The Irani café goes trendy - Soda bottle opener wala

The Irani café goes trendy

Sodabottleopenerwala

25/4, Lavelle Road

Phone 7022255299

A.D Singh does it again. The pioneering restaurateur who brought Olive Beach to Bangalore, setting the trend of stylish, gourmet destinations outside the five-star hotels, is back with his latest brand, Sodabottleopenerwala. I predict it’s quickly growing popularity will see ‘Let’s go to Soda’ become one of the buzz phrases of the city’s cool set.

This new space is an ode to the Irani Café of Bombay. Those who’ve known and loved them will be happy to get all nostalgic again; those who haven’t experienced an Irani café will love what is a unique offering in Bangalore.

Old cycles stand outside, with biscuit tins from another era. Inside, the flooring is retro and the buzzing bar is lit up with images of food and drink, including Duke’s soda. The furniture has an old world feel to it and just to make you feel that this is indeed an Irani café, there’s the blackboard with a list of do’s and don’ts – ‘No laughing loudly’, ‘No throwing tantrums’.

There’s an in-house bakery and you can stop by at Soda for a maska-pav and a cup of chai. The bakery also makes nankhatai and Shrewsbury biscuits. You could begin also with a delightful plate of khari with a cheesy mushroom topping. The menu is packed with Parsi favourites – Chicken Farcha in its lacy coating, superbly done Sali Mutton and an excellent Berry Pulao.

While Parsi fare is definitel y non-vegetarian, Soda has created enough dishes to keep vegetarians and egg-eaters happy. There’s a vegetable Berry Pulao and the ever popular Tamota Papeta Par Eeda.

Besides its Parsi repertoire, Soda also pays tribute to some Bombay classics such as the Bombay Rasta Sandwich with chutney and sliced veggies, Bhendi Bazaar Seekh Parantha and a Bohra Kheema Pav which is a definite hit. For dessert, there’s a rich Toblerone Mousse and very nice Apple Pie.

Cocktails get quirky here and there are drinks such as Parsiana and Daruwala Vimto. Soda certainly puts the fizz into casual dining in Bangalore.

Restaurant Review: Hanoi - A taste of Vietnam

Hanoi: A taste of Vietnam

1^st Floor, Phoenix Market City,

Whitefield, Bangalore

Phone: 67266553

Even if you’re turned off by crowded malls, there’s a very good reason to go to Phoenix Market City.  Brave the traffic and the crowds and you can be assured of a hit-the-spot Vietnamese meal at Hanoi, tucked away into this sprawling mall.

Run by the hands-on husband-and-wife team of Nirav, who’s Indian, and Diep Vu, who’s Vietnamese, this restaurant is for anyone who enjoys the sharp, clean, refreshing flavours of Asian cuisine. It’s a good looking restaurant with some fetching prints on the walls. A high table running around an island kitchen allows you to watch the chefs at work, while they bring soup to a simmer and steam crabs.

At a chef’s table to introduce a new menu we dined on the most delicate Stuffed Cabbage Pillows bobbing in a clear broth, followed by Pho Cuon, rice noodle rolls with the Pho made in-house and steamed fresh. Bursting with the freshness and crunch of bean sprouts, mint and an occasional chilli hit, this is a delicious cold starter. There was also succulent chicken thigh braised with ginger.

The piece de resistance was the freshest blue crab steamed over beer, served unadorned with a fabulous dipping sauce of fish sauce, chilli seeds, lime and sugar. There was also a richer crab dish, tossed in a pungent tamarind-chilli sauce. The thing to do is abandon cutlery and dig in, with abandon.

They make an excellent Vietnamese hotpot here, which is great for sharing, as also Vietanamese style curry served with coconut rice.

For dessert there was the Vietnamese take on Tub Tim Grob, with coffee jelly, jack fruit, water chestnut jewels and pomegranate in thickened coconut milk. They also have an array of ice creams in oriental flavours from betel leaf to pineapple and basil.

And if you need to be shaken awake from the languor of such a meal, then some excellent Vietnamese coffee.

Restuarant Review: Monkey Bar No.2

Monkey Bar No.2

The second of this hugely popular gastropub opens in the happening hub of Indiranagar

Monkey Bar is a trend-setting Bangalore brand and the city’s second one has now opened in Indiranagar. We went to a hardhat party in the run-up to launch day. And even from an early peek you could tell it’s going to rock.

The high-ceilinged space is as quirky and irreverent as the original; and just enough to be fun, without knocking itself out trying to be ‘different’.

There’ll be loads of reasons to go the new Monkey Bar: the vibe, the buzz, the music and, of course, a line-up of new cocktails and food asserting that this is a gastropub in the true sense of the term. There’s chorizo pav, shammi sliders, pirogi and tempura calamari. Also desserts like chocolate pots with salted caramel popcorn. It’s Chef Manu Chandra’s signature style that constantly introduces novelty and adventure, while always keeping the delish quotient high.

The premises will soon also house the new Like That Only. So watch this space for more.

