Onion prices gave city hotels a scare

Some restaurants in the city were planning to increase the prices of dishes when the rate of onions skyrocketed

The recent hike in onion prices had forced restaurant owners to rethink their menu prices. With the centre importing onions from Egypt and Turkey, coupled with the arrival of stocks from places like Bagalkot, Gadag, Bijapur and Chitradurga in Karnataka, as well as other states like Rajasthan and Gujarat, the prices of the staple have fallen considerably and are further expected to consolidate over the weekend.

Mr Ravi, the manager of Gowda’s Donne Biriyani restaurant near Majestic, says, “We did not increase the prices, but we were planning to do so within two or three months if the prices had remained the same. We were hoping that the price of onions would decrease so that we didn’t have to go through the hassle of printing new menu cards.”

Various restaurants in the city seem to share the sentiment. Mr Mahendra, outlet in-charge of Mel’s Korner at Church Street, says, “We too were planning to increase our menu prices within the next two months. We did not want to cause inconvenience to our customers, but we were left with no choice.”

Sudharani, a customer, said that she did not notice any significant rise in the price of food items recently. However, Sanath SP, who eats outside quite often, says that prices of food items have increased all over Bengaluru.

Vandana and Sushma, students of Mount Carmel College, who often visit restaurants on MG Road, too say that they too have noticed a slight increase in prices of food items in some restaurants.

Some of the restaurants in the city were waiting for directions from their head offices, located in other cities. Mr Debashis, the supervisor at ‘Oh! Calcutta’ on Church Street, says that the decision on pricing was taken by the head office in Mumbai.

Chandan, a resident of Kammanahalli who regularly eats at restaurants, says “A few restaurants in Kammanahalli charge around Rs 10 extra on items which contain a lot of onion. However, most of the restaurants on MG Road kept their prices unchanged.”

Floods in major onion producing states including Karnataka was one of the key factors responsible for the shortage of onion supply, and consequently the hike in its price.