2 Introduction

BO B BY D H A B A S T U DY

INTRODUCTION
When food and its quality become paramountly important there are some things
that can be negated. In the midst of the urban hubbub the most rustic of
ambience receives a roaring response. Consistent quality of cooking and food
ensures that the customers keep coming and pure word-of-mouth publicity
establishes a long-standing reputation which, through sheer determination and
consistent growth has remained untainted.

Bobby Dhaba is just such an establishment. If one were to replicate it then

setting it up would take not more than a day in constituents of ambience. The
hut in which it resides would not require more than 2 weeks’ labor to construct
while the food would fall in the category of simple and plain making it sound
something readily available. But still, with Bobby Dhaba being located in Ulsoor
Lake, which the average individual would describe as an out-of-the-way location,
it is a matter of appreciation to see that the people who come to this “seedy”
establishment are ardent fans of it - students, families of the Upper Middle Class
and Middle Class cadre and better-off. These are people you would expect to
frequent the cliché fast food establishments, people who would be the in-crowd
at KFCs and McDonalds. But you’ll see them waiting obediently in line at Bobby
Dhaba. They are regulars but still they receive no special treatment, they are
very important people but to Bobby they are just as important as any other
customer. That is one of the reasons they are patrons of this Dhaba.

SERVICE ELEMENTS

LOCATION

Giving people the address of Bobby Dhaba is very difficult. After all how do you
give the address of a shack next to a Gurudwara? It doesn’t even have a name
board yet. Compared to the road outside which is well-lit, the shack is in
darkness. So lets try and describe the way to the Dhaba.
 3 Service Elements

When you approach the Ulsoor lake Gurdwara from the front, keeping the
Gurudwara to your right take the road going down rather than the flyover.
Immediately after crossing the white wall of the Gurudwara look to the left.
Instead of closed doors if you see a six feet wide and five feet tall doorway into a
decrepit shack then you have are at the entrance of Bobby Dhaba.

ORDERING METHOD

Uniqueness being the watchword

here, on the wall next to the
entrance there will be a short
menu of only 14 to 20 food
items, uniquely there is no price
written next to them probably so
as to prevent haggling over the
price. To the left of the entrance
is a small staircase leading down
to a lower mezzanine where
there are 5 tables each capable
of seating 4 people. At the
waiting level there is one table
which can seat six people where
the quick orders and parties of
one are served. If the customer
FIGURE 1: MENU BOARD
is ravenously hungry then a
quick order for kheer ( a There are four servers of whom two handle the taking of
the orders while two wait on tables. Every customer or customer group must
choose a name to represent their group. Stating that at the top of the order chit
the customer then cites the items from the menu and their quantity and submits
the chit to Bobby. Bobby writes the menu in an abbreviated encoded form in a
register and queues the chit into a stack of chits under the register. Once the
customers are seated then the reference name also has a table number allotted
to it. Future orders placed with the waiters are added to the initial item list
ordered by the customer.
FIGURE 2: THE DHABA AT RUSH HOUR

QUEUEING (ORDERS AND CUSTOMERS) AND WAITING

 4 Service Elements

All the while, keeping his

register as a reference and
hazarding an occasional
glance at the customer rush,
the customers will see him
shouting orders to the kitchen
where two to three men are
working on the items that he
is dictating. While taking a
food item out of the kitchen,
every waiter asks him where to deliver it wherein Bobby tells them which table
and then dictates the next item to the kitchen. (Note: Although McDonalds at
Forum has something similar it suffers from a bottle-neck due to compulsory
double-entry into the electronic system which depends on the server’s skill.
Bobby has removed this issue by being fast at writing and encoding the order in
a format quick to use by him. One disadvantage is that the speed of service
suffers in the absence of the owner.)

Once a table is empty then on a FCFS (First-come-first-serve) basis the customers

are ushered to the table.

The capacity of the Dhaba is enough to be addressed properly by the single

serving counter.

At times a “fresher” may come up to the counter and ask him to hurry up with
the order for which, in the same voice and tone which he uses to address the
other customers and tell them about the waiting time when they hand in their
chits, Bobby will tell him “Charli minit lagenge ji maharaj” <(Maharaj for
courtesy) it will take forty minutes> This is his way of preventing Baulking.
 5 Service Elements

As a result of sheer word-of-mouth

publicity the entire queue has come
for the sake of eating food. As a result
reneging is out of the option.
Occasionally, if a customer has to
cancel an order then it must be done
FIGURE 3: THE MAN HIMSELF (BOBBY)
after submitting the chit and before
sitting down. If the customer has over-
ordered then it is the customer’s
responsibility to package the food or to
let it go to waste.

