The scarcity theatre playing out in restaurants today

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. I have never eaten at Papa’s in Bandra, Mumbai, the 12-seater chef’s table run by chef Hussain Shahzad that was recently named one of Time magazine’s World’s Greatest Places 2025, but during a recent visit to Veronica’s, above which Papa’s is perched like a secret little hidey-hole, I did get a tour of the space. It was mid-morning, and the chef was prepping for the 13-course dinner he serves Wednesday through Saturday.

“This is the calm before the madness," he said, flicking a checkered towel over his shoulder and diving into the tiny kitchen. Just like Mordor, one does not simply walk into Papa’s. Spots at the table are reserved months in advance (right now, they are booked through April, while reservations for May will start on 1 April).

Even Dua Lipa, in Mumbai for a concert, had to book two seats as soon as her travel was fixed, a trusted source tells me. It’s a similar story with Naru Noodle Bar in Bengaluru, which has attained near-mythical status on social media for its fastest-fingers-first reservation process that opens every Monday at 8pm and lasts around 15 minutes before all 20 seats are booked through the week. Lounge recently wrote about this changing dynamic in India’s restaurant scene, where making restaurant reservations was dismissed as a fancy Western practice till a few years ago.

Today, it’s not just Papa’s and Naru that have you book tables, you are encouraged to do so at any good restaurant. And as a person who dines out a lot, I’m not complaining—it’s the organised, courteous way to do things. I do object, however, to the theatre of scarcity that can sometimes play out.