TheySee Wants to Feed Hyderabad’s New Appetite

At first glance, TheySee in Hyderabad feels like it is for Gen Z, the people currently following the internet’s favourite trend: nostalgia.

Before the restaurant that's landed on its feet in Jubilee Hills even comes into view, the life-sized matchboxes splashed with vintage desi graphics, Telugu lettering, chilli reds, and mustard yellows guard the entrance. Inside, the space immediately drenches you in red, white and coffee brown. A hyper-3D sculpture of woman from Raja Ravi Varma paintings holds a guitar, hand-blown glass globes hanging above diners, ceramic matchboxes doubling up as ashtrays and bill holders, and a referral-only cocktail room enticingly glows behind crimson-tinted glass. Even the music is groovy and nostalgic. Would any other generation even relate?

Wait until you taste what's served on the table.

It isn’t too Western or too “authentically Indian”, as one would expect from a desi — oh, I mean TheySee — place. The experience at the 65 seater restaurant offers food that refuses to be categorised as too Indian, Western, or even fusion fine dining. Instead, it couches itself perfectly between two versions of India: one that reminisces about the past, and another that’s equally invested in how it experiences the present. That means space, culture and food.

Rooted in ingredient-forward cooking, soulful flavour, and the unapologetic view of being Indian, TheySee draws equally from the modern culinary craft and traditional cultural identity. The restaurant itself is similarly shaped by the experiences of its three young co-founders- Chef Suryansh Singh Kanwar, entrepreneur Niharika Gollapalli, and hospitality lead Darshan Ramchandani, each bringing a unique understanding od what modern Indian dinner wants.

For the founders, food is the hero, and the tables where it is served must be lit accordingly. Everything else including the walls, the art, the architectural details is layered beneath, illuminated in degrees that add depth without ever competing with the plate.

“I want to make a hang space in Hyderabad, that is cool, that is for the new age,” Chef Suryansh says. “I want the space to be comforting for you to want to go there again and again, because the food is good. But at the same time, because it is easy to have a conversation. Everything else is a supporting actor.”

What makes the menu at TheySee particularly interesting is that it doesn’t merely attempt to “modernise” Indian food for contemporary diners in the predictable small-plates-and-foam sense. Instead, the food feels instinctive — rooted in memory, travel, and personal associations — while still understanding exactly how today’s diners want to eat.

For the Chef, the menu is as autobiographical as it is inventive. Years spent cooking in celebrity homes, IPL hotels, private kitchens cooking for Hardik Pandya and Suniel Shetty, and across cities shaped not just his palate, but his understanding of how deeply personal food can become. At TheySee, those fragments of memory quietly find their way onto the plate.

Dishes including Plantain Chilli Fry that swaps lotus stems for a more crunchy taste of a raw- banana like fruit and Oh So Corny — a playful combination of corn custard, mousse, and chewda — don't necessarily make the diners choose between going for a traditionally Indian or fusion-forward version meal. Even Kali Miri Seekh with Belper Knolle Cheese,Roz Khao Ande with podi kimchi, 62 degree Eggs, biryani on the Bar Tapas menu and a whole range of breads all feel instinctively creative.

What balances the internet culture heavy elements of ambiance is the food that hardly feels overly experimental with techniques or gimmicky- common sight across many metropolitan restaurants in India. Of course, it is only a matter of gaze that makes the plate look simple.

The chef candidly shares that the dishes on the menu are all culmination of some 200 + list of ideas that he has corroborated over the years learning in borrowed kitchens, travelling and through his personal memory watching plays at Lamakaan and eating at their canteen growing up and visiting hyper local bars.

But the experience at TheySee doesn't end at the dinning section. The red room that requires a referral code to enter is the desi way of taking over a speakeasy experience in Hyderabad. The exclusive experience at See - the cocktail room- sits upto 20 people with a special drinks and bar tapas menu, a live Indo-afro DJ, a set of old TV screens with trippy visuals and a flipbook-like installation that adds a layer to what you "see".

The cocktail programme at TheySee, helmed by Pradyumna Shanker, reflects not just his ingenuity as a mixologist, but also his ability to articulate the science behind flavour pairings with remarkable ease.

From Nazar Na Lage - house whiskey highball including bourbon, fermented pineapple saccharum to Masala Market is a rapid-infused gin with fresh turmeric and a methi shrub to form a drink that, in a single sip, replicates the specific sensory overwhelm of stepping into a spice bazaar; to the Kaala Jaadu that mixes Tequila, Gongura and more, are some of the standout drinks offered to the diners.

Even when the cocktails flirt with excess, they still carry the same instinctive quality that makes the food work so well.

That instinct is ultimately what makes TheySee work. Beneath all the aesthetic self-awareness, internet-age nostalgia, and carefully curated visual language is a restaurant that understands something surprisingly simple: the modern Indian diner no longer wants to choose between memory and modernity. They want both on the same table.