Soaring prices lighten purse, plate

Cucumbers replace onions

“We don't want to compromise on quality and taste of the food provided at our outlets.   When the prices of ingredients like onions and vegetables have gone up, we don’t have any other option than to revise the rates,” explained the President of the Bruhath Bangalore Hoteliers’ Association. Several hotels have already started cooking without using onion in dishes like ‘sambar’ according to Adiga. “We are trying to minimise the use of onion in our dishes,” he noted.

Further, the restaurants are also planning to introduce interesting alternatives for dishes like onion dosa on their menu. A few eateries are also planning to cut down the quantity of food served to the customers, if the prices don’t stabilise in the near future.

“Our eateries are frequented by the middle income group. They may not be able to afford a hike in the rate. However, they might not notice the reduction in the size of the dosa,” noted the owner of a roadside eatery.  Restaurants offering Andhra cuisine have also decided to increase the prices of vegetarian meals by ten percent this week. According to Kiran Kumar, Manager of Bheemas Andhra Style Restaurant, the management is contemplating a hike in the rates by ten per cent.

However, the Empire Hotel has decided not to increase the prices of the food items. But, all the 11 branches of the hotel in the City have stopped serving raw onions in their salad due to the rise in the onion prices. Instead, they are serving more cucumber pieces to the customers. 

Empire Hotel General Manager, Junaiz K, said that he had spent an additional Rs 28,000 in purchasing onions in bulk for the restaurant chain's requirement. All the branches of Empire Hotel need 800-1000 kg of onions per day. “Onions and tomatoes form the base for any dish and we cannot do without onions. We are not increasing the prices of food items as we know that prices will come down in the coming days. Moreover, we will lose our customers if we increase the prices,” he said.

However, Ramachandra Upadhyaya, President of Karnataka Pradesh Hotels and Restaurants Association said that only a few hotels which were unable to bear the increased vegetable prices would hike the prices of food items by three to 10 per cent. “We have around 1,500 hotels under our association. Only a few hotels, which are not able to bear the expenses, will increase the prices,” he said.