- How Barbeque Nation: Became the #1 buffet grill barbeque in India?
- How Does Barbeque Nation Offer Unlimited Food And Still, Be Profitable?
- How many outlets does Barbeque Nation run now?
- What should be your strategy if you are planning to have a stomach-filling feast at Barbeque Nation…
- Barbeque Nation Story: From Where It Started – The Making of a Family Biz
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Table of Contents
How Barbeque Nation: Became the #1 buffet grill barbeque in India?
How many outlets does Barbeque Nation run now?
138 outlets: Barbeque Nation Hospitality owns and operates Barbeque Nation Restaurants, currently operating at 138 outlets across India and 7 outlets in the UAE, Oman, and Malaysia.
That’s how fast this chain has been growing. Bhasin attributes the pace of growth, above all, to the steady, trained focus on customer happiness. Then, of course, there’s the concept.
Barbeque Nation was the first restaurant to turn table-tops into live grills where customers can finish pre-marinated kebabs before helping themselves to an eat-all-you-can buffet.
How about getting ideas while serving grills to customers in a hotel in Indore?
Looks odd! But that is the story of one of your favorite food destination ‘Barbeque Nation’.
So, let’s know more about how did the inspiration arise from?
From Where It Started: The Making of a Family Biz
The inspiration came from two of the most unlikely cities: Indore and Baroda. Barbeque Nation was the brainchild of the late Sajid Dhanani, whose family owned and operated the chain Sayaji Hotels in Indore, Baroda, and Pune.
The Sayaji Hotel in Baroda set up India’s first buffet restaurant, Buffet Junction, in the 1960s.
Dhanani was surprised and pleased by the steady flow of customers over the decades and knew what attracted them was the value-for-money offering catering especially to families who made up most of the clientele.
He noticed that it made family outings for meals quite easy since it did away with the need to choose from a menu, and instead allowed people with different preferences to dine happily at one place.
Demand for something new on offer:
The group also operates the Kebabsville restaurant at the Sayaji Hotel in Indore and the Sayaji Hotel in Baroda. At this
restaurant, the kebabs would get cold on their trip from the kitchen to the table, particularly in winter.
Sometimes the customers would complain, but they kept coming back for the kebabs, since they couldn’t be easily made at home.
Why not, then, have them cooked at the table?
Live Barbeque: An Instant Hit With Customers!
Sajid dreamed up a combination restaurant, one that would marry the value-for-money buffet model and the customer’s love for kebabs. Breaking away from conventional thinking, he came up with the idea of live grills at the table.
It would be unique and give customers an enjoyable experience. At the first outlet, Sajid wanted to replicate the exceptional customer service Buffet Junction was known for; the waiters spoke in Gujarati and weren’t the most sophisticated, but
diners were treated warmly and made to feel like guests rather than customers.
They enjoyed top quality service in a place that didn’t overwhelm with its style or formality.
Comfort is the key!!!
Sajid believed that ‘happy customers’ – a concept that Barbeque Nation now puts a premium on – would have to be at the heart of his new restaurant, enhancing the live grill concept and the fixed price buffet.
Barbeque Nation is Born
When was first Barbeque Nation Opened?
Barbeque Nation started its first outlet in January 2006 on Mumbai.
Thus was born Barbeque Nation in 2006 in Mumbai’s upscale Pali Hill. Later, it shifted to Hill Road, Bandra. Other outlets opened, first in metro cities and in other big cities. The initial success paved the way for super-fast growth in the metros.
When they reached a certain saturation point – Bangalore has seven outlets as does Delhi – the expansions moved to Tier II and Tier III cities.
Barbeque Nation even has an outlet in Madurai, a town whose eating out landscape is dominated by parotta–salna eateries.
Barbeque Nation has found a demand for its offerings even in towns with the most conservative eating habits.
According to Sameer Bhasin, former Chief Executive Officer, this demand stems from people who have eaten at their outlets on several occasions in the big cities and now want to access it more easily, closer home.
People are craving for Barbeque Nation unlimited food and most of the consumers fell in love at the first sight for good customer service and they love the new concept.
High Tempation
Given its high visibility, Barbeque Nation spawns many imitations – at least one hundred of them exist, according to Bhasin. Even veteran restaurateurs could not resist the temptation.
The Specialty Group opened Sigree Global Grill and Barbeque Nation’s CEO, Prosenjit Roy Choudhury quit to start Absolute Barbeques. The rise of imitations is another factor that prompts the brand to look at new geographies.
If there’s a Darling Barbeque in Vellore in Tamil Naidu, you can be assured a Barbeque Nation will open in the town sooner rather than later.
‘After all, what they can do, we can do better,’ Bhasin says.
