
If you’re having people over and don’t want to cook or just having a family meal, we highly recommend Pot Biriyani for takeaway or delivery. It’s run by a friendly family and they make tasty, well presented and generous biriyani, among other things.
