Billing for your restaurant or dhaba in Bihar
The litti order, the extra chokha and the month's tab of the regulars, all on one phone.
Litti on the coals, a thali on the plate and the count on a slip
Litti takes its time, and the orders do not wait
Litti is baked on coals and cannot be hurried, so in the evening rush the orders pile up faster than the fire can clear them. A table asks for four litti with extra chokha, the next for a plate and two more, and the waiter calls it all out across the kitchen. By the time the bill is added the count is partly in the cook's head and partly on a slip that has a ghee stain on it.
Two litti or four, with ghee, chokha and a glass of sattu
A plate of litti is counted in pieces: two for one customer, four for another, six for the man who has walked from the bus. Ghee on top is an extra, more chokha is an extra, and the glass of sattu sharbat is another. The cook shouts the count, the cashier writes what he heard, and a plate dipped in ghee that was billed plain is a loss that nobody notices.
The regular who eats every day and pays at the month's end
Staff from the office across the road, a shopkeeper next door and a driver who stops every noon all eat on credit. Each of them has a page in a notebook that also holds the gas cylinder man and the milk account. When the month ends and one of them disputes a number, there is nothing to look at but your own handwriting.
What a Bihar dhaba counter keeps on its phone
Bills on your phone
A late spoon of chokha added after the bill was started goes onto the same bill, so the extra plate is not forgotten at the counter.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the office, the neighbouring shop and the driver, each lunch dated, so a disputed noon on the twelfth is settled by the page.
UPI payments
A QR on the counter for the bus passenger who has ten minutes for a plate and only a phone in his hand.
Online orders
The family's order arrives with the number of litti it wants, so the coals are lit for that number before the buyer is at the counter.
Daily reports
Plates and litti sold each day, set against the litti the cook put on the coals, so the ones burnt or given away show as the gap.
Low stock warnings
A warning when sattu, flour or oil in the kitchen store is low, so the litti never stops in the middle of an evening.
Where a Bihar kitchen's goods come from
The goods that fill a Bihar kitchen come from the districts around it, and a restaurant owner hears about each of them from the supplier.
- Gaya has tilkut, a sweet of roasted sesame and jaggery, as its product on the One District One Product list, so a plate of it at the end of the meal is a local order.
- Darbhanga is known for its trade in fish, mango and makhana, three things a kitchen can put on a menu in their own season.
- Muzaffarpur farmers grow Shahi Litchi with a GI certificate, and the fruit has been flown to the UK, so a glass of litchi in the season is a local drink.
- In East Champaran, rice and sugar cane are the main crops and fishery is a small industry, so a kitchen there has both close at hand.
- Patna, a trading centre for grain, sugarcane, sesame and medium-grained Patna rice, is where many a restaurant owner buys his store.
From the first order at the table to the last plate of the night
Litti counted by the piece, so a plate dipped in ghee is not billed plain
Litti is counted in pieces, so many to a plate for one table and fewer for another. Put litti by the piece on your phone with its price. The plate that went out dipped in ghee but was billed plain is a small loss that nobody notices on one table, and everyone feels over a month.
The dough set at noon, from last Tuesday's evening count
The day's list shows how many litti went at the evening rush on a Tuesday, a Friday and a Sunday. At noon you set dough for that count and not for a feeling, so the coal is not lit for litti that nobody orders and the table that comes late is not told that the dough is over.
Sattu, flour, potatoes and oil ordered when the warning shows
Keep sattu, flour, potatoes and mustard oil as stock, and add what comes in. Each is counted down as it is used, and the warning shows when one is running low, so the order goes to the supplier before the rush finds the sack empty and nobody walks the store to look.
What restaurant owners in Bihar ask
The brinjal for the chokha is bought by the kilo and mashed in one lot. Can I see what is left?
Yes. Keep the brinjal as an item in kilos. Add what you buy and take off what you mash. The phone shows what is left, so the evening does not find the chokha finished.
The cook counts the litti he puts on the coals. How do I match his count with the night's bills?
Every litti sold is billed by the piece, so at night the daily report gives the number of litti sold. Set it against the cook's count; the gap shows the litti that were given away or burnt.
Litti takes time on the coals. Can a takeaway order tell me how many to put on?
Yes. An order from your own online shop arrives with the items and the number of litti, so you can put that many on the coals before the buyer reaches the counter.
The visitors who eat in Bihar's restaurants
Bihar drew a record 7.37 lakh foreign visitors in 2024, more than Goa, driven by Bodh Gaya and the Buddhist circuit, Patna Press reported. A restaurant near that route serves guests who have come from far away and look for plain food they can trust.
International flights from Gaya Airport halt from April because tourist numbers fall in the summer season, Patna Press reported in March 2025. The rush of guests follows the season, and a restaurant on the route plans its kitchen store for the months when the tables empty.