Friday December 15, 2006

In good order

By CHOW HOW BAN
Photos by GLENN GUAN

WHILE many Indian restaurants have sprouted in Kuala Lumpur, not many have embraced the latest food and hospitality management and trend in their business set-up.

Nagas is one such restaurant operator that emphasises a systematic food handling system and staff management.

It also offers entertainment, Wi-Fi and playground facilities.

Hygiene is of utmost importance in Nagas Restaurants’ kitchen.

When Nagaragen R. Pillay set up his business in Brickfields about a year ago, he initially wanted to open only one Indian restaurant on a 1,765 sq m area.

“But when I came to plan the renovations, I saw the potential and decided to split the area into three restaurants with different concepts,” he said.

Nagas is divided into the Nagas Self-Service, Nagas Cafe and Nagas Fine-Dining.

Nagas Self-Service serves Malaysian Indian food on a self-service basis while Nagas Fine-Dining caters to private functions.

Nagas Cafe, which will serve burgers, hotdogs, pizzas, pasta and Western food, is not yet open.

“We serve curry dishes, our speciality chicken briyani, tandoori chicken and bread dishes at the 24-hour Nagas Self-Service.

“We cook our briyani rice with the chicken and the tandoori chicken is prepared by cooks from West Bengal who specialise in tandoori cooking.

“We also have South Indian cooks who make roti canai, tosai and speciality dish Chicken Tosai.”

It is not hard to spot Nagas, Brickfields’ rare find.

The ambience is great for families and friends as there is a playground and projector screen for sports programmes.

“Our roof is designed to give good ventilation.

“We have a 24-hour kitchen and our cooking is done in small portions. Fresh supply of vegetables and meat come in every day.”

Nagaragen said Nagas Cafe will be opened next year to meet the demand of the younger crowd and there will be a section designated only for couples.

Nasi Briyani Chicken is a speciality dish at Nagas.

“We are getting our chefs and preparing a standard menu and recipes so that if the cook changes, the recipes will not change.”

He said the company was also coming up with its own corporation book on how to run the restaurant and prepare recipes.

The book would be useful for its business partners or branch restaurants if the company were to expand its business overseas.

“The Government is encouraging us to go self-service and that will reduce the necessity of hiring foreign workers.

“In years to come, we hope to open more self-service restaurants.”

Nagaragen said the company has a nearby hostel to house its 96 local and foreign workers.

“We provide them with laundry service, an in-house barber and hot water for bathing.

“They are given lodging and food. Their hygiene and health are important.

“We try to lessen their burden and take care of their personal needs so that they will in return take care of the company’s needs.”

Nagas is run by the Nagaragen family. Prior to the opening of the three restaurants in Brickfields, Nagaragen opened his first restaurant in Jalan Putra in 1993.

He later opened eight more restaurants but decided to sell some of them.

“We sold the restaurants because we want to move into a more systematic way of managing our restaurant.

“With the same amount of investment for the fewer restaurants, we can be more productive.”

NAGAS RESTAURANTS, 3339 Jalan Tun Sambathan, Brickfields, KL (Tel: 03-2273 7475). Business Hours: 24-hour outlet.