With real estate prices rising, is micro-dining the future in Mumbai?

Dining is slowly evolving. While grand restaurants exist, the city is making space for another kind of eatery. Earlier this year in August, Abokado opened in Mumbai's Bandra housing only 12 seats for diners. At a time when most restaurants want to accommodate more people, the avocado and Japanese-inspired dining café is the latest to jump on the bandwagon for micro-dining spaces in Mumbai after Papa's earlier this year. In the last year, Kari Apla, a restaurant in the same suburb has been the other eatery to sprout in Mumbai. While the first one calls itself a micro-dining space, the latter was a result of soaring real estate prices. With Mumbai's rapidly changing dining scene, will micro-dining become the future? There is more to it than meets the eye.

Chef Mitesh Rangras, chef and co-founder of Abokado, has seen a lot of different trends in the last 25 years that he has been a chef and consultant. Wanting to do something for himself, the Mumbai-based chef opened the restaurant but only because he saw the scope for such an experience in the city. He explains, "Bandra is a unique location where people are very open to trying new concepts. They make up their mind based on their own experience and not based on the size or how fancy the place looks. We would not have opened this restaurant in any other location anywhere else in India. Our small size made us think out of the box and try things I wouldn't have if I had the luxury of space."

What is micro-dining?
Micro-dining has been picking up in India in the last two years. While many restaurants boast of 50 to 75-seaters, micro-dining is essentially an eatery that fits into the 8 - 20-seater model. These have been seen with the likes of Naru Noodle Bar, an 8-seater ramen bar that has popped up in Bengaluru, and Makutsu in Goa by chef Pablo Miranda a small 20-seater yakitori bar. Beyond that, others like chef and owner Gayatri Desai's GroundUp in Pune is 25-seater and several others in the country, mostly in metros hinting towards a growing trend that is also being seen in Mumbai, at a time when people are willing to try out new experiences like Rangras highlights.

He further explains, "It seats 12 people. There are three tables of two-seaters and six around our live sushi counter. We wanted it to be an ingredient-forward concept where the food is at the heart of everything we do. More than 60 per cent of our dishes get done in front of our guests, which makes it fun and interesting to them. It is highly interactive. The small size is not something we look at as an impediment. We consider it as a badge of honour as it makes us think of smarter solutions to fine-tune our food and improve every day." In the last 45 days, the Mumbaikar says the response has been good. "The size does surprise some people but it's quickly forgotten. I feel the size is an integral part of our vibe," he adds. It also fits into his idea of the future of dining which he believes will either be categorised under cheap eateries or one that is ingredient-forward and comes together as a unique experience.

Karen Fernandes, who is among many Mumbaikars who enjoy such new experiences at least once a month with her friends, says, "I find the micro-dining concept very interesting. The intimate setting somehow makes the dining experience feel even more immersive, engaging and enjoyable. It has a very Midnight Diner: Tokyo Diaries vibe." Interestingly, 32-year-old Fernandes, who runs a city-based creative agency, speaks the writer's mind, who is immediately reminded of the same show set in a cosy setting, as well as ‘Before the Coffee Gets Cold', the 2015 novel by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, that is set in a three-table café that helps people time-travel, which often holds for such cafes.

It is also why the Mumbaikar adds, "I believe with the boom that the hospitality industry is going through and as dining becomes more and more commonplace, these kinds of experiences will find their niche, as people want to avoid crowds. The fact that Indian diners are becoming more discerning also factors here." Ask her if he believes the limited seating enhances the service, and she is quick to say that many of Mumbai's larger restaurants and impeccable with their service, and while the speed may not be a concern, there is another hurdle. "I love an intimate, quieter and more immersive dining experience, but I would never patronise a restaurant that makes me suffer for a table," she adds.

Evolution of dining
Fernandes isn't alone because city-based freelance food writer Junisha Dama, who has been covering food for close to a decade now, says micro-dining leads to a more deliberate wait time that may often rub the diner the wrong way. "It is annoying because why am I in queue everywhere? Even just for a cup of coffee?" she asks.

Interestingly, the concept is not new she points out not only around the world but also in India and more particularly in Mumbai. She explains, "I think for the most part the way dining has changed is how and what is being served. In 2014, home chefs and home-dining experiences were the rage and perhaps one of the few ways to sample regional cuisine. It was the 2014 version of what's now called a ‘Supper Club' but it focused on regional cooking."

With that being said, she adds, "Micro-dining has existed in some way or the other. Largely because of real estate prices in Mumbai. I know it is a proper concept now, but small cafes, Udupi houses like Sharda Bhavan, Amba Bhavan, and Shree Sunder's in Matunga, and these unassuming spaces with few tables are not new to Mumbai. Prakash and Gypsy Corner in Dadar are tiny, and you are likely going to share a table with strangers because they don't want people to queue up. Wouldn't you call that micro-dining?"
Dama hasn't tried micro-dining spaces yet because she believes waiting for a seat will hinder the experience. "It annoys me to wait in this weather, not have a reservation, or guarantee a table." However, she is quick to note her appreciation for the likes of Kari Apla for many reasons. She explains, "I don't think they were deliberate about the small space but got it more so because they are first-time restaurateurs and would rather grow gradually. It is backed by chef-entrepreneurs Ebaani Tiwari and Matthew Varghese, who have worked with the likes of Chef Kelvin Cheung when he was at Bastian and Chef Manish Mehrotra at Comorin, and they are serving their take on young India's food."

