Five-star hotels on the signature trail

Leading five-star hotels in the country are taking their signature restaurants to cities across the country, thanks to their success and popularity.

Signature restaurants, which are unique concept restaurants in a hotel, contribute around 40 per cent to the hotel's total revenue.

Taj Hotels and Palaces in Mumbai will open its signature Japanese restaurant, Wasabi by Morimoto, in Delhi by early next year.

Similarly, ITC Welcomgroup plans to take its celebrated restaurant WG's Kebabs and Kurries, which is present only in ITC Luxury Collection, Mumbai, to other cities where it would open a new hotel soon.

ITC has already opened its restaurants Peshawari and Westview in various cities.

Radisson Hotels, a Carlson Group of Hotels brand, which runs The Great Kebab Factory in Delhi, will also see an extension of the restaurant brand to Nagpur, Indore and Kolkata in the coming months.

In fact, the restaurant's success has prompted the hotel to take it to Bahrain, Muscat and Dubai this year.

Says K B Kachru, senior vice-president, Carlson Hotels, Asia Pacific, "The expansion of our restaurant is driven by its huge demand. We will be taking them to a lot of new destinations and also come up with new concept restaurants."

Unlike the west, food and beverage (F&B) in India continues to be an important part of the hotel experience. For most of the hotel chains, F&B accounts for 30-40 per cent of their revenues.

For instance, 30 per cent of the revenues of the Taj Group of hotels comes from F&B. At the Carlson Group of Hotels, 40 per cent of the revenue accounts for F&B. Analysts see the F&B business of hotels growing at 40 per cent in the coming years.

Also, footfalls from outsiders at these restaurants have triggered their expansion. Outsiders are believed to flock to these restaurants more than the hotel's residents. At Radisson Hotel in Delhi, this ratio stands at 70:30.

In fact, many hotels are also looking at launching creative restaurant concepts in the future.

Says an executive from Taj, "Leveraging Taj's expertise in this area, we will be launching a couple of new restaurants in the coming months."

Taj plans to come up with Prego, a new Italian restaurant at Taj Coromandel, Chennai, and Masala Klub at Taj West End, Mumbai.

Carlson Hotel group too is working on launching a couple of Italian and Mediterranean restaurants.

SIGN LANGUAGE

Signature restaurants, which are unique concept restaurants in a hotel, contribute 40 per cent to the hotel's total revenue

Taj Hotels and Palaces in Mumbai will open its signature Japanese restaurant, Wasabi by Morimoto, in Delhi by 2008

ITC Welcomgroup plans to take its celebrated restaurant WG's Kebabs and Kurries, which is present in ITC Luxury Collection, Mumbai, to other cities where it would open a new hotel soon