Panchavati - For The Love of Indian Vegetarian Food!

The options for vegetarian food are somewhat limited. Apart from certain sections in menu cards, which are rather limited and certainly lack variety, there are only few restaurants that cater to this large section of the Indian society. And fewer still are restaurant chains serving exclusively vegetarian food. Panchavati Gaurav is one such chain.

 

I had been waiting for an opportunity to give it a visit. And it was dropped on my lap one afternoon when my visiting clients from Mumbai opted for vegetarian stuff. Instantly my inner inclination told me that the moment was splendid to kill two birds with one stone. I cheerfully took them to the ground floor of Cyber Hub and once we were in front of the Panchavati I simply lingered on. The view from outside was inviting enough for them. It did not take much long to direct our steps inside.

 

For a Monday afternoon the restaurant was decently occupied, I would say about 70%. We settled on a table for 4 in the middle. The restaurant seemed more spacious compared to the others I had visited in Cyber Hub. The food is served in traditional Indian style – in a thali. Service was the quickest…perhaps this is their USP. The table was laid instantly with a significantly large round stainless steel plate and about 10 miniature bowls placed around the inner side of the large plate. The bowls occupied more than half of the circumference. Soon stewards literally appeared from nowhere to fill the plate and bowls with various items. The preparations appeared to be more in the form of Gujarati food, but cuisines from other states had also made their way. How I wished I could take some photographs of the neatly served plate but felt a little awkward to pull out my phone, lest the clients felt that they were guinea pigs in my gastronomic pursuits!

 

A quick view taken from the billing counter
(while exiting, when the clients weren't looking!)

 

 

I happily gorged on the stuff and they stewards kept coming back to refill. Each steward would be holding a few items (2-4) and were taking rounds of the restaurant and enquiring gently at each table if he should serve his fare. If you wanted something different, the steward used sign language to indicate to other vigilant stewards who rushed to your table to fulfill/satisfy your desire. The stewards were quite an enthusiastic lot and ensured that you got what you wanted.

 

The quick service ensured that it was ‘time saving’ for the clients who had another meeting lined up soon after. They also seemed thoroughly satisfied as much as I felt. They even complimented me while signing off after collecting their belongings from our office.

 

Although I had a good time at the restaurant and would like to thank the staff profusely, I cannot help but share a small piece of advice. It may be that quick service is equaled to efficient service, but when a person comes in for having lunch, he or she looks to relax a bit. It may perhaps be a good idea to think in those lines so that the customer gets a feel of the restaurant, the menu (food items, one line description, picture etc.) the décor and also redesign the service to make it more personalized rather than a mechanical assembly line.

 

It is no rocket science that such chains that prevail today, being few and far between, have a large market share. Panchavati, with such an expansive fare, has an excel opportunity to catapult to the top but it will need to engage more effectively with its customers.