It is this very purpose that drives Tiwari and Varghese, who started the eatery that serves food from the coastal and Deccan states of India in November 2023. Tiwari, who speaks to us over call before heading to the eatery, says, "Kari Apla is a homage to all the food that we (Mathew and I have grown up with). Within families also we have a lot of influence on the food, and that is why it is not only restricted to us but also our families, and what our aunts and uncles eat. However, it is also a little bit more restaurant-friendly because it is not home-style like you get at home, but the flavour is definitely like that." The food is not only from Maharashtra, Goa and Karnataka but also from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and a bit of Hyderabad.

Does real estate influence micro-dining?
While many other restaurants and chefs have the luxury of investors, Tiwari admits honestly, "We are completely self-funded and this is all we could and Mumbai's rentals are extremely high, and we didn't want to bite more than we could chew. So, we wanted to start small and see what the response is like and whether people understand it, and just made more sense to start smaller." Unsurprisingly then, the whole micro-dining concept was quite accidental for the duo and rather a result and influence of Mumbai's real estate prices.

Tiwari narrates, "Everybody is always going on about how expensive real estate is in Mumbai. So, we started in Andheri, which is where my parents are, and we wanted to do something closer to home. We spent one month, two months and at one point, all the brokers in the area had our numbers. We were trying so much but were not able to do something after going to meetings, and things would not work out. It is then we expanded our search and came towards Khar and Bandra, we realised the prices were the same all over the city."

At around the same time, when the city-based chef-entrepreneur duo was seeing all the small places and realised they would have to start with something like that, they realised it was something happening across cities in the world. She notes, "New York and Tokyo have smaller restaurants because of the real estate. Mathew was constantly looking at how we could do something like that - we have a live and open kitchen and also have seating inside along the sushi counter and the kitchen. Most people come in and say, ‘Oh, this is like a Japanese café' but it was just to maximise seating and nothing else." It is where she believes micro-dining helps because you realise how to use your space more efficiently.

Tiwari isn't shy to admit that they would like to move to a bigger place, one that isn't probably too big as a 75-seater but definitely a 50-seater, as they really liked to be involved in everything at the restaurant. "Our food is also very beer-friendly, so we want to get beer as well, but all those are limitations in a smaller space, but that is what we are working on right now." Even as the duo doesn't want to be limited to a small space of 20 seats but definitely want to do something bigger. In the last year, they have got every kind of foodie they would wish for but ones that know how to want to enjoy their food. "We have got the kind of group that really likes the food, but they don't want to sit inside on the high seating; then there are others who like to sit only on the high seating." It was reflected in their Onam celebrations in September when they had to sell out all their seats after receiving an overwhelming response from Mumbaikars.

So, is micro-dining the future of eating outdoors? Tiwari believes it to be true. She explains, "In places like Mumbai, it is definitely going to happen because there are so many available places that are much smaller. For a lot of people with restaurants that are startups like us, it is the only way to start. You can't naturally start with a 75-100-seater restaurant unless you have funding for it. If you are doing this yourself, then a lot of passion projects may start on a smaller scale and then get bigger."

However, Vipul Yadav, a city-based brand manager at an FMCG and a huge foodie, who also hosts food walks in Mumbai, believes it is still too early to call it the future of dining. "It is very niche yet and caters to a small group of audience, who are willing to pay that kind of money. So, it will continue to be niche. It is not unique to India and is common in Japan and New York, and with real estate, it works well for both - the chef and the audience. If the place does well, it will be difficult to get a table."

With that being said, Yadav says it will only do well. "I used to travel to BKC during the Covid-19 pandemic, and during that time O Pedro and Bombay Canteen had a sandwich menu, and when they probably realised it was working well, they started Veronica's," observes the Mumbaikar, who makes sure to visit every new restaurant in the city and keep an eye on food trends in the city.

Yadav believes that if you work on local food and regional food, then it will do well. "My biggest problem in Mumbai is that you don't get good Maharashtrian food unless I am looking for seafood. Prakash, Aaswad, Tambe and Mama Kane serve similar kinds of food. There are very few places for good Kolhapuri, Saoji or north Maharashtrian food to my knowledge. So, if anybody does anything premium with an intimate dining experience, I am sure, there will be takers for it," shares Yadav while highlighting GroundUp in Pune. The fact that they will most likely change the menu to get people coming back. "It gives the chef a lot more freedom to innovate, and for people who want to have a cute, intimate party, because it works perfectly in a small place, " concludes Yadav, highlighting how he sees the micro-dining trend shape up shortly.