After tenuous West Asia truce, restos put price-hike plan on hold

Kolkata: The ceasefire in West Asia comes as a relief to the city's food and beverages sector, which was forced to consider a price hike, that has now been put on hold. While an annual price revision is in the offing at many restaurants, it could now be a nominal one despite a steep rise in the prices of commercial cylinders and most food items that turned expensive following the US-Iran conflict. The Hotel and Restaurants' Association of Eastern India has asked its member-restaurants to defer a hike till at least the Bengali New Year.

"Supply of commercial cylinders has improved, allowing restaurants to revive some dishes that had to be discontinued. We expect a gradual normalisation of the situation. Cylinders are now more expensive, which makes every dish costlier for us. April-May is a peak footfall time for us and we wouldn't like to burden our customers," said HRAEI president Sudesh Poddar, also the owner of Songhai-Manthan and MS Bar & Lounge.



Oudh 1590, which had introduced ‘a centralised open wood-and-coal chullah' to cook all its biryani, has shifted back to LPG from Tuesday. "Only the Behala outlet is using a hybrid model of LPG and inductions. LPG supply has improved to about 70% of our requirement. This is a boost ahead of the Bengali New Year. Even though prices have shot up, we will not raise our prices," said owner Shiladitya Chaudhury.

The revival of LPG supply enabled Chapter 2 on Southern Avenue to launch its annual ‘Goan Catholic Food Festival' on Thursday while Chaudhury & Co – its Bengali cuisine outlet – is ready to offer Bengali dishes on ‘Poila Baisakh'. "We will see a footfall rise across our outlets, including Chaudhury & Co, which will celebrate its first Bengali New Year," added Chaudhury.

Specialty Restaurants outlets including Oh!Calcutta, Cafe Mezzuna, Mainland China, Hoppipola and Flame & Grill will not increase prices now. "We have been in this business for 35 years. We consider it our duty to hold on to the price line and not tax our guests," said Specialty founder Anjan Chatterjee.

Oasis on Park Street had planned to spike its menu prices by 5% but has decided against it. "There has been a 20% rise in the supply of commercial cylinders. If the ceasefire continues, we expect our costs to slide. The LPG price hike comes on the back of a price rise of ingredients. We generally do a price revision in April but we won't do it now," said owner Pratap Daryanani.

Mocambo, Peter Cat and Peter Hu have decided not to increase prices. "The situation is improving and I believe the war can't last forever. Even if it does, we would have absorbed the prices and not taxed our customers," said owner Nitin Kothari.

Amber in central Kolkata, too, has seen a rise in LPG supply. "Since there has been a price rise, we are planning a small menu price revision," said owner Sanjay Khullar.
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