Get set for restaurant sector boom this year

Kolkata will see at least 40 restaurants, fast food chains and coffee joints in 2008 with an estimated investment of close to Rs 30-40 crore.

Restaurant chains like Yum Brands, Coffee Pai, Subway, Flurys, Oh!Calcutta, Mainland China, Marco Polo, and several first-time food chains, will nearly treble retail presence in the city this year.

Yum brands-owned Pizza Hut, which currently has about two outlets in the city, will set up three new outlets this year – two in Rajarhat at City Centre II and The Terminus mall, and one at Sector V.

The Sector V outlets are expected to open by March this year while the Rajarhat outlets are targetting the Durga Puja season.

Pizza Hut serves over 300,000 customers every week in India, informed company officials.

Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC too will open a 70-seater restaurant at New Empire which will be the first KFC in the country run by specially-trained, hearing impaired employees.

KFC will also open five more outlets in Kolkata by end-2008, again at The Terminus mall and City Centre II in Rajarhat, and two others in south Kolkata.

Among coffee joints, Café Coffee Day, the coffee chain owned by Bangalore-based Amalgamated Coffee Bean Trading Co, plans to open around 15 outlets in the city in 2008, in Salt Lake's Sector V, South City Mall, and in other locations, at an average investment of Rs 25-30 lakh an outlet.

Coffee Pai, the vegetarian restaurant in the city, will open two more outlets in Homeland Mall and at Samilton Hotel.

Popular sandwich chain Subway, which opened its first restaurant in Kolkata in 2005, also plans to open around seven restaurants in 2008, in locations like Dalhousie, beside Ruby General Hospital, in South City Mall, and in other locations.

Flurys, the popular restaurant on Park Street, has opened an outlet this year in the South City Mall and plans another in Rashbehari in south Kolkata.

The much-awaited South City mall will also see four speciality restaurants offering Indian, Chinese, Spanish and Thai delicacies. It will house a 4,640 sq ft Thai eatery 'Benjarong', 'Zara' and 'The Spanish Tavern', among others. Blue Foods will host the food court with 13 different cuisines from India and abroad. Spread over 30,000 sq ft, Foodtalk will host brands like Café Coffee Day, Kookie Jar (4,000 sq ft), and Subway.

Mainland China too has opened shop in South City spread over some 10,000 sq ft.

'Sigree', an Indian restaurant, will open a 5,165 sq ft outlet in South City.

The recently inaugurated Silver Arcade on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass too will see a 100-cover Oh! Calcutta and a 180-cover Mainland China.

The popular restaurant Marco Polo which serves Continental, Indian and Chinese foods, will open a new Marco Polo Pot House, a high-end lounge bar in Salt Lake's City Centre this year.