Delhi restaurant denies entry to woman for wearing sari

Photo for representational purpose. Pic/ istock

A video has gone viral on social media in which a woman is seen asking an employee at a restaurant in the national capital whether sari is allowed. The employee replies that "sari does not count as smart casuals" whereas the hotel only allows smart casuals.

The restaurant denied entry to the woman, who is an ex-journalist, for wearing sari. However, the restaurant located in Khel Gaon posh area has earned the wrath of netizens after the video went viral.

The video has been shared by Anita Chaudhary, a former journalist who was there to celebrate the birthday of her daughter.

Talking to IANS, Anita said, "we booked a table much before to celebrate the birthday of our daughter at a restaurant named Aquila at Khel Gaon, but they didn't permit me inside as I was wearing a sari which they don't consider a smart casual".

She added that even after her daughter resisted the decision to allow her mummy inside, the restaurant staff said that they will allow her only, not her mother as she was wearing sari.

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Anita choudhary told IANS that she repeatedly asked the staff standing at the gate to show her the rulebook which doesn't allow women wearing sari inside the restaurant. But, instead of showing that the staff went on repeating that they can't allow a woman wearing a sari. She said that even restaurant manager and other staff came outside the hotel and threatened her to call bouncers and police for creating disturbances at the hotel. She said, "Even our table was booked earlier, we decided to leave the venue as they were not ready to allow me inside".

Sharing the video, Anita Choudhary wrote, "saree is not allowed in Aquila restaurant as Indian saree is now not an smart outfit. What is the concrete definition of Smart outfit plz tell me. Please define smart outfit so I will stop wearing sari."

One user said, "The restaurant in Delhi (Aquila) that denied entry to a lady because she was wearing sari has terrible ratings everywhere. On Google the rating is 1.1/5. On Zomato it's 2/5. It's not the first time they have erred. Checkout the past reviews, everyone who has been there hates it".

The video has soon went viral enraging many netizens calling it 'discriminatory' rule of the hotel.

According to the restaurant, the comment on sari not being a "smart casual" outfit in the video shared by Choudaary was a way to "tackle" the situation.

"To tackle the situation and request the guest to leave, one of our gate managers made a statement on sarees not being a part of our smart casual dress code and our whole team apologises for the same," the statement said.

Aquila went on to apologise for the remark.

"Aquila is a homegrown brand and each member of the team stands tall as a proud Indian. Our gate manager's statement in no way is a representation of the entire team's view on the dress code. Nowhere in our company policy does it say that we will refuse entry to anybody in ethnic wear.

"While we have all the right to take steps for the violence by the guest against our staff, we have chosen to maintain peace so far but in accordance with our policy of maintaining transparency with our stakeholders we are now issuing this statement," Aquila said.

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