248 stories in the archive
MITTI Café has opened an outlet at Sky City Mall in Borivali East, run entirely by staff with physical, intellectual and psychosocial disabilities. Maharashtra Governor Jishnu Dev Varma inaugurated it on October 17, 2026, as part of a three-year partnership with DBS Bank India. Founder Alina Alam said the outlet shows that people with disabilities can earn with dignity.
A hospitality body in Western India held a food safety supervisor course in Lonavala on October 14, training 46 professionals. Trainer Dr V. Pasupathy taught safe food handling, cleanliness, sanitation and managing waste. With this batch, the association's certified total under the programme has climbed to 4,154.
KFC is replacing Pepsi with Coca-Cola beverages after roughly four decades, with its U.S. restaurants switching across the system by spring 2027. The company announced the move on Thursday as part of a menu overhaul and turnaround effort. Parent Yum Brands is also pushing harder into beverage sales across its chains.
Kouzina Food Tech has grown its Vasudev Adiga's brand to 55 delivery kitchens in Bengaluru, all run through its franchise network. It now invites established restaurants and licensed commercial kitchens in the city to add the Vasudev Adiga's menu within their existing setups. Partners gain brand systems, recipes, sourcing, packaging and aggregator integration.
Sanatanam, a new vegetarian restaurant, has opened in Rajouri Garden in West Delhi. Built around the idea of food as divine, it serves Bengaluru-style South Indian dishes alongside North Indian and Chinese favourites, with dishes made using pure desi ghee. The interiors include a live kitchen, and the Chief Minister attended the opening.
Pulkit Arora, director of CYK Hospitalities, says Indian restaurants have barely tapped their potential, with a gap in cuisine-specific niche outlets as more Indians travel abroad. He urges operators to build sharp concepts and well-researched business models, and to treat POS, inventory and recipe costing as core infrastructure. He stresses margins must be planned at the concept stage.
Restaurants across Mumbai are expected to raise menu prices by 10 to 15 percent soon, the Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR) has announced. The association cites higher commercial LPG and piped gas prices, along with rising costs of food, dairy, vegetables, rent, labour and transport. AHAR president Vijay K. Shetty says absorbing it all is unsustainable.
Singer Shankar Mahadevan and entrepreneur K.S. Ramakrishnan have opened Malgudi's 10th outlet, a vegetarian South Indian resto-cafe in Rajouri Garden, New Delhi. The outlet opened on September 18, with an official launch on October 13 attended by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. Mahadevan said the aim is to bring South Indian cuisine to Delhi without altering it.
A Jefferies report says India's food regulator is widening scrutiny from products to the whole supply chain, raising costs for food firms, restaurants and quick-commerce platforms. Over 150 notices have reportedly gone to leading food, beverage, dairy and nutraceutical firms, and over 30 to food service outlets. Front-of-pack warnings for high sugar, salt and fat foods are also proposed.
Ambros World Foods has opened The Dravidian, a quick service restaurant on Hill Road in Bandra, Mumbai, serving South Indian and regional dishes from four states under one menu. Plans include expansion to Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Pune and Nagpur, plus overseas markets. Idli starts at Rs 119, and the company is pitching franchise partnerships backed by standardised operations.
Banaraswala, the Banarasi cuisine brand, has launched a special Navratri menu across its outlets and online platforms for the duration of the festival. It features a vrat thali and a mini thali with fasting-friendly dishes like vrat puris and aloo sabzi, plus malai lassi, dry fruit thandai and traditional Banarasi sweets.
Aspect Hospitality has opened Fitour, an experiential dining concept in Bandra West with just 14 seats. It presents Indian cuisine as a multi-course journey, with reinterpreted dishes, curated drink pairings and soundscapes, fragrances and lighting woven through the meal. The interiors include a Nostalgia Wall of photographs, handwritten recipes and childhood memories.
