In Colloquial French

Vikas Passary is an interesting guy: a Sri Sri Ravi Shankar follower and a serial restaurateur. Last year he was planning to set up a new health-food restaurant with a yoga-and-meditation theme, but realised it was a bit ahead of its time for Hyderabad. Then, in Goa, he discovered chef Gregory Bazire and his Le Poisson Rouge, a French restaurant written about by the New York Times. The two of them talked, and ‘So’ was born. Gregory—who grew up in his family restaurant in Normandy—has designed its menu and trained its team. He spends a few days in Hyderabad every month, to make sure it lives up to his standards.

‘So’ has a spectacular location: on a terrace looking onto the Chiran Palace grounds—400 acres of primeval rock-scape—so you can see what Banjara Hills really looked like, before the builders came and turned it into an upmarket slum. The restaurant has a casual, minimalistic feel to it, and the highlight of the decor is what is on your plate. They’ve been painstakingly fine-tuning the menu to resonate with the Hyderabad palate. We started with sun-dried tomato and garlic soup, and tempura prawns with pineapple dip. The grilled salmon that followed was okay, but the lasagna was excellent. We ended with their signature apple-and-plum crumble with whipped cinnamon cream. According to the New York Times, Gregory creates “authentic French fare with a unique flair”: eating is believing.