The authentic Punjabi nature of Bobby,

his cloaked respect to every customer
in true genuine homogeneity and
frankness and the taste and simplicity
of the food are what make this an
experience worth experiencing. Some
people are hooked and although they are Punjabi and will make similar food at
home, when the lady of the house is not feeling like cooking then Bobby Dhaba is
the place where they come. Most of the waiting happens on the road in front of
the Dhaba. In the event that too many customers enter the shop the customers
will hear Bobby tell them “Maharaj Dhuaan ko bahar jaan di jagah te
do.”<(Maharaj out of courtesy) please leave some room for the smoke to go
out.> No queue disciplining or standing in line here. Once the customers are
given their estimated waiting time their position in the queue is secure. Of
course, if they are not available when their reference name is called then it
becomes another 40 minutes of waiting for the next table to be empty.

HYGIENE

Looking at the state of the Dhaba’s structure and its furniture one of the worries
in every new customer’s mind is the hygiene and cleanliness that is being
followed.

An example that can reinforce a worrying customer’s faith in the sense of

hygiene is the bowl of kheer that Bobby keeps on his counter. At the very most
there will be one fly hovering over it. Otherwise there are no insects in the
vicinity of the place. (Note: Comparing this to the average fast-food restaurant
 6 Service Elements

such as Shanti Sagar, Sukh Sagar, and, in electronic city, Maaji Sagar, it speak s
very highly of the freshness of the food and the cleanliness of the surroundings
of the food as well.)

The taste of the food is authentic Punjabi. This is not declared anywhere in the
menu or on any shop board (as there isn’t any). It is left to the customer to
experience first-hand.

QUALITY AT THE CENTRE OF IT ALL

Simplicity is key to the service delivery at Bobby Dhaba as it is the heart and
soul of it. Being a person who only studied till the 12th grade, Bobby can be
hailed as the representation of services grass-root nature. His pricing is
simplistic. Approximately Rs. 15 - 25 is charged for every item. So as to get an
idea about the pricing’s low margin nature let us consider the menu which I
sampled with a friend which was:

Quanti Price at Bobby Price at a normal fast

Item
ty Dhaba food hotel
Paneer stuffed
3 45 66
Paranthas
Muli (Radish)
1 15 20
stuffed paranthas
Alu stuffed 1 15 20
 7 Quality at the centre of it all

Quanti Price at Bobby Price at a normal fast

Item
ty Dhaba food hotel
Parantha
Palak Paneer 1 25 40 to 50
Dal Makhani 1 25 40 to 50
Mathha ( also
3
called Chhaas or 45 90 ( considering quantity)
glasses
butter milk)
Kheer 1 15 20 to 25
Total 185 296 to 321

Additionally he serves complementary salad and pickle. On asking for extra

butter (which may be more unhealthy as they give a more-than-sufficient
amount anyway) a customer will receive a thick sliver approximately 3 teaspoons
wide served on a tea spoon.

Although the food is simple in presentation it is far from unattractive due to the
quality control done in the kitchen. Bobby’s mother or, at times, his grand-
mother takes care of that. One of them is always there to tell the cooks whether
they are working correctly or making a mistake.

To ice the cake creamier than anywhere else, the food is served piping hot.
Testament to this is the butter which tops most dishes and can be seen in various
stages of mouth-watering melting.

Occasionally there is an error in service wherein the item is returned to the

kitchen without any haggling with the customer. Au contraire the server is chided
for not listening to the customer. The reason that Bobby can make this decision
as to whether the waiter is mistaken or not is because he assigns the ref name in
his register a table number once the customer is seated. In the event that the
customer is mistaken he has the original order. Subsequent orders are placed
through the waiters so if it is not in the initial list then he assumes that the waiter
must have made a mistake in listening to the order.

RECENT NEWS – “EXPANSION”

In recent times Bobby has decided to relocate the Dhaba to the opposite side of
the lake. As a result he may have had to hand over the shop occasionally so if he
is not behind the counter the service may suffer a little but the quality of food
will remain the same. He assures his customers that the number of seats will be
more (estimates it to be a 150-Seater) so they will have more room and less time
 8 Recent news – “EXPANSION”

for waiting. But even he knows by now that they don’t mind waiting as the food
is worth both the wait and the money.
 9 Recent news – “EXPANSION”

ONLINE REFERENCES FOR THIS REPORT

These are proof of the pure word-of-mouth fanaticism of Bobby Dhaba:

1. Chaas at Bobby Dhaba on Flickr – Photo Sharing (link:

www.flickr.com/photos/bluesmoon/6808623/) Note: Those big glasses are
filled to the brim with Chaas ( for West Indians) or Mattha (for North-
Indians) or peppery butter-milk (for South Indians)
2. Restaurant reviews from the moon
(http://bluesviews.blogspot.com/2007/11/bobby-dhaba.html)

… and many more. Just Google it.