Shocking discovery: Cigarette butts found in Hyderabad diner’s chicken biryani, sparks outrage

Two of my friends were having a meal in a biryani shop on RTC X Road, Hyderabad when they got hold of a cigarette butt. At Bawarchi restaurant, the incident took social media by storm when the video of the attack went cigarette biryani viral. The video of Hyderabad restaurant cigarette found in biryani is gone viral on social media.

During this time, members of the Hyderabad restaurant staff and an employee of the restaurant owned by Salman Mansoori sought to console the angry customers. They had sat down to hear the diners’ complaints and offer answers.

One of the Hyderabad diner’s chicken biryani on the video speculated that the cigarette butts in food could be caused by someone smoking in the kitchen, making them fear about hygiene and safety.

‘Cigarette in biryani,’ wrote Vineeth K who posted the clip on X (formerly Twitter) on 25 November. Perhaps we should all learn to prepare biryani at home, he joked, in order to avoid this kind of disaster.

The video has rapidly exploded in popularity since posting, racking up more than 14.3k views as users responded in the comments. One post read, "I had a cook bro. Monthly 5k," and another said, "They used them for taste," and a third said, "Butts flavour biryani."

The incident comes amid a growing food-safety concern in Hyderabad. A month earlier, 23-year-old Ravi’s hunger for chicken biryani at another place, Green Bawarchi in Neredmet, had brought about a medical crisis when he contracted severe gastroenteritis earlier in November, likely due to food contamination. They took him to hospital, where they pronounced him dead.

These incidents prompted heightened food inspections in the city. Government inspectors have found unsanitary conditions, food dyes and food residues in restaurants. And these new findings are forcing restaurants to improve their hygiene levels so that everyone is safe.