Haleem, pounded for hours until the meat and lentils surrender into one thick savory mass, explains Hyderabad House faster than any description of the room could. On the South Asian commercial stretch of Devon Avenue in Chicago, this kitchen cooks the food of Hyderabad with little interest in softening it for an unfamiliar palate. Biryani arrives heavily layered and unevenly stained with spice, the goat or chicken buried somewhere in the middle. The house has become known for both of those dishes, along with a mutton version that regulars order by default.\nThe rest of the repertoire follows the same regional logic. Kebabs come off the grill in quick succession, tangdi and seekh and boti among them, while parathas are stuffed with chicken or beef and folded into something closer to a meal than a snack. Vegetarians are not an afterthought, though the reputation rests on meat, all of it halal. Tying it together is Irani chai, poured strong and sweet, often alongside the crumbly Osmania biscuits made for dunking.\nPortions are built for sharing and prices have stayed modest, which is part of why the dining room fills with families and students rather than any particular scene. The space is small, with the effort going into what comes out of the kitchen rather than the decor. Service can be unhurried when a single server covers the floor, a detail longtime customers seem to accept as the cost of eating this well for this little.\nDevon Avenue has no shortage of South Asian restaurants, and several of them cook biryani. What sets this one apart is the narrowness of its focus: Hyderabadi cooking specifically, in a city where the category usually collapses into a broader Indian and Pakistani offering. The hours help too. The doors stay open well past midnight, later still on weekends, which has made the address a fixture for anyone whose appetite for goat and rice arrives at one in the morning.