Barbeque Nation’s impetus to grow and scale comes from its belief that it has mastered the art of keeping customers happy to a very large extent.
Barbeque Nation adds a nominal 4 percent service charge to the bill that is distributed among the staff, forbids waiters or even the valets to accept tips, and fires employees caught taking tips. This is something for leading and luxurious hotels to take inspiration from.
Aren’t your impressed by this?
Each waiter is given only two-three tables to attend to and their key performance measures are clear: be prompt, make customers as comfortable as possible, treat them like you would important guests at home. Waiters are authorized to request the kitchen staff to make special dishes when customers ask for them. The waiter can ask the kitchen to send out a personalized cake for a table celebrating a birthday or to cater to a special request from a child.
Sajid Dhanani wanted to prove that Indian restaurants could also deliver international quality customer service and Barbeque Nation has certainly managed to do that.
Happy customers mean good word-of-mouth publicity.
Traditionally shy of big spending on marketing and advertising, it’s the positive publicity that has helped grow this business. Even at the store level, customer satisfaction is both the prime focus and the target. This approach sets Barbeque Nation apart from
most other restaurant companies have fixed growth trajectories and number-of-outlets targets to meet.
I personally have never seen any barbeque nation TV Commercials neither. I didn’t even knew that Barbeque Nation are active on social media, which is good to know.
Bhasin believes that Barbeque Nation’s dynamic, rather than theoretical model, which involves day-to-day detailing and tweaking based on customer feedback, that distinguishes them from the competition.
This is why collecting customer feedback goes way beyond giving out forms with boxes to tick. Instead, they have used the approach hotel chains and premium retail chains use to gather customer feedback.
There’s a full-fledged call centre that calls 20 per cent of the database of nearly ten lakh customers every day. They are asked open-ended questions and keywords are picked up.
Achieving good customer ratings is one of the main incentivized targets for the team, rather than sales figures or revenue.
Achieving customer satisfaction is a challenging task though, especially given the peculiar nature of the Indian restaurant business.
Barbeque Nation sees itself functioning in a third-world market paying first-world costs. The Barbeque Nation customer, as does every other restaurant-goer, wants top quality but is reluctant to pay for it, with some markets such as Bengaluru and Chennai being particularly price-sensitive.
Barbeque Nation thought process before they open a new outlet:
- What are the variables they consider?
- Is it just the location?
- Is it the average revenue?
- The Locality, competition?
Barbeque Nation’s: The Rent to Revenue has to be 10% that’s how they select their site.
Real estate costs make pricing especially fraught; all Barbeque Nation outlets function in leased spaces, and their choice of location
has frequently gone against conventional wisdom.
You will, for instance, find them on the first floors and in buildings without the best frontage. Also, malls, given
their high rental costs are not entirely favoured, and Barbeque Nation is often not in malls where several top food brands are present.
Profitability Quotient of Barbeque Nation:

Since the inception, they have not yet shut a single restaurant for lack of business.
Weekend to Weekday Business is about 49%:51% Cover Sales of Lunch Business is about 45%
- What is the seating capacity at Barbeque Nation:
- Seating Capacity- 140 average At Metro Cities.
- Seating Capacity- 110 average At Tier ⅔
- What is the seating capacity at Barbeque Nation:
- Seating Capacity- 140 average At Metro Cities.
- Seating Capacity- 110 average At Tier ⅔
It becomes all the more crucial for the restaurants offering unlimited food as a lot is at stake here. Since the minimum spend of customers is also high, it gets even more difficult to gather footfall in such restaurants. This is why these restaurants spend a lot in marketing their brand. From offering cuisines from different countries on specific days to celebrating certain festivals at their restaurants. These restaurants have always improved their marketing game.
In Spite of the challenges, Barbeque Nation seems to have found the sweet spot, and the value-for-money perception is one of the strongest pulls to its restaurants across the country. The chain has perfected the art of flexible pricing, having differential rates for weekday lunches, weekday dinners, weekends, a lower price for vegetarians and for kids, with the waiters allowed the discretion
to decide who qualifies.
To increase the ticket size beyond the fixed price, the chain threw an alcoholic drink into the package and then kept the pricing for
additional drinks are very reasonable. You could get a pint of beer for Rs 100. Once customers were hooked, the complimentary drink was done away with.
Customers didn’t complain and kept buying the attractively priced drinks and the bar in business.
Treat the customer as you would a guest in your home
Barbeque Nation also makes investments in staff training and welfare. The brand adopts a unique approach when initiating service staff. They are simply told ‘Treat the customer as you would a guest in your home’. This may sound like an Indian cliché, but it encourages staff to engage with customers in a genuinely warm way, often coaxing them to eat a little more of this or that; which, given Barbeque Nation’s fixed price model, doesn’t amount to up-selling either.
