“Megumi is not just a Dining Place, but a Place to Celebrate,” says Rajit V Shetty

Megumi is a Pan - Asian restaurant with a unique blend of Japanese and Brazilian influences nestled in Bandra, Mumbai. Setting new benchmarks in culinary innovation under the visionary leadership of Rajit V Shetty, Managing Director of the Ramee Group, Megumi showcases his dedication to creativity and design thinking. In an exclusive interview with Restaurant India, Shetty speaks about Megumi, their menu, expansion plans and much more. Excerpts:

The concept

Megumi is a fun project to work with. The concept of Megumi had come when we realized we wanted to do something in Pan-Asian but also with twist of Japanese inspired from Dubai, where we have our headquarters. We wanted to do something different, so we came up with this as it is different from that of competitors.

Trading on Uniqueness

Another reason why Megumi stand out is not just food and cocktails, the ambience, the bar nights, and the way we set up our brunches are all add on. Megumi is not just a dining place, but a place to celebrate with your loved ones. We haven’t Indianised much as we believe in authenticity. The Japanese menu is pretty authentic. Only thing that will be little Indianised will be the Wok range. The sushi which we have is really authentic. We try to maintain the standards and the consistency in all the dishes.

Target Audience and Footfall

We aren’t targeting any specific audience as such. We had initial audience who likes Asian cuisine. It is different from our competitors. You can get access to high quality Japanese and Asian food with us. No matter how good the interior or ambience is, food quality is really important. So, anybody or everybody is welcomed who want to try the authentic dishes in our restaurant. Our guests spend around Rs 2000/- to Rs 3000/- per person, because we have good cocktails and deserts. And when you are a having good time, people tend to spend more. In a day, we have a footfall of around 300 people, and on weekends it differs.

Pairing Food with Drinks

We have signature cocktail program that is a celebration of two cultures. Our signature cocktails celebrates Indian and Japanese cultural or Chinese with Indian. These cocktails go with the pairings. We don’t have festive menus but we do have seasonal menu which we do on timely basis. In seasonal menus, we tend to come up with new dishes.

Safety Challenges

We keep up with consistency, differentiate in kitchen and menu. We use all the authentic ingredients to ensure we give good taste of food and cocktails to our customers. We also do inspections to maintain the hygiene and safety in our kitchen. 

Expansion Plans

We want to standardize our brand “Megumi’ and be consistent before we expand. We are planning for expansion from next year. So, we are planning to open one outlet in Worli (Mumbai) and one in Delhi. Other than Megumi, we have many other projects in pipeline under Ramee Hospitality. The hospitality sector is growing and we are growing with various brands. We are coming up with more theme based restaurants firstly in Mumbai and then in Bangalore.