How fine dine restaurants can make their customers revisit

In an exclusive conversation with Restaurant India, Sandeep Jain, Owner, Eleven Course Restaurant shares insights about the idea of opening a fine dining restaurant.

After setting up a successful catering business, Sandeep Jain, who always dreamt of opening a restaurant serving only vegetarian food, incepted Eleven Course Restaurant at Netaji Subhash Place, giving an ode to his culinary expertise. Spread across 10000 sq. ft. with a bar, Eleven Course Restaurant is a modern fine dine restaurant serving international vegetarian fares.

When and how did you plan to open a restaurant?

As we already were into the catering business for more than two decades and as catering was not a throughout-the-year business, we wanted to launch a restaurant for making a brand and a regular business. It was in 2013 that we opened this restaurant.

How much time did you take to do background research for your restaurant?

It almost took us one year to make plans, work on operations, research and finally open our first restaurant. We belong to the vegetarian community and Pitampura is the hub for vegetarians, so we chose it over any other location. We also wanted to start from a region where people know us and hence we opened here.

How challenging was it to open a vegetarian restaurant?

We didn’t face any challenge on getting vegetarian clientele as we see these days top celebrities are going vegan. Also, coming from a community that is vegetarian, it was not a challenge for us. In India, basically in Delhi, all the big events that have vegetarian catering are done by us. And, hence, some of the top clients are from retail, real estate, jewellery and other such formats. We want to grow as a vegetarian-only brand.

What is your expansion plan going forward?

We are opening our next restaurant at Rajouri Garden in the next two months. Our target is opening around 10-15 restaurants in Delhi and then we may look at other markets. There are many locations we are planning to open restaurants at - GK1, Green Park, CP, Gurgaon and Noida.

What will be your focus taking your brand to other markets?

We will be focusing on fine dining. We may develop new concepts and new models, but that will focus on vegetarian food only. We can explore on South Indian or Marathi cuisine if there will be opportunity.

What are some of the marketing techniques you follow at Seven Course?

For the restaurant business if you are producing good food with good service, there is no campaigning required. No matter how much you have spent on your marketing, if food is tasty and service impeccable, it makes customers come back to you.

Tell us something about your menu?

Our guests experience culinary excellence at its best. Our menus reflect the fusion of Indian and continental dishes. A typical trait of our restaurant is our beautiful bar area that offers a calm ambience where you can enjoy a wide variety of wines, beers, classic drinks and trendy cocktails. Our aim is to provide unparalleled services in a fine-dining environment, combined with our traditional hospitality that sets our city apart. We are good at producing a new menu that celebrates the season’s reward, selecting grains, fruits, vegetables that are artistically arranged and masterfullyprepared on client’s plate. The bar provides the menu of delectable dishes crafted with utmost care and served with the same friendliness. Palatable, nourishing meals may be rapidly and effortlessly prepared to be relish at your table faster than you can ever imagine.

What is the footfall that you get at your restaurant?

Our restaurant is jam packed on weekdays. We do around 250-300 covers per day, though our restaurant has a capacity of 130 covers.