There is no training module or routine to follow and that prevents service from seeming staged or insincere. Staff members are also encouraged to speak in the language they are most comfortable with.
Staff welfare measures are aplenty and include the Swarambh initiative, created especially to support and enable new staff, most of whom move to the city from villages.
A buddy trainer, known at Barbeque Nation as Bada Bhai, is assigned to every recruit to show him the ropes and help him settle down – right from directing him to an ATM or bank, teaching him Western toilet use, and checking if he has called home.
VOE (Voice of Employee) is a program that allows all employees, irrespective of rank, to voice their opinions, and through
Prayaas, employees can make specific suggestions for improving Customer Experience.
Every Store Pacing Towards Profitability:
Confident that it’s doing everything right at home, with a business clocking Rs 400 crore in revenues and a 10 percent profit margin in FY 2015-16, Barbeque Nation made its first foray abroad, to Dubai in November 2016.
The response has been encouraging, though every market has its challenges. Barbeque Nation will, in its steady way, go to other locations abroad.
After all, as Sameer Bhasin says, there are Indians everywhere and the world is our market. Barbeque Nation attracted private equity funding in 2011 and got CX Partners to invest Rs 100 crore for a small stake, to propel their growth further.
“As our stores grow old they turn more profitable,
Newer stores are following in the footsteps of the older one.”
Barbeque Nation has taught the Indian restaurant industry a vital lesson: Value-For-Money does not have to mean low prices. The focus has been to ensure that customers visiting any Barbeque Nation will always feel that they’ve got their money’s worth in terms of experience, customer service, and unlimited food.
How much is per head in Barbeque Nation?
Approx. Rs. 900/- per Head – Veg or Non-Veg
Are drinks available in Barbeque Nation?
Yes, Drinks are not free at Barbeque Nation.
Note: You can get a Complimentary Beverage- You can get to enjoy the cheer-o-clock.
Enjoy a round of complimentary drinks during lunch (Wed-Sun)
Applicable at- Lucknow, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Dehradun, Noida, Delhi, Ghaziabad Panipat, Jaipur, Kota, Udaipur, Faridabad, Chandigarh, Agra, Indore, and Bhopal.
Is Barbeque Nation open after lockdown?
Barbeque Nation stands as one of the major Barbeque restaurants across the country. This is not the first time I am going to Barbeque Nation but after almost 4 months of Lockdown in India, In Mumbai, the outlets are finally open from August onwards.
How long can we stay in Barbeque Nation?
They assume that a complete meal takes up to a max of 2 hours but most guests wind up within 90 minutes.
Is there any discount or coupon code available at Barbeque Nation:
Barbeque Nation has launched a new loyalty program called Smile Club: Eat Unlimited and Keep Earning.
With this, users get 5% points (called smiles) on the amount spent with each booking.
These points can be utilized on your next visit to get extra discounts.
Each Smile is equal to 1 Rupee.
Users can also choose to give smiles to other users.
What is the Smiles program all about BBQN?
Smile is a first of its kind loyalty program at BBQN. It is complementary and allows you to earn smiles every time you dine with Barbeque Nation. You can redeem these smiles on your next visit to any of the BBQN outlets.
Why should you join the BBQN Smiles Loyalty Program?
All Barbeque Nation customers are auto-enrolled into the Smiles program. You just need to download the Barbeque Nation app or login to www.Barbequenation.com using your mobile number to know further about your smiles!
How to earn Smiles?
Reserve a table with the same number you used to create an account for Barbeque Nation. Enjoy a lovely meal, lunch or dinner with delicious grills, main course and desserts. Pay your bill as you like, either online through app or at the outlet and you will automatically be credited with smiles in your account. These smiles can be redeemed on your next visit. As simple as that!
How many smiles do I earn on every visit?
You will earn 5% of the billing amount before taxes and they will be auto-credited to you. Smiles earned can be redeemed on your next visit. Each Smile is equivalent to a rupee! That means 500 Smiles = 500 rupees!
Where can you get Barbeque Nation coupons?
You can get Barbeque Nation coupons from online stores like TalkCharge. Visit the website or mobile app and go to the Barbeque Nation store page and browse through all the latest coupons and offers available.
Check out BBQN Restaurants: Right from Agra to Visakhapatnam:
https://www.barbequenation.com/restaurants
Lunch is more affordable and Dinner is costly.
Cost may differ during weekdays and weekend days.
The cost differentiation is nothing much, but a meager difference of a few 100 bucks or something and now because of the Barbeque Nation Loyalty program called Smile initiative, you can even avail discount through the website/app.
