B Swaminathan (publisherchefbharath@gmail.com)
Rajratna executive is one of the most popular hotels located near Chakan on Pune – Nashik Highway. The property is getting a facelift and the restaurant is investing on kitchen, food and beverages and bar. In an exclusive chat with Nisha Walunj, Manasing Director, RajRatna, speaks on revamp of the property with authentic maharastrian style food.
What are the key differences in food and business aspects between a restaurant in the city and
highway?
The main difference between a city restaurant and a highway restaurant is that there are no specific timings for the guests. The restaurant has to be functional throughout the day as the travellers do not have a specific time frame. Also, regular travellers specifically plan their journey to make a stop at Rajratna Executive.
While people’s movements increased across the country, what are the key challenges restaurants in the highway face mainly?
Nowadays, competition has increased multifold in this field. The highway is jammed and flooded with too many restaurants and eating joints along both the sides of the roads. In such a scenario, maintaining the quality of the food, service and hygiene becomes the most important
aspect.
On the eating perspective, what are the key eating trends you notice in recent days?
Travelers and our customers usually prefer Indian & Maharashtrian foods. According to the trend observed and market demand studied, we are setting up a pure vegetarian section in our restaurant. We realized the need to do this when we received regular feedback where guests told
us that they would prefer vegetarian food and some easily digestible food or snacks during their journey.
What are the changing customer expectations (in terms of the food) from the restaurants and how business owners are thriving hard to satisfy their needs?
Usually, the customers do not really have changing expectations but we need to be prompt about the services that we provide. Every customer has their own choices and expectations regarding the services. We need to make sure that we are providing the best to each of our customers.
Is there a way highway restaurants can delight the customers in terms of better rates? As the fact that more vehicle movements are happening these days.
At Rajratna Executive, we are soon introducing a section for quick service for the travellers. This section will have various combos and meals that will be both affordable and quick. The chefs and staff would ensure that no quality is compromised in the process and food is delivered to them
for their quick stopover.
There used to be only vehicle movements along the highways earlier. However, in the last decade (if I am right), there is more housing also coming near the highways. How it had impacted the business as a whole.
With the housing societies coming near the highways, our restaurant has only benefited from the same and observed a good impact in terms of business. We are able to have travelers as our customers and additionally cater to the local population living nearby. It has created a better
market, opportunities, recognition, and credibility for us.
What is new with the kitchen and menu which is unique in your restaurants.
The unique element of our kitchen is that we provide all kinds of food, Indian, Chinese, continental, Maharashtrian, etc. Our classic Maharashtrian food is what most of our guests visit us. Our taste and service will surely impress you.
What are your expansion plans?
As mentioned earlier, we are coming up with a completely different section for vegetarian food and putting up a counter for quick service and take away. This counter will be a self-service counter where you can order for combos and meals at budgeted prices. The entire set-up will be
different where the kitchen, equipment, staff would be independent promising purity in vegetarian food especially for guests having strict dietary requirements.
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