How Restaurant Week India is minting Rs 1.2 cr revenue each season and making fine dining a regular affair for foodies across Indian metros

It is a celebration of the culinary landscape in Indian metros. The ongoing Ola Restaurant Week India that ends on 25th of this month features around 100+ restaurants handpicked across Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Diners in Mumbai are being offered a three-course price fixed menu at Rs 1,100 for lunch and Rs 1,300 for dinner; in Bangalore at Rs 900 for lunch and Rs 1,100 for dinner; in Chennai at Rs 750 for lunch and Rs 900 for dinner; in Kolkata at Rs 900 for lunch or dinner and in Pune at Rs 750 for lunch or dinner.

Quite renowned among the foodies’ circuit in the metros, the current edition of the Restaurant Week also features some new participants that include gluten free, vegan, low carb and low sugar options. While dining out, go healthy and at fraction of the ala carte menu price of the posh fine dining restaurants, each event has generated an average of over Rs 1.2 crore. Mind you, this amount is only from the food sold as there is no alcohol option included in the fixed price.

When the Restaurant Week was launched some 6 years ago, it was aimed at helping diners discover interesting gourmet restaurants that offer a great dining experience. Not only for the diners, for the restaurants as well. Hidden gems like Indian Accent restaurant, The Manor and Tapas at the Aman Lodhi were showcased and a loyal fan base of each place was thus created.

While the plan was to go once a year with 7 iconic restaurants of the town, the Restaurant Week has evolved as a twice-a-year phenomenon. Held in March and September every year, the event covers 10 days with over 100+ participating restaurants. Over the last 4 rounds, each Restaurant Week had an average of 3,374 tables and 9,593 diners per round.

Nachiket Shetye, co-founder Cellar Door Hospitality, the organizer of the event says it’s completely because of the response the event received in the first round that it had to be expanded. “As the event has grown we have paid emphasis on the menu, menu choices and introduction of signature options at a nominal price.”

So how difficult was it to influence the fine dining category and make them participate at such a nominal price point? “This is a very small industry and business is done on the basis of relationships. We ensure that before each round we visit the city and meet all our participating restaurants, inform them about the new features and feedback from the last round. In the first edition AD Singh from the Olive Group was our mentor and helped us out a lot,” said Shetye.

“But for the first round we did a recce trip ate at a ridiculous number of restaurants, made cold calls and had F&B Manager introduce us to fellow managers at other restaurants. Those were the wonder years.”

And with new restaurants participating in every season of restaurant week, the research is done purely on the word-of-mouth basis. “We track all new restaurant openings and take feedback from friends about their favourite fine dining spots so that we can constantly rotate our list and provide new and better options,” said Shetye.

It is also ensured that the restaurants chosen are speciality ones so the foodies get a lot of variety to choose from.

As a gift from the title sponsor Ola, this year all Restaurant Week diners will receive discounted Ola rides to and from their meals.