I have had a long history with the restaurants of my favourite towns, and I had already written about those five towns already. The restaurants at Aluva, Perumbavoor, Muvattupuzha, Kothamangalam and Angamaly have been part of my life for quite a long time because they are part of the routes which I have traveled a lot. Yes, a good number of restaurants around the city of Cochin also got a big part to play in the same. Throughout my life, I have loved many restaurants and decided not to visit a few ever.
I have rarely hated any of the restaurants because I have always found one interesting item in one form or the other. Most of my favourite restaurants were vegetarian, with only a few exceptions in each town. I have already written about how much of an integral part of my life, Indian Coffee House has been. But talking about the restaurants, or at least most of them, there are a few things which I would like to see atΒ all of them. I am sharing them here.
Try providing only the needed amount of curry: When there is only one person having food, I am surprised that there is so much of the curry being provided whether it is vegetarian or non-vegetarian. When I go outside with friends, if we are only two, we share one curry with the rice, Chappathi, Porotta, Appam or whatever we are having. This is the reason why I have some Dosa, Idli or Biriyani items which don’t require separate curry when I am alone. I am sure that I won’t be able to finish one full curry, but the restaurants can have the option of providing half-curry or sometimes even quarter-curry?
Try not to make random assumptions: I have seen that many non-vegetarian restaurants bring Chicken Noodles, Chicken Fried Rice or Chicken Biriyani whenever we ask for Noodles, Fried Rice or Biriyani. This has happened to me on a number of occasions. There was a time when I had to chase the waiter to tell him that I actually meant Vegetable Biriyani only. This is really not fair. You can’t make me eat non-vegetarian just because the restaurant is non-vegetarian. I might have chosen this restaurant because of its location or due to the fact that someone who is with me wants to have non-vegetarian, and it needn’t be even chicken – it can be fish, mutton or anything else.
Make tea available at all times: Having anything cold might not be the right thing to do at all times, and so I would like to say, let there be tea! Yes, it has to be there all the time, from the moment the restaurant opens to the time when it closes. It has been a nice feature of restaurant chains like Indian Coffee House, but a lot of restaurants have failed to keep that property even as some combinations of bakeries and restaurants do manage the same. As the common man’s drink, tea should be available at all times, and at the cheapest possible price; it is rather a necessity.
Don’t hesitate to bring us the menu: Yes, please do bring that because even if you talk about what all are available in slower pace than that usual high-speed talk, we might not be able to follow that exactly as it is supposed to be. We might end up hearing something else, or may be you will just forget one name, and we won’t get that thing which we really want to have. It is really a loss on both sides, and lets keep things clear with the menu. Knowing the prices of all those things will also help. May be there can be a huge menu board on the wall like we usually see at the branches of Indian Coffee House – they are very useful.
Do have the restrooms for customers: Yes, this is very significant because when we are on the long drives, the presence of the same will only help to make sure that the customers make the visit. I have rarely been interested in visiting a restaurant without them, and hasn’t added them to my list of favourite restaurants. It is better to have them outside the restaurant too, or at least on the other side, quite far away from the kitchen. Some restaurants are really careful about the same, like the Carnival Food Court near Angamaly which maintains the cleanliness really well.
***The images used in this blog post were taken by me only.
TeNy
Clean restrooms π
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Is that a wish, belief or suggestion? π
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When I was a kid I never remember ordering curry separately… Only when rotis and naans started becoming popular in restaurants this has become a standard… In the US restaurants any curry you order comes with rice makes it easy to pack it and go in case the curry is of high quantity.
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We have biriyani rice, porotta, chappathi or ghee rice with gravy free at some restaurants – often that is enough π
Curry makes worry, right? π
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Yes thats how it used to be… but now many restaurants including ICH in Bangalore you have to order curry separate for Parotta, Chappathi as well
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I have seen that for almost every restaurant in Kerala, except for those smaller ones, or those which are near educational institutions and hoping to have some good support from the school/college students.
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The crux of the post is, “Make tea available at all times” π π π
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It is a necessity. More vampires die due to the unavailability of tea than that of blood π
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I could not agree more on the idea of serving something like half a curry..it could avoid so much wastage in a world where so many fellow human beings have to go to bed on an empty stomach..
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I have been thinking about it for a long time. Restaurants often make us eat so much just to charge more.
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And I so agree about the menu card. It’s so irritating when they simply blabber around and we do not find a source to read by ourselves. -_-
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They can talk and talk, and then, in the end, we can order tea π
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Tea tea tea… that is the point of it all… ain’t it Tens??? π
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Yes, it is the last hope π The real one π
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LOL – I agree π
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π Teny..
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π π
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I like the concept of half and quarter curry..since I don’t like wasting food I have to force feed myself many times to finish the amount. Also the washroom concept. Having a maintained washroom should be made mandatory for all highway eateries . Once on the way to Trivandrum from Bangalore somewhere near Madurai we went to a CafΓ© Day in the hope of finding a washroom It was locked as it didn’t have water supply.
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Yes, often we don’t need the food but have to eat because of the wastage!
The charge for the food is always increasing, but the facilities remain bad π¦
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atleast the serving non-veg de facto and not having restrooms would be echoed by me strongly. good write up π
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Thanks π I hope it will change some day! π
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Nice thoughtful suggestions…. A restroom and tea are indeed essential for every restaurant……..
Natureram
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Exactly π Thanks π
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