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Makau Jubilee Hills is one place that has got excellent reviews. It’s a hit amongst the Instagram community in Hyderabad. Though I’m a food blogger, I along with a group of friends decided to visit Makau after seeing the praise it has garnered off late on Instagram. I do put a disclaimer whenever I’m invited to a restaurant, it wasn’t the case at Makau.
Let me begin this post by asking a question, how do you decide on a restaurant to dine at? I’m sure most of you would answer that they check the reviews on Zomato, and Google before choosing one. There would be a few of you who also go by recommendations from your friends and colleagues. Of late, one deciding factor has been how Instaworthy a place is. From stories and reels to posts and guides, Instagram has become a deciding factor to help people choose a restaurant to dine at.
And from the title, you get an idea of how my experience was. Read on for my detailed review of Makau Jubilee Hills.
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Tropical Themed Ambiance at Makau Steals The Show
Just like every other restaurant, Makau too is located in the plush area of Jubilee Hills. It’s located in the lane next to Naturals, BLVD in Jubilee Hills. It wasn’t my first time in the area. I had been there earlier to visit Carpe Diem, Loft (shut now), and Absolute Barbecues.
From the outside, Makau is quite like any other restaurant in the city. Crowded with people waiting for their cars to come out from the parking. I didn’t know that it’s a multistorey restaurant with a reception on the ground floor. One strange thing that happened was that I was told that I cannot take my bag inside and I was like that’s unusual. Since I had a laptop in my bag, I didn’t want to leave it at reception, eventually, they agreed and let us in.
You enter a completely different world the moment you exit the elevator. High ceilings, plenty of light, colorful sofas, and a lot of greenery all over. I must appreciate the architects and the interior folks behind Makau. They deserve it. There’s a bar counter right in the middle with high chairs and tables. All along the walls, you have cozy sitting areas with lots of planters. Then there’s some sitting space on the top and at the bottom (where we sat). So in terms of seating space, there’s plenty of it. And it surely is an Instagrammable place with lots of spots that are perfect for your sunkissed photos.
Full marks for the excellent ambiance. Surely one of the places where you’ll love to spend as much time as you can. But to spend more time, you need good food. And unfortunately, I found the food to be mediocre. Read on to know why.
Mediocre Food & Drinks at Makau
It was a Friday lunch that 4 of us decided to visit and all of them (except me) were dressed to complement the vibes of the place. Makau Kitchen and Bar has quite a variety on their menu. From Continental and Asian to Italian and desi. You get Bisi Belle bath too, but we didn’t try it (why would we?)
We took our sweet time to place the order. We ordered a plate of Makau Fried Chaap, French Fries, Spinach and Cheese Dimsums, Lotus Stem in Honey Chilly Sauce, Mexicana Puff Pizza, and Choco Lava cake. There were a few drinks also including Avalanch, Tropical Rose, Virgin Mojito, Fairy Tail, and Coca-cola. No, I’m not gifted to remember the entire order, I’m looking at the bill and writing this!
Starting with the French fries, one of the crispiest I’ve had in a long time. There were times when I felt that the quantity was relatively more than what I’d had at other places. The next item was Fried Soya Chaap which felt like a KFC copy but with Soya. It was only crunchy and spicy and not something I’d order again.
The Spinach Cheese Dimsums looked good. The translucent red and white Dimsums surely caught our attention. However, it lacked the taste and was quite bland, there barely was any cheese. I’m glad it was served with a variety of dips that were pretty good. Lotus Stem was decent in taste but it was cold. It was crispy and hard at the same time. The Mexicana Puff Pizza was surely the highlight of the day. The unique puff base with veggies and cheese toppings was good on taste. That’s the one thing I recommend you try along with the French Fries.
Talking about the beverages and desserts, being a bar, I feel the quality of mocktails can be improved. Also, they lack variety when it comes to non-alcoholic beverages. The Virgin Mojito was good and so was the Avalanch – a watermelon-based aerated drink. The other drinks Tropical Rose and Fairy Tale were sweeter than expected. I’m sure they can tweak it. But right off the bat, I feel the quality & variety of mocktails can be much better considering its Makau Kitchen and “Bar”.
Our dessert order of the choco lava cake was inspired by an Instagram post – just like our decision to dine at Makau – and it was nowhere close to what we saw. It felt a little undercooked and the taste too wasn’t great. So that was a bummer too.
Final Thoughts – Good ambiance & good pizza
You’ll see some of the most expensive cars lined up outside Makau, and it’ll make you think that the place is pretty good. Well, from the ambiance point of view, it surely is. Amazing interiors and a lot of insta-worthy spots. Perfect to get a good picture clicked to replace that age-old profile photo. Talking about the food, it’s pretty average. Our expectations were sky-high but fell flat on most of the dishes. I’m not saying that the food is bad, but it wasn’t just what we expected from a posh place like this. The bill was close to Rs 5500 for 4 people and considering that the food surely could be better.
In terms of service too, things can be improved. We had to call the server multiple times before someone attended to us. Blame it on the location of our table or the crowd. There was also an instance where the server refused to take back unopened bottles of ginger ale that we ordered. Since we wanted a particular brand, we asked him to take it back to which he told us he can’t and that’s a policy. Nonetheless, he took them back after we told him we wanted to speak to the manager. For a 10% service charge, the service should be much better.
Overall, I’d say it’s a good place. I’d rate it a 3.5/5, the food and drinks can be much better. I hope the folks at Makau Jubilee Hills take note of this. That’s about it in this review blog post about Makau Jubilee Hills, let me know what you think of the place. If you’ve been here, how has your experience been? Do you also decide on visiting a restaurant based on Instagram? Drop in your comments below, tweet to me at @Atulmaharaj, DM me on Instagram, or Get In Touch.
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