People who enjoy eating out at hotels, restaurants and roadside dhabas may now have to spend much more than before as across many cities food prices at eateries have increased sharply over past few weeks whether we talk about butter chicken and paneer tikka or simple tandoori roti and naan the rates of many popular dishes have gone up noticeably.
Hotel and dhaba owners say biggest reason behind this rise is sudden increase in commercial LPG cylinder prices and claim that growing international tensions especially the ongoing Iran & Israel conflict have affected global fuel markets which has directly increased kitchen expenses for restaurants and food businesses.
According to several hotel operators commercial LPG cylinders that were available for nearly Rs 2,000 are now reportedly costing between Rs 3,000 and Rs 3,500 in many areas and since most restaurants and dhabas depend heavily on commercial gas cylinders for daily cooking higher fuel cost is now being passed on to customers through increased food prices.
Restaurant owners say that cooking large quantities of food throughout the day requires multiple cylinders especially at busy eateries and as a result they claim it has become difficult to continue selling food at old rates while managing rising operational costs.
The impact of this increase is clearly visible in prices of popular non-vegetarian dishes such as Butter Chicken which is one of the most ordered dishes at restaurants that earlier costed around Rs 450 is now being sold for nearly Rs 600 at several places and Chicken Tikka prices have also gone up from around Rs 550 to nearly Rs 650 and similarly Tandoori Chicken has become costlier and is now priced around Rs 950 instead of Rs 800 in many eateries while Mutton Rogan Josh has reportedly become dearer by nearly Rs 200 and is now being sold at around Rs 1,100 and Fish Finger prices have also increased sharply from around Rs 700 to nearly Rs 850.
However it is not only non-vegetarian dishes that are affecting people’s budgets as vegetarian dishes have also become much more expensive than before for instance Shahi Paneer prices have reportedly increased from around Rs 320 to nearly Rs 450 at many restaurants and Paneer Tikka now costs around Rs 475 in several places while Dal Makhani which was once considered an affordable dish has also seen a major jump in price as earlier it was available for around Rs 150 it is now being sold at nearly Rs 250 in many hotels and dhabas meanwhile Egg Curry prices too have increased sharply from around Rs 180 to nearly Rs 320.
Even basic food items that are usually ordered with meals are no longer cheap such as Butter Naan prices have increased from around Rs 40 to nearly Rs 70 to Rs 90 at many eateries while Tandoori Roti prices have also doubled at some places rising from Rs 15 to nearly Rs 25 or Rs 30 per piece.
Hotel owners say that apart from expensive LPG cylinders several other costs have also increased at the same time and they point to rising transport charges, higher wages for workers and increasing prices of vegetables, cooking oil, spices and other raw materials and according to them all these factors together have forced eateries to revise menu prices.
Many customers however are unhappy with the sudden and steep rise in rates and some people believe that while fuel and operational costs have increased certain hotels and dhabas may be charging much more than actual rise in expenses and with commercial LPG prices continuing to remain high restaurant owners fear that food prices may increase further in the coming weeks if fuel costs do not come down and for now people planning to dine out may need to prepare for heavier bills at their favourite hotels and dhabas.