The Jayanagar Problem

I don’t know why there are no good mid-to-high end restaurants in the Jayanagar-Basavanagudi area. Ok I must admit there are a few that are quite good – Chung Wah Opus (run by the Kamats of Yatri Nivas fame) and Banjara come to mind, but there aren’t too many. What bothers me more is the profusion of positively bad mid-to-high end restaurants – Presto (Yediyur circle), Cable Car (inner ring road, near Raghavendra Swami temple), Baron’s Inn (9th Main 40th Cross) come to mind.

There are several other reasons as to why I won’t move out of this part of town (except maybe to Kathriguppe, where I own a house – and that area I must say is now quite well served in terms of restaurants) , but it is a big problem for us when we want to go out to a decent place for dinner and are in no mood to drive. One such occasion was last Friday and we ended up walking to Hotel La Marvella at South End Circle, which had an extremely awful lounge and fairly decent north indian food at the not-too-bad rooftop restaurant. Still, there was something missing (which I can’t describe here) which meant the experience wasn’t particularly fulfilling.

One thing to note is that this part of town is home to a lower proportion of upper middle class immigrants compared to other parts of town. Also, the fact that the growth in the mid-to-high-end restaurant industry in Bangalore is largely correlated with the growth in upper middle class immigrant population (read: the IT boom) lends credence to this line of thought.

Then, there might be people who argue that these are “traditionally traditional areas” so people won’t eat out much, and won’t spend much when eating out, and don’t look for diversity in cuisine and all that. But the fact that in recent times KFC has opened a few branches in this part of town (“few” is important – because it’s clearly been successful) refutes this argument.

I don’t have too many other ideas about why this is the case. If you do, plis to be enlightening me.

4 thoughts on “The Jayanagar Problem”

  1. Have you tried Aroy (Thai, chinese, etc) near Mini forest and outer ring road (15th cross) junction..above cross word..

  2. Aroy definitely is a good place..
    Eurasia and Barbeque nation are other good options in Jaynagar/ Banashankari.. but I know what you mean.. For good fine dining places, you need to go to MG Road or Indiranagar, or eat in darshinis or food courts in malls đŸ™‚

  3. The Jayanagar area continues to house fairly traditional people who don’t eat out too much, but that isn’t a complete picture. The area houses traditional people who’ve all had kids who have grown up in the last decade or so and are entering their late-teens and 20s now. I’m not saying that there aren’t any that are older… but most of them have usually moved out in pursuit of jobs and the like.

    KFC, Dominoes and their ilk cater to this not-so-traditional high school and college going crowd who have allowances good enough to let them eat at these high-end fast food places, but not enough to allow them to regularly visit the medium-to-high end restaurants you mention.

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