JOIN USFrom Bangalore, the next step was in Maddur, now it is Mysore for Empire Restaurant to cater to the taste buds of food connoisseurs. Now it has made its presence felt, finds out T R Sathish Kumar
Having 11 branches, spread all over Bangalore, and one more at Somanahalli — Maddur taluk in Mandya district — it was quite natural for Empire Restaurant to make its appearance at Mysore.
When it was Mysore, the choice was obviously Adi Pampa road at VV Mohalla — the food street of the city. Since its humble beginning in 1966 at Bangalore, Empire’s growth has been enormous due to its unique dishes. It was the one to introduce grilled chicken to the common man — earlier available only at star hotels.
According to manager Asif S, Empire chicken kabab — the restaurant’s speciality — is the mostly sought after dish like in all other branches.
“Some of the customers know us from Bangalore and come to us whenever they are here. Some of them know us from our regular customers. Some of them are new customers, but become regulars after their first visit,” he said.
He said families and students form a majority of customers, but office-goers also come in huge numbers.
“For those who are in a hurry, we have the lunch buffet (21 dishes) at a reasonable cost. Buffet starts at 12.30 pm and goes on till 3.30 pm. Even take away thali and take away biriyanis also have become a hit,” he said.
The restaurant has also introduced Kerala dishes like chicken varutharachathu and kurumulakittathu apart from the popular Kerala parotta and coin parotta.
It also serves popular and widely available north Indian dishes and tandoori items, which are most sought after in the evening and for dinner. The list of specialities is long, including dosa chicken, egg dosa, idly chicken, onion dosa, idly prawns, semiya prawns, prawns dosa, veg dosa, semiya veg, chicken kheema dosa, appam chicken, appam chicken, appam veg, semiya mutton kheema, plain dosa, etc. The restaurant is also well-known for its sea food. And there is a wide variety of dishes for vegetarians too.
As an introductory offer, the restaurant had extended ‘buy one get half free’ for grilled chicken. Three months back customers got a scratch card for a bill of Rs 499 and above. A gift was assured for each cards and Dr Arun Kumar of Basappa Memorial Hospital won a Tata Nano car as the first prize.
Asif said there was sufficient parking space, door delivery service and banquet hall and hence the restaurant has become popular within eight months of its establishment here due to its trade mark dishes, taste, quality and service.