Monkey Bar

610, 12^th Main, Indiranagar

Phone 44114455

The Uber of the Restaurant business and my pick is ........

Using the term "Uber" of a certain business seems to be the norm in the start-up space today. Essentially this means creating a highly disruptive company on a global scale.

While there was an article in the Times of India last Saturday about "e-Restaurants" and how activity in this space is frenetic in India currently with several companies getting funded, I believe that the Uber of the restaurant space has already been created out of India - we just aren't celebrating enough and talking about them enough.

The company I am referring to is"Zomato". The audacity with which they have expanded globally, acquired several companies (including their biggest till date - Urbanspoon of the US) has been stunning and almost unbelievable. Kudos to the leadership team and the investors supporting them (specifically Sanjeev Bikchandani of Naukri fame, who probably owns the largest stake in Zomato).

I believe that they have built a pure digital platform that will cover the entire planet with no physical infrastructure or capital expenditure needed at each of the local geographies they operate in. All they need is sales folks and some on-the-ground support staff - just like Uber and Airbnb.

My prediction for Zomato in a few years:

1. They will be the global leader in the digital restaurant space
2. They will acquire the likes of Justeat, Grubhub etc. - essentially anyone who generates revenues from the restauranteurs will be a target for them. Hopefully they will go one up even on the market leader Yelp. 
3. They will attract big investments from silicon valley/global biggies on par with what Uber/Airbnb etc.have received.   
4. They will be on radar of Google etc. 
5. They will be the first truly global consumer oriented technology/digital business out of India and will be in the same league as success stories such as Tripadvisor etc. 
6. They will be a company which India will be proud of - say like Korea is proud of Samsung etc. 

My big congratulations to the entire Zomato team and my best wishes for them to continue executing the way they have. Hats off!!!!!!

What's hot in 2015 - NRA Forecast

The National Restaurant Association (NRA) of the USA just released their 2015 culinary forecast based on a survey of 1350 chefs across the US. While the results are clearly US specific, the trends are quite interesting.

While the western world is moving towards more locally produced, fresh and sustainable food, it is sad that developing countries like India are moving in the other direction - high growth in processed food, preference for global food and push for more efficiency in cold storage & logistics - essentially all of this resulting in the fact that the customers eventually get food that is not fresh, stored for a long time and simply reheated/finished at the restaurant. This trend is primarily driven by the economic opportunity here in India currently. Wish someone takes notice and provides support to restaurants doing local & fresh stuff.

You can download the full report from here - What's hot in 2015 report

I have nothing to do with this study. The study was undertaken by NRA and all the copyrights for this study rests with NRA. I am simply reproducing an extract, adding my views and providing links to the original content. 

Enable online ordering from your own website

As a restaurant owner, you can now enable online ordering for your customers directly from your own website using REMOTEORDER.NET.

Link to Remoteorder

The system is easy to set-up for restaurants (all that is needed is the restaurant's menu), easy for customers to order (no login/registration required) and easy for you to receive orders (through SMS, Email & through a browser app). So technically a restaurant does not even need to have a computer. If the restaurant has a computer, the orders can be printed directly on the standard billing printer at your restaurant. 

This is the first product offering we have launched for restaurant business owners. 

The Provident Fund Bomb - Good in some ways but a setback for small businesses & professional entrepreneurs

The government 2 months ago finally issued a notification increasing the wage limit for PF coverage to Rs.15,000 from the current Rs.6,500. While this is good for the labour force in the long term, as they will have a significantly large PF kitty in the future, it will be a setback for small businesses who have crossed the 20 employee threshold across the industry. Kindly see my previous post detailing PF for restaurants - http://restobizindia.blogspot.in/2014/08/pf-is-there-way-to-get-out-of-it.html.

While I feel quite good that the labour force will eventually benefit from this, I also feel that this will make things more challenging for entrepreneurs and for those trying to run businesses professionally.

For the restaurant business in particular, this will mean a few things:

1) Staying small (as in just 1 unit) will make even more sense now, as opposed to having a few units: With just 1 unit, the number of employees can be kept below 20 (atleast officially) and restaurant businesses can avoid getting themselves registered for PF. This will further reduce the interest amongst professionals looking to start-up scalable restaurant businesses as their margins will come under additional pressure.

2) Really large restaurant businesses will have minimal impact as they already cover all their employees under PF. Smaller businesses earlier had an option not to cover employees whose basic + DA was more than 6,500. Now that limit has been increased to 15,000. This effectively means that almost all employees will have to be covered under PF. If the basic + DA of an employee is 10,000, a total PF contribution of Rs.2,400 will need to be made. If the employee's CTC is kept the same as it is now, the take-home salary of the employee will go down by Rs. 2,400 (almost 25% of the current take-home salary of a employee earning Rs.10,000). So the businesses will have no choice but to increase the salary to offset this reduction in take-home.

Based on this and the already existing challenges, I will work on a post on some of my predictions for the restaurant business in the near future. These will be particularly applicable for those who want to run a professional & fully compliant restaurant business with an aim to attract investors and build a large business.Watch out for this post.