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Hyderabad is brimming with cafes, South Indian and Pan Asian eateries off late. There’s a new cafe cropping up in some parts or the other. While many are just about Instagram, there are some whose focus is coffee and food.
I was walking down the track at Durgam Cheruvu a few weeks back and I saw this cafe right next to it. My friends told me it’s the Last House Cafe. Since I was on the track, I could only imagine the view from the cafe. However, a few weeks later, there I was at the Last House Cafe.
It was a weekend, I had dropped family and relatives to Ramoji Film City and drove to Last House. I was meeting a friend but reached early as I had a lot of work to complete. So this blog post is based on my 6-hour stay at the Last House Cafe.
Picture Perfect Location
It hit me quite late as to why Last House Cafe is called the last house cafe. Well, because it is the last house before Durgam Cheruvu. It’s closer to one of the gates of the lake and shares the boundary with the walking track. Reaching Last House Cafe is fairly easy, get down right after the Durgam Cheruvu fly-over, take a couple of left turns and you’ll be there.
It’s located in a residential area and the place is super quiet. I was here around 10 AM on a Saturday morning and there were people already in there. Most of them are morning walkers, groups of friends. Since I was going to be working, I wanted a place with a charging socket. They have a small but beautiful place inside with a few high chairs and tables with charging plugs to work from. There’s also this big FRIENDS-type couch inside.
However, the best part about the Last House Cafe is its outdoor seating. There’s a lot of greenery and at some point, you’ll feel like you’re sharing your table with a plant. The roof is transparent and looks beautiful during rain. They’ve used the space extremely well and have got amphitheater-type seating which is perfect for two people.
From there you can climb up to their upper deck which is the real deal. Though it’s full most of the time, it’s where you should be. The place provides the best views of Durgam Cheruvu Lake with the Hyderabad skyline in the backdrop.
The place gets crowded as the day passes and people come and spend hours. It’s a great place for creative professionals as the peace and tranquility at the cafe especially early in the morning is second to none. Get a cup of coffee, grab a book, or take your laptop and just go with the flow. It’s one of those few places where you’ll enjoy working from. I’m completely in love with the setup especially because it allows folks to work from the cafe.
Food and Brews and Last House Cafe
As mentioned earlier, I was here to meet a friend for lunch. And since I was having lunch, I decided to light on breakfast, extremely light. The menu at the Last House Cafe isn’t loaded with a lot of dishes whether it’s coffee or food. So some of you may find the options a little underwhelming. I’ve also been told that the place recently started having food on the menu and for a long time it was only about coffee.
Nonetheless, I ordered an Elderflower Cold Brew Tonic to get me through my work until lunch. This was a new combination that I saw and I’m glad I tried it. It was good with notes of elderflower. The first time I had something based on Elderflower was at Feu. Loved this blend.
The coffee was good enough to power me for a couple of hours as I worked on my deck for a talk on observability for multi-tenant Kubernetes cluster (yes that’s what I do for work) It was a productive morning and like I said, the place will ensure you have your creative juices flowing and get work done.
My friend has spoken a lot about this place, she’s a cafe hopper and so I decided to meet her here for lunch. She came in and it was like she was coming to her house. She knew almost everyone (if not everyone) at the cafe. Suggested what I should order and the best place to sit. We went and placed our orders and went upstairs. (I don’t have any clicks from this place as there were a lot of people here).
The order was quite simple we had a Green Buddha Bowl with a Mushroom Cheese Sandwich along with a tart and a couple of coffees. I’m sorry I’m not able to recollect the correct names and I don’t have them written. The Mushroom Cheese sandwich was nice and stuffed with hearty amounts of cheese and Mushrooms. Please note this can get messy so make sure you have some tissues around you.
The Green Buddha Bowl on the other hand was loaded with greens. Paneer, Pista, Asparagus, and Quinoa along with a serving of pesto. Frankly, even without the Pesto, I found it to be good. I liked the use of Pista in it.
On the coffee front, we had a Caramel Popcorn Coffee along with a Cold Brew Tonic. I was having the Caramel Popcorn for the first time and it tasted different in a nice way. I would have preferred it to be a little more creamier though. The tart was nice, a little sweet but a good way to end the meal. I was in a hurry as I had to pick up my parents from Ramoji so had to drive to the other end of the city hence the order was short and sweet.
Food With View
In terms of the place and setup, I loved Last House Cafe. Irrespective of where you sit, you’ll feel productive (if you’re coming here to work) or relaxed. The cafe is perfect to catch up with friends, work or simply eat. As mentioned, the place can get crowded at peak hours and you’ll have to wait. Especially if you want to sit at the top. Getting a table is difficult. Otherwise, if you’re here to work from, you will have space to sit and work if you’re in early.
Talking about the food and coffee, they know their coffee, and that speaks in the menu as well as their loyal customer base. The items are relatively limited so you’ll not waste time deciding what to order. The coffees are nice, but the cold brew options could be a little better. We didn’t try a lot of dishes but overall both of us liked the dishes.
In terms of pricing, it’s like any other cafe of this type. A glass of cold brew is Rs 250+ and the average price of any food item is around Rs 400+. Some might find this a little higher but I felt it to be fine enough.
So that’s about it for this blog post. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, tweet to me at @Atulmharaj, DM on Instagram, or Get In Touch.
