Biryani Day: Dish now most-ordered, replaces Chinese as Kolkata's fave
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Even as the city celebrated World Biryani Day on Sunday, biryani sales soared past its Continental and Chinese competition by a fair margin at several restaurants. The aromatic rice and meat blend has now overtaken Chinese food as the most preferred dish if online orders are included, according to restaurant owners in Kolkata.
Multiple restaurants marked the day with special offers on biryani. Flame & Grill, for instance, is offering a free biryani with every chicken and egg biryani ordered till July 8.
"We have seen a significant rise in biryani sales over the last three years that reflects a change in taste," said Anjan Chatterjee, founder and MD of Specialty Restaurants that owns several outlets selling biryani, including Flame & Grill and Riyasat.
It is the introduction of various kinds of biryani that catapulted the dish to the top of popularity charts and challenged chilli chicken and chowmein, said Shiladitya Choudhury, co-founder and owner of Oudh 1590.
The restaurant saw sales soar by a whopping 25% in May when it held a month-long biryani festival. "Chinese has traditionally been the most ordered across restaurants, but it has been replaced by biryani in the last five years.
We have played a part by introducing Awadhi handi, raan, mahi, moti, and palak biryanis after research in Lucknow. Till a decade ago, only the traditional Kolkata biryani was available here, and it had a limited appeal.
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We introduced galauti kebab, jhinga (prawn) kebab, kakori kebab, and murgh Irani that have enhanced the appeal of biryani. Previously, you had only boti kebabs, chaanp, and tandoori to go with biryani, which failed to tickle taste buds," said Chaudhury. Oudh sold 1 million biryanis in Kolkata in the last year.
According to an online food delivery service, 83 million biryanis were ordered in 2024 across India, which translates to 158 orders per minute.
It has been the most ordered dish on the app for the last nine years.
Other than being a meal in itself, biryani doesn't vary in taste from one joint to another as much as Chinese, according to Sudesh Poddar, president of the Hotel and Restaurants' Association of Eastern India. "Easy availability and the fact that it is a rice-based dish has led Kolkatans to fall for it in a big way. At my restaurant, sales have trebled in the last five years," said Poddar, also the owner of Songhai and Manthan.
Aminia, one of the oldest Mughlai chains in the city, now sells 3,500 plates of biryani a day across its 14 Kolkata outlets. "Biryani has gained popularity in a big way, thanks to a couple of shops in the outskirts that took to the suburbs. In the city, you have street-corner shops that have turned biryani into street food. Our sales have doubled in the last five years," said Kabir Azhar of Aminia.
He felt more outlets and the special taste of Kolkata biryani have led to this spurt in popularity. It's a mix of carb and meat that makes biryani a complete food, said Chaudhury. "Also, it has a pan-India presence with each region having its own biryani genre. From Nizami, Awadhi, and Kolkata to Malabari and Thalakapatty, biryani has a wide variety," he added.
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