City restos effect menu, timing changes to beat war headwinds
Times of India | 12 March 2026
Kolkata: Multiple restaurants have taken the buffet, a key attraction during the weekday lunch hour, off the menu. Others are considering partial closure during off-peak hours. Many restaurants are curtailing the spread on offer.
As commercial LPG supply ceased on Wednesday, restaurants across the city adopted measures to conserve the stock they held in a bid to push back the onset of the crisis by four-five days.
Speciality Restaurants founder Anjan Chatterjee said the serving of buffet stopped at Mainland China and Flame & Grill as an emergency measure to stop wastage of gas. "At outlets offering extensive buffets such as Mainland China and Flame & Grill, and the weekend buffet in Oh! Calcutta, the format from Monday to Thursday will temporarily shift to a curated ‘Buffet on the Table' experience, where a large selection of buffet favourites will be served at the table," said Chatterjee. However, on weekends, Speciality Restaurants will run its buffet option.
Savourites founder director Sushanta Sengupta said all four outlets of 6 Ballygunge Place and The Wall stopped buffets and focused on à la carte. "While one factors in a percentage of food wastage in buffets, we cannot afford to waste LPG now. Also, buffets operate on predictability. In the current scenario, it became extremely difficult to predict consumption," said Sengupta.
Several restaurants are also planning to shut during off-peak hours to reduce LPG consumption. A Chinese restaurant on Freeschool Street that used to stay shut between 4 pm and 6 pm, before non-stop operation from 12 noon to 10.30 pm was introduced a decade ago, is planning to go back to older operating hours. "We will focus on lunch and dinner. In between, footfall is low, but since the gas oven has to be kept operational when the restaurant is open, it leads to wastage of LPG," the manager said.
At Specialty Restaurants, smaller dishes and staff food were completely shifted to induction cookers. "Luckily, we had a stock of imported induction wok ovens, and induction-based cooking combi ovens that we partially implemented across restaurants," said Chatterjee.
Other restaurants, like Oasis on Park Street, also set up an induction counter with multiple cookers for smaller orders. "If there is an order for three dishes at a table, we can do it on induction. But if there is a large group, we will have to switch to LPG," said Oasis owner Pratap Daryanani. Urvika Kanoi, owner-chef of The Daily Cafe, said: "Many of us in the community are reaching out to each other for help, trying to see if we can stock up or replace our almost empty cylinders so that our kitchens can continue to function."