Nandhini Group has opened its newest restaurant on New BHEL Road, RMV II Stage. This is the ninth restaurant of the Group. The others are located in Minerva Circle, Sankey Road, Gandhinagar, Jayanagar, St Mark’s Road, Coles Road, J P Nagar, R T Nagar and New BEL Road.

Nandhini Group Managing Director N Anand, an engineer-turned restaurateur, said that the first outlet was Nandhini, known for its Andhra cuisine, was established in 1989 at Minerva Circle. “It has 320 covers making it the biggest restaurant at the time in Bangalore. Nandhini was also the first group to start home delivery system, long before the pizza delivery started in Bangalore. We have about 700 to 800 deliveries every day during week days and more during week ends”, he adds.

Nandhini has a franchisee arrangement for a restaurant in Dubai, while another restaurant on franchisee basis will be opening in Shimoga shortly. “I have inquiries from various parts of the state and also from USA for franchisee arrangement”, he says.

Anand who is an engineer by qualification, has no family tradition of restaurant business and is a pioneer in the Andhra style cuisine in Bangalore. He worked for a short while in what was then known as Mysore State Electricity Board, before venturing full time in the restaurant business. Today his son Roopesh and daughter are also engaged in the restaurant business.

“When I started the restaurant there were no Andhra style cooks in Bangalore and I had to bring them from East Godavari and Chittoor districts. Today many cooks in Bangalore are being trained under them”, recalls Anand.

He says, “Today we have two centralised kitchens - one for non-vegetarian cuisine at Minerva Circle and the other for vegetarian in V V Puram, which enables us to maintain the quality.”

Nandhini group has also ventured into hospitality business in the star category and has lodging facilities at five of its restaurant locations in Minerva Circle, Jayanagar, St Mark’s Road, J P Nagar and R T Nagar with a total of 224 rooms. “It is a wrong notion to think that there is lack of hotel rooms in Bangalore. It may be so only in the 5-star category. The service apartments are also not a threat to the hospitality industry”, he says.

The Group is now scouting for locations to open more restaurants in Koramangala, Indiranagar, Rajajinagar and Vijayanagar. It has also recently ventured into packaged commodities under the “Nandhi” brand jointly with state Government undertaking - Mysore Sales International Limited.