Hot stuff in Lake Mary at Nawabi Hyderabadi House | Review
When I lived in Miami, there was a family-run Indian restaurant on the corner of my street. I went often. And when I had my first child, she became a regular, too.
Because it was family-run, there was a grandmother in the mix. And while she was always among the crew of servers who’d come to our table (one time she spent five minutes coaching me through various hiccup home remedies until they abated), once the baby came, she’d make a beeline for us.
She’d offer my kiddo little bits of this or that, and delighted, as grandmas do, in her enthusiastic gobbling. The bites were often on the spicy side, as I was (and still am) a spicy mama.
“You let her eat that?” playgroup friends would ask with wide eyes. “Isn’t it too spicy?!”
“Not for the babies in India,” I’d shrug.
So, yeah. Indian food. It’s my youngest’s favorite, actually.
But since many non-Indians seem a little leery of the spice, you can imagine my surprise when while wandering amid the booths at the Taste of Lake Mary, I was handed a tasty hunk of curry-laden chicken that offered serious kick for a festival filled with suburbanites.
I tried the other sample. Same thing.
Mind you, this wasn’t *mind-blowingly* spicy, but for lots of people you and I know, this would have been the limit. And too much for a few. There was genuine heat. They brought triangles of naan, as well. A few folks nearby were using it to chase the effects of the chilies. I was impressed.
If this was what they brought to share with a festival crowd, what might I find at the actual restaurant?
Staffers behind the table were happy to tell me its name: Nawabi Hyderabad House.
After a quick flip around the fest, a really nice event put together by the good peeps at the Rotary Club of Lake Mary (this was it’s 20th year, 10/10 recommend for lovers of the sip and stroll), we headed over for an impromptu Indian feast.
Turns out that Nawabi, an impressive space that at this early hour had a stack of takeout at the host stand but not too many diners in-house, is a franchise. But it’s locally owned.
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Hyderabad native Venkat Mandalapu may have started his professional life in I.T., but these days, it’s full-time restauranting. He’s been in the States since 2007, morphing into culinary entrepreneurship when he and his cousin, who was already well invested in the restaurant biz up in Virginia, went in on another franchise opportunity that was already in the family portfolio: Inchin’s Bamboo Garden, a fusion-forward joint in Orlando’s Hunter’s Creek neighborhood.
“It was a concept we didn’t have in Orlando,” Mandalapu tells me (there is another in Wesley Chapel, outside of Tampa).
Inchin’s opened about two years ago, attracting a customer base from across the spectrum, including folks who are visiting the Disney area. Halal meats make it appealing across the board, he says. “But we decided we wanted to do another concept, one that was pure Indian.”
Nawabi, which spun up in Texas back in 2013, was an appealing idea. They went out to try the food, and loved it. Though biryani-focused at first (it’s still the prime mover) the menu has since expanded to cover dishes from beyond Hyderabad, touching on items from north and south.
The menu is Greek diner-massive, so you might want to have an online peek ahead of time to narrow things down at the table. Though servers here, I found on my visits, are happy to make recommendations.
“We have close to 600 items altogether,” he notes.
If you get the same thing at every Indian place, Nawabi has it, I assure you. But for someone like me, the menu is a gateway to longform reading. Eventually we pulled the trigger on Monagadi-style gobi, a two-chili-pepper delight that brought the heat hard, but also plenty of flavor. It’s an Andhra/Hyderabadi-style offering, aromatic and incendiary, though it’s important to note that servers here are very sensitive to diners’ preferred heat levels.
They practically tried to talk us out of medium and hot choices, which we went for, anyway. But we’d had that sneak peek at the festival. We wanted to see what was in store. I can say with conviction and admiration: Nawabi brings the fire *and* the flavor. It’s not heat for heat’s sake.
Hyderabadi food is spicy by nature, Mandalapu tells me, “but over our six months open, we have really set up in our system ways to make sure that people get the spice levels they want. We can always make food milder and bring spice to the table, too.”
Monagadi, as well as milder Masakali-style offerings are very balanced; elements like curry and coconut, ginger and garlic still shine through.
Both of these styles featuring spices and sauces that come from Nawabi’s corporate HQ, ensuring that fans get the same flavors, no matter where they are dining - and these days, that could be anywhere from Castleton, IN to County Cork in Ireland.
Dosas here are very popular across the board (related note: Tuesdays see a South Indian breakfast thali special) come crispy, ours, the mysore masala version ($13) served atop a pile of beautifully seasoned potato, medium spice level. Handsy and fun to fill and layer with sambar and various chutneys. Yes, I could make a dinner of this, but apps leave room for more.
Dishes like the Nellore Fish Curry ($20), which we ordered hot, or the absolutely excellent Gutthi Vankaya Curry ($15) which at medium seemed even spicier than the former. The heat in this wonderful Brinjal curry is top-notch, complementing the soft, stewed eggplant which makes for a rich, wonderful stew.
The vegetarian manchow ($10), an Indo-Chinese soup I’d describe as egg drop-meets-tom yum created in whatever diner they have in the actual “state” of nirvana, is a flu-destroying powerhouse of flavor. Equal parts spicy and sour, silky with slurry technique and topped with the crunch of fried noodles, both my companion and I ordered another to take home, post-meal.
On another visit, the weekend special, Nalli Gosh Biryani ($22), says Mandalapu, is one of the most popular.
It shows up as an oversized platter of rice, adorned with raw, red onion and a whole, cooked egg from which a club-like lamb shank protrudes. Layered within, a sauce both spicy and aromatic that gets thicker toward the bottom. Their head chef, who manages three others, has been a Hyderabad House employee for 15 or 16 years, he tells me. The kitchen has confidence.
“On the bottom, there is more masala,” he tells me, explaining the layering process of the biryani, the dish the brand was born on. “The top layer is not spicy rice, and if you go deeper, you get super spicy rice…. We manage the needs of the clientele.”
And the best part? Everyone can share.
And there is a lot to share. From all over India
“We have four cities in South India: Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai and Kerala. Each eats a different type of biryani. And on the weekends, we will stay with one region and make theirs on that particular day.”
“You would have to come a hundred times to try everything here,” he laughs.
Don’t threaten me with a good time, Sir.
Want to reach out? Find me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. For more fun, join the Let's Eat, Orlando Facebook group or follow @fun.things.orlando on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
If you go
Nawabi Hyerabad House : 4225 W. Lake Mary Blvd, Lake Mary, 321-363-0818; nawabihhlakemary.com
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This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 5:16 AM.