Mumbaikars eat out, casually

A three-city survey covering Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru has found that Mumbai has the highest proportion of casual dining restaurants in the Food and Beverages (F&B) space.

The survey, conducted by CBRE, a real estate consultancy, earlier this year, found that 60% of all restaurants in Mumbai were casual dining places. The corresponding figures for Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru were 43% and 46% respectively. Casual dining restaurants are defined as those serving moderately priced food in a casual environment.

The survey covered 1,260 restaurants across key malls, high streets, F&B clusters, and office developments. “As India’s financial capital, Mumbai enjoys a confluence of cultures and taste palettes from across India and abroad, with about 60% of the restaurants (as per our survey) belonging to the casual dining category,” said Anshuman Magazine, Chairman, India and South East Asia, CBRE.

Casual dining is a category that has become popular in the past couple of years, accounting for almost 46% of all the restaurants surveyed.

The report identifies many factors as having redefined the way urban Indians dine: increasing consumerism, longer opening hours of restaurants, the emergence of eating out as a lifestyle, increasing influence of media, and rise in disposable incomes.

The cafe category is also witnessing “significant traction, with activity moving beyond the international/domestic chains and experimental, standalone cafes sprouting across cities.”

The survey found that Indian cuisine dominated the country’s taste buds, with a 24% share, followed by multi cuisine with a 22% share. Asian cuisine and cafes were the third and fourth choices. Among others, Mexican, Mediterranean, Lebanese and Arabian were popular.

Republic of food

Indian offerings were also growing in diversity, with a greater number of restaurants specialising in Odiya, Bengali, North Eastern, Tibetan, Chettinad and Awadhi cuisine.

Almost 60% of the restaurants were located on main streets and 29% in malls. “This is largely due to the favourable rentals on high streets, organic expansion opportunities, and limited availability of quality space in malls,” the survey found. Almost 82% of the restaurants were domestic, standalone outlets or chains, while 18% were of international origin. American restaurants accounted for almost 70% of the international outlets.