Famous Street Food of Tamil Nadu

How You Can Start its Business Anywhere?

Tamil Nadu is famous for mesmerising temples, Marina beach, and of course, Sambhar, Idli, Medu Vada, and Dosa. It is the favourite street food of Tamil Nadu and one of the most mouth-watering ones for those who like South Indian dishes. This street food is healthy as it is prepared from fermented batter of soaked and ground rice and lentils. Further, the Sambhar, with all its spices, tangy taste, and pulse as the base material, offers a nutritious and delicious complementing dish. Another high point is the coconut chutney, which adds fat content to it. It is said that the overall calorie count of Masala Dosa plate with Sambhar and Chutney is just fit even for a diabetic person.

If the idea of starting a Tamil Nadu Street Food which is Sambhar Dosa stall, has just struck your mind while reading all these benefits, we have decoded requirements, location analysis, costs, etc., for you.

How to start a Tamil Nadu style food-stall in Mumbai?

Mumbai is one of the cities where South Indian food stalls are in high demand. On average, a roadside stall can sell up to 300 dosas, and about 200 medu vadas a day. Idli sale can go up to 500 a day. The condition is that the stall is started near the offices or other areas allotted by the government for roadside vendors.

The other option is to start a quick-service restaurant called QSR.

Cost break-up of starting a dosa quick service restaurant

1. Shop: Rs 1,20,000 (expected rental of Rs 40,000 a month)
2. Licensing: Rs. 18,000
3. Equipment, raw materials, and packaging: Rs. 2,50,000
4. Chairs & Counters: Rs. 20,000
5. Marketing and Advertising: Rs. 37,000 (Pamphlets and billboard)
6. Staff Uniform: Rs. 7000
7. Technology and POS software: Rs. 25,000
8. Mobile Phones: Rs. 10,000

The total cost for a small-scale QSR serving dosa is approx. Rs. 4,80,000

Steps to start a famous Tamil Nadu street food business

The below steps will take you through the steps you need to follow to start a restaurant:

1. Decide the location

Depending upon your budget, you can search for a suitable place for starting a dosa restaurant. The shop or restaurant in a public market will cost less rental than a kiosk in a mall. Accordingly, you need to set the menu price too.

Apart from the location, you need to have an idea of the shop’s specifications.

• The kitchen size: 450 sq ft at least.
• Counter and serving space: 100 sq ft

Look for a proper water drainage system, water, and electricity facility. Get hold of NOC from the site owner and neighbours, stating they have no objection in letting you start a restaurant in the specified location.

2. Complete the licensing formalities

For a quick-serve restaurant, you require an FSSAI certificate, GST registration, Local Municipal Corporation Health License, Fire License, etc.

The license application process involves:

1. Applying for the food license first.
2. Next to apply is GST registration.
3. Police eating house and fire license - this is possible to apply when you have a Municipal Corporation License.

3. Staffing

Running a dosa restaurant is all about teamwork. The people at the back of the counter and in the counter are the real strengths of your restaurant. You need to hire:

1. Chef: Who knows authentic dosa recipes. He is also the man behind the menu design; also, he guides other kitchen workers. He should have a fair knowledge of kitchen management. If he can come up with innovative recipes like Jini Dosa, it can become the USP of your QSR.
2. Helpers: About 4-5 helpers are needed in the kitchen.
3. At the counter and serving space: 3-4 waiters, one order manager, and one counter manager. A delivery boy for making deliveries can handle your takeaway orders.

3. Procure kitchen equipment and raw materials

Shop for kitchen equipment such as working tables, cylinders, stoves, which are the basic needs. Additional requirements will be knives, mixer and grinder, frying pans, big dosa tawa, utensils for serving food, and plates and bowls, tissue paper storage, table cutlery, to quote a few.

Raw materials procurement includes buying:

A. Groceries: Dosa idli rice, lentils, spices, raw mango powder, etc.

B. Vegetables: Potato, Onion, Pumpkin, Brinjal, Tomatoes, chillies, raw coconut, etc.

4. Market the dosa restaurant

Pamphlet distribution is the most popular way of marketing a dosa business. Get the logo and menu designed and printed on the pamphlet, and use flyers for marketing the upcoming establishment. For the initial phase, about 30k pamphlets can serve the purpose.

You can also make social media accounts and approach a digital marketer to utilise facilities like Google Adwords.

Get a billboard designed, and if possible in the budget, install a few around your catchment area to attract the audience.

5. Install a POS and billing software

Today, various POS and billing software are available for establishments like dosa restaurants. Install the one keeping the customer convenience in mind. You can have multiple devices like mobile phones, tablets, computers, etc., to generate the bills.

The overall cost for the software will be approx. Rs. 25000.

6. Design the staff uniform

Get an attractive and crisp staff uniform designed for helpers, serving staff, etc. You can have a mix of shirts and t-shirts and trousers, aprons, smart shirts, etc., to dress up the staff in a presentable manner.

Get logos embroidered or printed to achieve branding purposes through uniforms too.

7. Select the counter design of QSR

Entrust the counter designing to a good carpenter. At the gate, you will need a sophisticated standee and a menu board. Both these places create the first impression of your restaurant. So, be careful with its design and appeal.

8. Ways to increase the number of orders or to reach people

Once everything is set and ready to serve, ensure that you have cloud telephony support. Have at least two telephone lines so that your numbers are always reachable. Secondly, think of having a call centre panel integrated into the restaurant POS so that you can take orders over the phone too.

Requirements for a street-side dosa stall

To start a dosa stall on the street side, you need:

1. A cart - An aluminium cart with a burner and dosa tawa. Usually, idli, chutney, and sambhar are prepared beforehand at home. So, storage for these items is also required.
2. A few stools for people to sit and eat;
3. Vendor registration and business license;
4. 2-3 helpers;
5. Grocery and vegetables;
6. Menu card.

All these things can be available for less than Rs. 3 lakhs in hand.

Always buy groceries and vegetables to meet the first fortnight’s requirement, and with growth, scale up the purchasing of these items.

Conclusion

Dosa selling is quite a lucrative business and requires minimal expenditure. Your experience in making dosas and knowledge of the food business can easily help you establish the dosa cart or restaurant.

Also Read:

1) Famous Street Food of Kolkata
2) Famous Street Food of Delhi
3) Famous Street Foods in Gujarat
4) Famous Street Foods of Lakshadweep
5) OkCredit: Simple, Paperless & Secure solution for businesses

FAQs

Q. Where should I start my dosa restaurant or stall?

Ans. If it is a stall, you can open it near the commercial hubs of the city. In cities like Mumbai, Chowpatty and Khao Gallies are quite famous. You can search for space in these locations too.

Q. How to recruit the staff for a dosa restaurant?

Ans. You can place an ad in the newspaper stating that you are looking for a chef, helpers, etc. It will definitely meet lots of responses. You must check the cooking and management abilities of the Chef before hiring him. For other staff, you must know about their background and work experience.

Q. How to decide the food price?

Ans. It mostly depends upon two things - the restaurant or stall’s site and the overall cost. At the start, you may need to sell food at a low price to establish yourself. However, you can safely inflate prices a little bit if your shop is in a mall.

Q. How to procure groceries and vegetables?

Ans. Managing inventory of these items is a big task as all of these are perishable items. Therefore, buy them in small batches. Work out the requirements for a week or two first, and buy accordingly. If the business catches up, you can increase the purchase amount.