Nagpur has never been a city short of flavour. There is the bold, fiery Saoji food, the tangy and spicy tarri poha that starts the day, and the many versions of street food that have become part of the city’s everyday vocabulary. But the city’s palate has also travelled far beyond its familiar favourites. Today, one can find restaurants making authentic Neapolitan-style pizzas, Japanese dishes, Korean food, and in smaller corners of the city, Parsi and Irani cuisines. Restaurants are no longer selling only food; they are selling an experience around it. Carefully designed interiors, atmospheric lighting, themed spaces, and elaborate plating have become part of the competition for the city’s diners. For some establishments, creating that experience has meant investing lakhs of rupees on their spaces.

 

There is good reason for it. A restaurant today has to compete for attention before a customer has even tasted the food. A striking interior can draw people in, create a sense of occasion and, in the age of social media, become part of the restaurant’s identity. But Nagpur’s food culture has always operated on another currency too: familiarity. Markhand Burhani, who has run a hotel in Sadar for 22 years, has watched restaurants around him open and close. He believes social media has given ambience a greater importance, but says the fundamentals remain unchanged. “Good ambience, lighting, and clean interiors are attractive, but ultimately people come back for the taste, quality and price,” he says. Parshuram Kumar Thapa, the owner of a momo shop in IT Park, began with a small cart in Pratap Nagar, moved it to IT Park, and eventually opened a modest eatery there.

 

The space is functional. A narrow staircase leads to the seating area, the room is dimly lit, and the sounds of the kitchen, customers, and delivery orders overlap. Yet, even on weekday afternoons, it is packed. Takeaway customers keep arriving while online orders come in steadily. In roughly two hours, the eatery sells over a 100 plates of momos. His customer base is largely students and working professionals from the nearby IT offices. They are paying for the food, and that is where he wants their money to go, which is why he did not believe in investing lakhs of rupees on rent or interiors, as it would naturally contribute to the cost of running a business. The simplicity in his ideas also reflects in the eatery’s menu. “We have made a conscious decision to sell only about seven or eight items. We don’t want to become a one-stop restaurant serving biryani, sandwiches, Indo-Chinese, and other unrelated cuisines. Restaurants often try to add more and more dishes to attract different kinds of customers. But in trying to offer everything, they can lose their identity, in a way. I believe in making only momos well enough that customers associate the word ‘momos’ with my store.

 

If you want chicken biryani, you should know which place to go to. If you want sandwiches, you should know where to go. You don’t have to make a hundred things. If you make one thing well, let that speak for itself,” he says. It is a philosophy that sits comfortably within Nagpur’s older food culture. The city may now offer more cuisines, more sophisticated dining rooms, and more elaborate experiences than it did a decade ago. But alongside the restaurant where the interiors are photographed before the food arrives is the place known simply for one particular dish. The two can coexist. Nagpurkars can go looking for a new cuisine or a beautifully designed dining room when they want an experience, and still return to the same poha stall, biryani joint, momo eatery, or fish-finger place when a particular craving strikes.