Restaurateur Vikas Passary and his partners seem to have found a sharp pulse on Hyderabad’s new-age diner. After the success of Orlo and Kadamba, his latest venture, Naad (meaning primordial sound in Sanskrit), shifts the focus squarely to coffee, unfolding within the same four-story complex on Durgam Cheruvu road.
This time, the collaboration runs deeper. International coffee professional, Q grader, roaster and educator Marc Tormo Altimira (known for Marc’s Coffee in Auroville) joins as a key force behind the concept.
When Passary and his team travelled to Auroville to meet Altimira, they found themselves drawn into his world of coffee. Before any business plans were discussed, the coffee maven insisted they attend a one-week course at the Coffee Learning Community (CLC), a private space on the first floor of Marc's Coffee.
That experience became the starting point for Naad, a project that took nearly three years to take shape. The result is a sprawling, 12,000 square-feet ecosystem that pushes the bean-to-cup philosophy further than most spaces in India.
Here, visitors are encouraged to engage with every stage of the journey, from roasting and brewing to discovering new, unexpected pairings within Indian specialty coffee.
At first glance, Naad evokes the nostalgia of the Indian Coffee House, but without slipping into pastiche. It distils the idea of community and reinterprets it through a contemporary, design-forward lens, executed by Shankar Narayan Architects.
The 125-cover space is dominated by tactile materiality. Tandur stone flooring, laid out in an irregular, broken pattern, subtly mirrors the textures of soil and landscape—an intentional nod to coffee’s agricultural origins. Outdoors, quarry-style seating gestures towards the act of extraction, extending the narrative beyond the cup.
The space unfolds through multiple verticals: a roastery, bistro, academy, bakery, retail section, and even a library.
Instinctively, the eye (and the feet) gravitate towards the roastery, which occupies a significant portion of the space. Watching beans being sorted and processed in large volumes has an oddly meditative quality, amplified by the rhythmic hum of Germany-imported machinery. Nearby, green bean silos and precision-driven equipment add a layer of technical intrigue.
At the bistro, you can enjoy a cuppa paired with fresh viennoiserie and other dishes. Meanwhile, the Naad Academy serves as a learning platform, with sessions led by Altimira ranging from two hours to five days.
For those who wish to buy coffee and brewing equipment, there's a retail section. Guests can first see and smell beans before getting them packed into refillable containers.
There’s also a library with a handpicked selection from Altimira’s personal collection, including The Scent of a Dream: Travels in the World of Coffee by Sebastião Salgado, The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers, and 100 Stories of Coffee Farmers, published by the Coffee Board of India.
At Naad, coffee takes centre stage. Beans are sourced from estates across Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Odisha, with plans to expand into Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, and Nagaland.
On the menu, you’ll find classics like espresso, long black, and cortado, alongside a richer salted caramel cortado made using homemade flavours. Cold options bring their own character—think Freddo Espresso, Thai Cold Coffee, and a South Indian Cold Coffee sweetened with jaggery syrup. For a slower experience, manual brews like pour over, AeroPress, and French press are also on offer.
Where Naad really comes into its own, though, is its signature creations. Black Remedy is a cold drip coffee brewed slowly over 18 hours, then bottled in hand-blown apothecary glass. Inspired by the Kyoto-style drip system—where water falls through the grounds one drop at a time—it delivers a cup that’s clean, layered, and naturally sweet, with a gentler caffeine hit.
There’s also Coffee Sangria, a playful take on the Spanish classic, swapping wine for specialty coffee and blending it with fruit and spice. Secret Lake Spritz leans on the Korean cheong method, where fruits are turned into fragrant syrups before being mixed with tonic water and cold drip coffee, resulting in something light and sparkling.
Beyond coffee, the menu includes tea, drinking chocolate, and a range of house-made kombucha and fruit sodas.
The food menu draws from Indian culinary traditions—pickles, chutneys, and regional influences spanning West Bengal, Bihar, and Maharashtra.
There’s an all-day breakfast lineup that includes podi idli, beetroot thecha toast, a smoked duck Benedict, and smoothie bowls. Sandwiches range from a smoked eggplant and Stracciatella to a buttermilk fried chicken with a hot honey glaze, and roasted makhana stepping in where fries usually would.
While there are a handful of salads, the small plates are worth your attention. The roasted long pepper with assorted cheese, wild mushroom, and spiced butter stands out.
The bakery, meanwhile, turns out fresh viennoiserie (croissants, shroom puffs, apple turnovers), along with tarts, cookies, cakes, and pies that pair with the coffee-forward focus.
Naad could have easily stopped at being a good-looking coffee spot. Instead, it builds a layered, ambitious space that nudges you to look beyond the surface. The coffee is excellent but it’s the curiosity it sparks that lingers.