Friday Night Jazz at Fusion 9

Fusion 9 is a lovely restaurant in Hyderabad that has a jazz band playing live every Friday night. (Sorry Bangalore folks, we ain’t got one over here.) I went there a couple of weeks ago, primarily because I’m a sucker for live music.

It was raining heavily in Hyderabad and was the worst day to go out, but I still went. The traffic was all clogged and my friend was late, so I sat at the bar. It’s been a while since I sat at the bar, and so it was fun to watch the bartender mix drinks, moving quickly to pour a beer, some whiskey, create a cocktail, etc. The bar area was right in the middle of the restaurant and around it were the tables and the place was pretty full. I’ve never seen so many foreigners in one place in Hyderabad, so I guess the place is popular with the expats. The restaurant is easy on the eyes and is a nice place to spend an evening.

The jazz band that I’d gone to see, they were on a break, which lasted about half an hour. They took a half an hour break later as well. The band had four people–a tall American guy playing the trumpet, a guy with a long beard playing the guitar, a drummer, and a bassist. They played well, and the pieces were long and they improvised. I’m not a big jazz fan but the music was good and for me, live jazz is easier to listen to. I am still not happy about the half an hour breaks though. If Satriani don’t take breaks, if Knopfler don’t take breaks, nobody else should take breaks. Then again, they don’t play in bars.

The food at Fusion 9 was really good. They serve bread that you can have with Olive oil and crushed peppers. We had the Cajun potatoes for starters and I had a chicken pepper steak (or whatever it was called), which was really good. My friend told me that they have a buffet lunch on Sunday which is about 450 to 500 bucks and really good. Add to that the fact that you can drink any number of vodka-based drinks, and you set yourself up for a really lazy, languorous Sunday.

If you’re in Hyderabad, you might want to check this place out. Fusion 9 is in Banjara Hills and if you want to eat Oriental food instead, it has another restaurant above called Cinnabar Red, which serves pretty decent food too the Grill Room.

But, this is about Fusion 9, so go there first. You can try Cinnabar Red the Grill Room some other time.

Updated: To reflect the change of configuration in the restaurant below, thanks to a comment by Preeti.