Mostly they open their outlets in IT Hub localities, Malls and most crowded places where there are more footfalls of college students, office goers and where bachelors live.
Why do people keep on visiting Barbeque Nation?
BBQN fixed price ‘all you can eat’ concept at Barbeque Nation Restaurants offers the customers a varying spread of consistently delicious food at a value-oriented price in a pleasant and casual dining environment.
Barbeque cuisine is distinctively attractive as compared with other dining options due to its DIY and cooked-at-the-table nature and the flexibility and fun of mixing and matching a wide variety of meats, vegetables, sauces, and condiments to create dishes according to each diner’s individual tastes and preferences.
BBQN dining is very popular amongst relatively larger groups, due to customers’ perception of value for money, ambience, and the comfort of certainty over the bill amount irrespective of varying individual appetites and consumption.
Barbeque Nation Restaurants typically offer customers at least five vegetarian and five non-vegetarian largely pre-cooked appetizers they can season and barbeque on a grill embedded in their table, and they have even got covered in the main course buffet and a selection of desserts.
How to book and reserve a table?
You can pre-book and reserve your table through the Barbeque Nation Website or App. It is more feasible and you can easily go to the place and start filling your hunger pangs.
Barbeque in Box- Now that’s a new thing!
Experience your favorite Barbeque meal in a box. As BBQN tailor the food to your taste.
Last but not least.
What should be your strategy if you are planning to have a stomach-filling feast at Barbeque Nation| BBQN
If you want to make the most out of the hefty sum you pay as a bill: Arrive early. I mean by the time they start.
As delicious and buttery food is a feast for our eyes! All the dishes look great immediately after they are prepared. If you arrive for lunch at 2:30 pm or dinner at 9 pm, it would have already been a couple of hours. The food might be simmering in the vessels (not the live counter & starters).
- Do not ever go for a welcome drink. It’s a strategy by restaurants that offer these buffets. When you drink a sugary, masala welcome drink on an empty stomach, it slows down your hunger.
- If you are going there, go on an empty stomach. Try not to have breakfast if for lunch or have an extremely light one.
- Usually, fish or prawns are the costliest food items there. If you observe, the serving guys won’t bring seafood items as easily as they bring chicken. Chicken is cheaper and fills your stomach early. So, wait patiently for prawns or seafood options.
- If you are not a seafood fan, then mutton is the best option.
- If you are going for a non-veg buffet, try and avoid veg starters.
- And for starters, they bring a smaller spoon. This way, they make you feel embarrassed to ask them to serve again/some more.
- Avoid chat counters. You get better chaat taste outside. This is a trap to fill your stomach with cheap items and try to squeeze as much margin out of each customer as possible.
- Look for exquisite menus like live non-veg counters. They serve some good dishes.
- Check out some good main course items and grab them. You will have enough capacity to try the main course if you follow the points above.
- Out of desserts, try Kulfi as much as you can. Try to avoid easily available items outside like Jalebi, Gulab Jamun which are full of sugar. Go for Rabdi, Firni, Brownie, Mousse, Pie, etc. Sweet Tooth audience please ensure to keep a place in your stomach at the end.
- Tell them prior about spiciness level. They initially do not ask for your preference in terms of spiciness and serve relatively spicy starters. If you love spicy food then go for it!
- If they ask if there is any special occasion they will serve you a complimentary cake. Mostly they don’t even ask for any proof for it, but it’s a trap don’t fall for it. (*Better ask them to parcel and take it home and eat) The cake will fill your stomach and you will not be able to even start your main course.
The reason for so many check-points is, restaurants like Barbeque Nation try to make as much profit as possible from every customer. The items like Welcome Drink, Chaat, Jalebi, Gulabjamun are not worth 900 rupees.
However, they are strategically placed to lure the customer and distract them from the main items.
Barbeque Nation also launched UBQ through its existing kitchen infrastructure, in November 2018 to provide a la carte Indian cuisine in the value segment, which is also being availed by delivery across 71 cities in India.
Let’s wait and see what 2021 has got for BBQN:
The chain is 14-years old and has been fairly popular throughout its existence. However, the overall gloom in the restaurant industry may cap the potential value that could be unlocked through this IPO. “The restaurant & hospitality sector, despite being amongst the worst hit due to COVID 19 has tremendous potential in a growing economy like India.
With the rise of nuclear families, changing habits, increasing urban population with higher disposable income coupled with strong growth of food-related e-commerce platforms, a strong branded player like Barbeque Nation stands to gain in the future.
Barbeque Nation looking to raise ₹1,000-1,200 crore from IPO, file.
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