Limelight Foods offers taste of British India

Limelight Foods Private Ltd has opened a new restaurant, The Manor, in the city. The company is planning to open a lounge bar called Antidote next month and more such restaurants and lounge bars across the country, especially in metros, by the end of next fiscal.

Limelight Foods Director Munish Bajaj says, "The restaurants would offer the ambience and hospitality of India during the British period, when every meal was a feast and every feast a gourmet's delight. We are planning to open more such restaurants in all the big cities in India. By the end of next fiscal, we plan to open one each in Delhi and Mumbai. We believe there is a huge potential in this sector, especially in metropolitan cities."

The Manor was started with an initial investment of over Rs 1 crore, excluding the showroom costs.

"We plan to break even this in two to three years. Our focus would be on providing authentic Indian cuisine. The restaurant has been opened keeping the mind the flow of IT professionals in Chandigarh," Bajaj says, adding, "The restaurant is in close proximity to the IT park and would cater for the upper middle class and the elite. The restaurant presents 18th Century British India ambience in terms of architecture and decor."

Explaining that the restaurant is targeted at people who have a passion for Indian food, Bajaj says, "We have professional chefs who have specialised in Indian cuisines, especially kebabs and biryani, under chef sultans like Janab Qurashi and Janab Rasool Gulam of Hyderabad. The current seating capacity is around 70 and the next project will be of a larger scale, of up to 150 seats. The restaurants have been designed by famous architect Deepak Ghavri."