A fresh Haldiram's location is now open at DLF Summit Plaza, with a contemporary dining format. The design draws on the brand's Dubai location, offering a more premium setting while keeping the flavours its customers know. The move reflects a wider push by established food brands to use modern store formats to appeal to urban and younger consumers.
A new Big Chill outlet is open at Ambience Mall in Vasant Kunj, Delhi, combining its cakery and creamery with a Brasserie format. The Brasserie adds pizzas, Smash Burgers and other savoury dishes to a menu that was built around desserts and comfort food. All three formats now sit together at the location.
South Indian restaurant brand Dakshinayan has opened an outlet at Oberoi Garden City in Goregaon East, Mumbai, adding to its network across Mumbai, Thane and Ahmedabad. The menu includes Thatte Idli, Rasam Vada, Rava Masala Dosai and Ven Pongal. Promoter Dhruman Jayant Gandhi says the next generation of the family is taking a larger role.
Maharashtra's Food and Drug Administration has seized suspected substandard food worth about Rs 4.70 lakh across six districts and suspended the licences of 21 food establishments in Pune, Mumbai and Konkan divisions. Its October 8 drive targeted adulteration in packaged water, milk, sweets, ghee and pulses, along with hygiene and licensing violations at restaurants, bakeries and cloud kitchens.
Lenexis Foodworks has appointed four senior leaders to strengthen its functions as it works toward 500 stores. Gerald Dias, formerly of McDonald's and Si Nonna's, joins as head of operations, and Gaurav Thakore, from Metro Brands, takes over business development. Gurmeet Singh Gujral heads projects and maintenance, and Manush Chinna Swamy, from Sapphire Foods, leads legal and compliance.
Telangana's food safety body, TG SAFE, has ordered four Hyderabad restaurants to shut on October 13 over hygiene violations. Officials visited 13 restaurants and canteens in Jubilee Hills, Madhapur and Ameerpet, finding cockroach and housefly infestations, stagnant water, greasy equipment and improper food storage. Some food handlers were working without hairnets or gloves.
Namah, a Bengaluru-inspired darshini-style quick-service restaurant, has opened in Four Bungalows, Andheri West, Mumbai. The menu spans Karnataka and other South Indian specialities such as Mallige Idlis, Mangaluru Buns and Obbattu with Badam Milk, plus filter coffee in hot, iced and milkshake forms. Indoor and outdoor seating suits breakfast, quick meals and group gatherings.
McDonald's India (West & South), run by Westlife Foodworld, has launched a Spicy Patakha range for the festive season. It includes a Paneer Burger with a spiced paneer patty and a Chicken Burger built on a spicy chicken patty, both topped with a smoky sauce. An integrated campaign focuses on the build-up to festivals, from decorating homes to shopping.
HyFun Foods, founded in Ahmedabad by Haresh Karamchandani in 2015, makes frozen French fries and potato products for foodservice and retail. Its customers reportedly include global chains such as KFC and Subway, and it reported revenue above Rs 1,500 crore in FY25. The business began as a potato and onion trader in Mehsana in 1962.
McCain Foods has agreed to buy Falcon Agrifriz Foods' frozen potato unit in Gujarat, adding capacity to its Indian manufacturing. The deal, subject to customary closing conditions, will complement its existing Mehsana operations. Once completed, the deal brings more than 450 employees and relationships with over 1,000 farmers across Gujarat.
Speciality Restaurants has opened Siciliana in Pune, a Southern Italian restaurant led by Chef Saby, also known as Sabyasachi Gorai. Seafood leads the menu, with dishes such as Calamari Involtini, Gambas Alla Plancha and Jumbo Prawn Saganaki, alongside pasta, pizza and desserts like an orange-flavoured cake. An open kitchen and communal table shape the Mediterranean-inspired dining room.
Third Wave Coffee, the Bengaluru-founded café brand, has marked its 10th anniversary with 250-plus cafés across 27 cities. It aims to reach about 320 cafés by FY27 and then add 100 a year. The brand says all its coffee comes from Indian farms and launched a dedicated dessert range, Third Rush Desserts, earlier this year.
