Kolkata: Footfall remained high on Saturday across most of Kolkata’s restaurants, which have been grappling to get around the LPG crisis, but waiting crowds thinned, especially at Park Street. While most resorted to multiple ‘desperate steps’ to keep their kitchens running, some saw a marginal dip in attendance. Even though some Mughlai and Chinese dishes, along with a few desserts, were taken off the menu at some fine-dining restaurants, foodies kept streaming into their favourite eating joints, much to the relief of the food and beverages sector. The customary weekend waiting crowds outside several Park Street restaurants, including Mocambo, Peter Cat and Bar-B-Q, were relatively small. Footfall, though, was usual and high at Oasis, Kwality, Peter Hu and Trincas. “We had a full house for lunch at both Peter Cat and Mocambo. The waiting crowd may have been small due to traffic disruptions, but it picked up in the evening. Thankfully, the LPG crisis seems to have had no impact on our patrons, though we were forced to alter our cooking system,” said Nitin Kothari, owner of Mocambo and Peter Cat.Both restaurants, along with Peter Hu, are now using electric cooking ranges and induction cookers. “While 80% of our cooking moved away from LPG, we hope to make a complete shift by Sunday. It took a lot of effort since we upgraded our electric meters to be able to bear the extra load. There was no change in the menu or cooking time,” added Kothari.At Trincas, too, Saturday saw a good turnout despite traffic disruptions. “We had a full house on Friday night and a similar big crowd on Saturday. We, too, moved to electric cooking,” said Anand Puri of Trincas. Oasis saw a ‘smaller than usual’ crowd on Saturday afternoon, which swelled marginally in the evening. “Saturday usually sees a late surge, but we saw a slight dip. It should be better on Sunday. While we still have some LPG, there was a big shift to electric cooking,” said owner Pratap Daryanani.Songhai-Manthan and MS Bar & Lounge, which plans to move to electric gadgets next week, saw a moderate attendance. “Footfall didn’t dip and we hope it doesn’t,” said owner Sudesh Poddar. Outlets of Specialty Restaurants, including Mainland China, Oh!Calcutta and Hoppipola, saw a ‘higher than normal weekend footfall’, said founder Anjan Chatterjee.Footfalls dropped by 30% at the Oudh 1590 outlets on Saturday. “Even though we are serving all our regular dishes, people seem to be a little worried. Some are perhaps waiting for things to normalise. But if the LPG supply normalises now, the turnaround time will be 10 days at least,” said owner and co-founder Shiladitya Chaudhury. Attendance was low at Chaudhury & Co, the Bengali cuisine restaurant owned by Chaudhury.Amber had a ‘normal Saturday footfall’ and a ‘good Friday night attendance’. “The popular and signature dishes are there, but since we moved to induction cookers, cooking time has increased. So far, footfall remains unchanged,” said owner Sanjay Khullar.
