A fairly stringent process of shortlisting is followed. Only fine dining or speciality restaurants are considered. The restaurant has to have a dedicated chef or be part of a recognized brand with an interesting mix of food to make the cut. ‘We generally sign on a restaurant only after we have eaten there. The special menu is decided by the restaurant and then we curate it by giving our inputs and suggestions.’ Says Nachiket one of the organisers of the event.
Restaurants participating in Bangalore include several well-known ones like Olive Beach, Sunny’s, Shiro at UB City, Graze at the Taj and LikeThatOnly in Whitefield. Mumbai and Delhi’s best will also be putting out their finest fare with restaurants like Magique (Garden of five senses), My Humble House – ITC, Azimuth by Blue Frog, Indigo, San Qi at the Four Seasons, participating in the Restaurant Week. ( For a complete list of participating restaurants citywise click here)
This event was put together by ‘Desi Restaurant Week Events Pvt Ltd.’ a Mumbai based venture started by 3 friends who are passionate about and hail from the food industry – Nachiket Shtye, Mangal Dalal and Azeem Zainulbhai. Restaurant Weeks have been popular abroad for a while but the ‘Desi’ team introduced the concept in Mumbai in 2010 with just 7 restaurants. ‘The aim was to make the event a celebration of food, where speciality restaurants in each city would showcase a selection of their best dishes and open out their restaurants to a larger audience who could dine at 4 to 5 high end restaurants in the city that week. ‘ says Nachiket. The last round held in March 2012 had 50 restaurants participating and over 6600 customers dined over the course of 7 days.
Reservations can be made online through the Restaurant week India website(www. restaurantweekindia.com). The menus being presented by the restaurants can also be viewed on the restaurant week website.
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