Best of the Best: Manam Chocolate Karkhana

Manam Chocolate Karkhana, Hyderabad is a unique cacao factory & cafe serving many things chocolate made with cocoa beans sourced from West Godavari, Andhra Pradesh. These are some of the items I had during my visits to one of the world's 100 best places by Time Magazine & best 50 restaurants in India by Conde Nast Traveller.

Textures of Chocolate

Layered chocolate cake, ganache and biscuit based dessert. Not as great as it should be!

Rating: 3/5

Pecan Caramel

Shortbread crusted dessert made with caramel, pecan nuts and chocolate. Not as sweet or chocolatey as expected!

Rating: 3/5

Brownie Fudge Verrine

Verrine with chocolate ganache and fudgy brownies.

Rating: 3/5

Espresso Mascarpone Cupcake

Espresso based cupcake topped with mascarpone cream.

Rating: 3/5

Gelato Popsicle

Delicious gelato stick dipped in dark chocolate literally flowing from taps! The best item I had at this place!

Rating: 4/5

Click for video..

Brown Butter Caramel Hot Dark Chocolate

Had this as plain dark hot chocolate was not even on the menu! Tasted good with the whipped cream topping though.

Rating: 3.5/5

Bicerin

Bicerin is a hot chocolate based coffee drink. It was delicious!

Rating: 4/5

Affogato Al Cacao

Variant of affogato with drinking chocolate instead of espresso.

Rating: 3.5/5

Click for video..

Nitro Cold Drip Coffee & Cacao

Nitro coffee served with cacao nibs on the side. Expected it to be a mixed black coffee chocolate drink based on the name though.

Rating: 3/5

Ambiance: 5/5

I still remember the fantastic cacao aroma I felt the first time I entered this place! From the chocolate wall fountain & chocolate taps to the chocolate factory visible through glass showing all the stages of chocolate making from cocoa beans, it was a delight just being here!

Service: 1/5

Keeping the huge wait time to get in the cafe aside, the staff have reluctantly given me a table and waited for me to leave as quickly as possible during my latest visit, which will now be my last visit to this place! Pathetic!

Menu: 3/5

There's a huge scope for redesigning the menu. For example, desserts or drinks made with varying percentage of cocoa (30%, 40% to maybe even 90%, 100%) can be introduced.

Food: 3/5

Many of the things I tried here has added caramel, which actually diluted the tasting experience every single time.

Overall Experience: 6/10

Location: Banjara Hills, Hyderabad

See you soon after my next trip. Cheers!