Danke, Delhi
Over the past couple of weeks, we've been asked a few times by journalists how we went about selecting these restaurants. Simple - we first shortlisted restaurants based on our criterion that the restaurant must provide that overall experience rather than just good food. We were looking for places that could provide a memorable experience - impeccable service, unique ambience, beautiful tableware and of course, good food. Beyond that, we had to take into consideration cuisine, location, and whether it was a stand-alone or at a hotel (all these require balance). So that's how we ended up with our first 7 - there are a LOT more restaurants we would have loved to include, and in the future we will. The number should expand to 14 in September so you will have a lot of choice too.
Another thing we were often asked is how Delhi was different from Mumbai. Not much, when it comes to Restaurant Week. Aside from the statistic that 51% of RWD customers surveyed heard about it through newspapers (In Mumbai that was 25%). Which did actually cause some drama - we had an article in a newspaper printed without instructions on how to make a reservation (i.e., only through www.restaurantweekindia.com). This was a minor hiccup, though - the numbers speak for themselves.
We had an allocation of 3,291 covers and received 2,600 or so covers. 215 of you were kind enough to fill in feedback forms and roughly the results are heartening. 78% had either a very good or good meal. 68% would go back to that restaurant based solely on their restaurant week menu; only 34% didn't think the restaurant was worth paying regular prices at. The second figure is likely to go down with time - people who truly appreciate food would feel this food is worth the money (even if some can afford it occasionally). Initially, people see Restaurant Week as a one-time 'deal'; with time, people realise its an excuse to eat out and try new places (or re-visit places you've forgotten about).It is, at its core, a celebration of culinary experiences.
The bad news is we need to earn revenue to sustain the expenses of Restaurant Week - it is a passion project, but none of our surnames is Ambani. So we will have to figure out the most palatable method for September.
In the end, thank you for participating in the inaugural Restaurant Week Delhi. Thank you for showing interest by requesting to be on the wait list - we hope to have a larger allocation next time around and, of course, more restaurants.
It's been a hoot, let's hook up again in a few months!
Reservation Technicals
Here's an FAQ for the most common emails we have received for technical issues:
1) Changing the number of people on your table -
While the system does not allow you to change the number of people on your table, don't worry about it if your party size is still 2, 3 or 4. A table for 5 is often possible, but based on the restaurant in question. Either way, make the request when we call to confirm your reservation - it is a simple change.
2) Log in issues after registering -
Registering is not complete without verifying your email address - your account is still inactive until you do that. This is because leaving this activation step out will leave us vulnerable to bots of the malicious kind. Please check your junk/spam folder for an activation email if you don't see it in your inbox. Click on that link to activate your account. And if you click on the link, it goes to the website but forgets to display the activation message (It's a bit HAL some days), then try logging in anyway - it might just be active.
3) 'the website doesn't work' or 'it doesn't display anything' or 'it asks me to install a Chrome plug-in'
This, quite likely means you're using a fairly old browser. Especially an old (pre-version 7) Internet Explorer. Or your javascript is disabled. We wanted to have a simple visual representation with real-time data about reservation statuses for all restaurants for all seatings. This, we feel, is more important than preserving compatibility for old browsers.
Most importantly - if you have problems making a reservation, please email info@restaurantweekindia.com. Don't hassle restaurants please - the point of the website was to reduce their burden.
Thanks!
Mangal
The Dark Nights return… to Mumbai
Firstly, we're sorry that it took us this long to announce Restaurant Week Mumbai - it makes us feel worse that some of you may have even heard about it through the press (Time Out had a listing on the issue that released on the 21st and Mumbaiboss just posted an article an hour back).
So here goes: the next Restaurant Week Mumbai will be February 7-13, 2011 and features seven new restaurants (well, new in that they didn't feature the last time around). The list is Vetro at The Oberoi, Kebab Corner at the InterContinental Marine Drive, Olive Bar & Kitchen in Mahalaxmi, The Table in Colaba (which is, actually, new), Azok in Juhu, The Great Wall at The Leela Kempinski and Stax at the Hyatt Regency. It still is INR 1,000 per head excluding taxes for a three-course meal.
What's changed?
1) Better timings - we realise 7.30 and 8.30 was way too early for most of you, so this time around all restaurants are offering two dinner seatings
2) Better menus - based on feedback from the inaugural Restaurant Week, we felt there needed to be more options and, in some cases, better. We hope you will appreciate the menus this time around -
3) Speaking of menus, all of them are online so you can see them before deciding whether you want to make a reservation
4) Reservation chart - We now have a table with restaurants and seatings with a clear indication of what is available. This means that you can decide what to reserve based on whats available quickly rather than making several searches.
5) Wine pairing - Since we know how much you love booze, there is an option of having your food paired with wine at an extra INR 1,000 per head - these are all imported wines.
6) You can register using Facebook if you prefer
Reservations should be open later tonight - as always, we are grateful for your support!
…Aaaand, we’re back!
So, what have you been up to?
The RWI team has been, well, a bit debauched as always... but still alive. We lost our interns to education (stupid education!), one of our team members began work on a Mexican restaurant in Mumbai (though slowed down once the Tequila tastings started), one went off to Paris to 'learn culinary arts' and another is hard at work trying to set-up some sort of evil financial institution in Africa designed to take over the world. Cue, diabolical laugh.
But, we managed to pull it together and come up with the inaugural Restaurant Week Delhi - it will run from January 31 - February 06, 2022 and we have to admit, we loved the process of organising this one. Since we are based in Mumbai, it was always going to be a lot harder short-listing 10-12 restaurants to approach in order to narrow it down to a final 7. This involved a lot of eating (which is always difficult), and a lot of solicitation of opinions from people in the industry in Mumbai as well as friends and family in Delhi. The final list, we feel, is fairly balanced between cuisine, location and ambience and we hope you will appreciate the hard work our tummies went through during the process.
