"Hong's Kitchen is an Adaptation of Indo-Chinese Food"

Can you provide a brief overview of Hong's Kitchen Restaurant, including the concept cuisine and overall atmosphere?

Hong's Kitchen is basically the Indian Chinese cuisine restaurant which we are developing as a homegrown QSR chain. It is a value for money, functional food cuisine with good ambience. We also do delivery through our own channels as well as the food aggregator.

What inspired the creation of Hong's Kitchen and what set it apart from others in the biz?

So, what you would find different here would be a full range of Indochinese cuisine. There is a large range in starters, soups, side dishes, main course, gravy, rice, noodles, desserts etc. You'll find something unique, something different. Also, there is lots of adaptions of Indian cuisine, keeping Chinese as flavor and core of the business. And, what is important is that the pricing is very competitive. The range is wide. It's really good homely food, it's a day-to-day occasion food and not an occasion based food. 

How have you priced the menu?

The pricing has been done very moderately. It costs about 400 rupees for two people to have a full meal, including desserts and beverages. 

What are some of the most popular signature dishes at Hong’s kitchen? 

In the starters, we have got molten cheese spring roll, which does really well for us, it's a cheese base for the spring roll. It's a new innovation that we have tried and that has been accepted very well. Then we have got a product called Fury, orange Paneer and Chicken, which is a starter. Then we have got soups. A full range of soups, which comes in a glass bottle. One can drink that soup on the go. And then we have got a street style chow which is a very price competitive, high quality noodles and then we have got five Spice Chicken and Paneer, which is a combination of multiple spices from all over India. It’s a very good mix of different flavors. 

What’s your expansion plan?

As of now, we have about 16 restaurants and we should be adding a few in the months.

What is your dine in versus delivery ratio?

As of now dining and takeaway are kind of a little lower than delivery because customers are still getting to know us, but as we reach more customers, our repeat rates are high. So, people who come in once they come in again. And, that’s an encouraging start.

Who is your target audience?

We are targeting everyone. If we talk about somebody who is our primary audience, we are looking at 18 to 30 years old, college goers. These are people who would appreciate good food, good comfort food. And the moment you give them a good ambience, you give them a good taste. We feel that they're far more loyal and this is the audience that we are trying to cater.

So, post Delhi where you guys see yourself in coming years?

As of now, the focus is on Delhi because I think Delhi, we underestimate Delhi. It is like a country by itself. So, we would like to have a good expansion in Delhi before we go elsewhere in the country, but yeah, the whole of North India and then the whole country.