Reservations are now open for Delhi (http://www.restaurantweekindia.com/event/Delhi); we will be announcing Restaurant Week Mumbai very soon too. Please help the cause by spreading the word, booking tables, and most importantly, trying out these restaurants and (hopefully) going back repeatedly.
The Restaurant Week India Peeps
Reflecting on our first Restaurant Week
Apologies for not posting this earlier, but we've had to take a bit of a breather, which was followed by several review meetings with restaurants and a long, hard look at feedback.
Overall, it is safe to say that the inaugural Restaurant Week has been very successful. Our aim was to establish the concept for both customers and restaurants and we feel it has been understood and appreciated. There was plenty of interest shown, but more importantly this interest was translated into real reservations and meals. Given this, we are confident that we should have more Restaurant Weeks in Mumbai as well as other cities and we hope for your support in making it successful each time.
Love stats? Well, this website received over 6,000 unique visitors who each spent an average of 5:22 minutes; we managed to con over 810 of you to become fans on Facebook. Over 1,100 users registered to make a booking, 635 of you had confirmed reservations (of which 433 tables turned up) and 1,307 people dined during the week. 154 of you filled in our Feedback forms (Thank you!) and 72% thought their meal was either great or good. 71% had never dined at that restaurant before and based solely on the Restaurant Week meal, 53% would dine again at that restaurant while 25% said maybe. Last statistic - 86% will participate in Restaurant Week next year (yay!).
This is the first time such a concept has been executed, so there were a few glitches and we apologise - we hope next year will be smoother. Although most people were not affected, a small percentage had issues verifying their email addresses. Additionally, due to a glitch in the verification software, there were a few instances when we were overbooked. We did all we can to get you that table, but sadly we had to call a handful of you to tell you your confirmation was done in error and we apologise for this. Other than that, very few of you went through our blog for menus or FAQs - we will make these more prominent next year.
From our point of view, our main worry is in reducing the no-shows - people who have confirmed reservations and either cancel at the last minute or do not turn up at all. While our ratio of confirmed vs actual is roughly in line with industry standards, it isn't fair to those on the wait list that you tell us so late that we cannot call anyone up to go in your place. Simply not turning up is just out of order. Any suggestions from a consumer point of view?
All in all, it has been a wonderful week for us and we have already started planning two Restaurant Weeks for early next year. We would like to thank all of you for your support and hope it will be a bigger and better Restaurant Week the next time around.
Toodles!
Wrapping up
It has been, as you would imagine, a week of stress and despair, relief and elation, with a little bit of illness thrown in for fun. The response to this inaugural Restaurant Week has been overwhelming and we have tried to keep up with email communication as much as possible. Some of you have become familiar names we love and, to some of you, our reservation system reminds you of HAL.
This is our first year and there have been teething issues, but we are glad the concept has been very well received. To help us improve, please fill out the feedback form that some of you have already received in your inbox. The same link can be filled in for every reservation you've made, by every person on your table, and even if you were on wait list and didn't get a table, we would still appreciate your feedback. Especially if you've had a bad experience.
All this will help immensely towards making your Restaurant Week experience better, and hopefully flawless, next year. We will be posting statistics and a summary of the feedback over the next few days, so watch out for that.
Toodles
Menu Update: Tote on the Turf
Peeps,
Tote on the Turf follows its sister restaurant Indigo in updating its menu as well. This will be effective from today's lunch, and has more options per course. Please have a look here.
Also, just a reminder that Tote is also unavailable to Restaurant Week customers on Sunday for lunch as they have their regular Sunday Brunch.
Menu update: Indigo
Peeps,
The menu at Indigo this weekend has been changed to have more and better options. We hope those who are booked will appreciate this - it will be introduced starting tonight's dinner. Please see the updated menu here.
Also, just a reminder that Indigo is unavailable to Restaurant Week customers on Sunday for lunch as they have their regular Sunday Brunch.
Reservation Status: Update
Peeps,
The reason we haven't blogged since Tuesday morning was that we were originally planning to have daily posts on what tables are available where. A couple of things happened since then - we realised we were sold out for all dinners and most lunches + we had to change the system to not allow reservations within 24 hours of the seating (there were too many last-minute changes and we send out reservation lists to restaurants well in advance so that they can plan accordingly).
If you're looking to get a table from now until Sunday, we suggest looking at lunch, which is generally either available or has a short wait list. Keep in mind that San-Qi isn't available for Sat lunch and Sunday all day; Indigo and Tote are not available for Sunday lunch.
Also, we really appreciate your emailing us and letting us know about any cancellations in advance. For those who have confirmed, please do show up. There are likely to be people on the wait list who would have been able to go in your place if you let us know in advance. If you're running ridiculously late, try your luck by calling the restaurant - some may still honour your reservation.
Lastly, we have sent out some auto-generated emails requesting for feedback, and it would be great if you managed to get all on your table to fill it out. If you haven't received one, please do so here. This is anonymous and we would appreciate if you filled out one for each meal; try to get all on your table to fill it out if you can. This will be very helpful for us to bring you a better Restaurant Week next year.
Merci
Reservation status: Tuesday 07 Sep
We've decided to let you know, a day in advance, what tables are still available:
Lunch -
Indigo: tables of four
San-Qi: tables of four
Tote: tables of four
Botticino: tables of two
India Jones: tables of two and tables of four
Dinner -
Indigo: tables of four
Stella 07:30 - tables of four
Stella 10:30 - 1 x table of four
Tote: tables of four
Happy booking!