Billing for your restaurant or eatery in Delhi
Golgappe by the plate, a tikki by the piece and the extra chutney each get their own line on one bill.
Tools for a counter where the crowd stands, eats and says what it ate
Bills on your phone
The extra spoon of chutney goes on as a line only for the one who asks, and the bill goes to his WhatsApp if he wants it.
Daily reports
Golgappe, tikki and bhalla totals side by side for the day, read in the morning with the cash box the night crowd left.
Low stock warnings
A warning that the papdi or the tamarind water is nearly finished, so more is made before the evening crowd reaches the ring.
Why a Delhi chaat counter's ring of customers and its night crowd go unwritten
The ring of customers who each say what they ate
At a chaat counter the customers stand in a ring and eat, and they pay at the end, each one saying what he had. Golgappe by the plate, a tikki, a bhalla, an extra spoon of chutney. You trust the words, add them in your head and name a figure. On a good evening the ring is three deep, and the figure is a guess more often than you admit.
The morning shift cannot see what the night sold, golgappe or tikki
A counter that stays open late hands over to the next shift at dawn. The owner who opens sees a box of takings, but not how much came from the golgappe and how much from the tikki and the extras, because none of it is written by item. What sold at midnight decides what to prepare, and that is the part he cannot see.
The boiled potatoes and chickpeas of the morning, finished by seven
The day's potatoes and chickpeas are boiled in one morning batch, and when it is finished the counter has nothing to serve. You turn the crowd away at the busiest hour, or you cook a second batch in a hurry and ruin it. How many plates the first batch gave is a number you only guess after the pot is empty. The chickpeas that were left from yesterday sit in the same pot as today's, and nobody can say which plates came from which.
From one customer's plate to the potato batch that is counted as plates
One customer, one bill, in the time of a plate
Each person in the ring has his own bill. Pick golgappe for a plate, a tikki for a piece and the extra chutney as its own line, and the bill is ready before he has wiped his fingers. Five friends who eat together get five bills from the same round, and nobody pays for another's bhalla.
The night's takings are read from the bills in the morning
The day's sales show what each item sold. Whoever opens in the morning counts the cash box and opens the day's report beside it. The golgappe, the tikki and the extras are each there with their number, so a short box is a question with a page behind it, not a feeling.
The morning batch is counted as plates and the second pot goes on in time
When the potatoes and chickpeas are ready, add the batch to the stock as plates. Every bill takes its plates off, and a warning comes before the pot is empty. You put the second batch on at six, not at seven when the crowd is already waiting. Yesterday's leftover is entered on its own line, so it is not mixed with today's batch.
Questions Delhi chaat and eatery owners ask about the ring, the batch and the new summer item
The first spoon of chutney is free and the second is extra. Can I bill only the second?
Make the extra chutney its own item with its own rate, and add it to the bill only when a customer asks for the second spoon. The plate keeps its rate and the first spoon stays free.
I add a kulfi for the hot months and take it off in winter. Can the list change with the season?
Yes. Add the kulfi as an item when the heat comes, with its own rate. When winter comes you stop selling it, and its sales from the summer stay in the reports.
An office group eats in the ring and one of them pays. Can I make one bill for the group?
Yes. Put the golgappe, tikki and extras on one bill and send it to the phone of the one who pays. The others need not wait.
Yesterday's chickpeas are left, and I mix them into the morning pot. Where does that go on the phone?
Add the left-over plates on a line of their own when you mix them in. The morning's bills take plates off the whole count, and a pot that lasts longer than usual is explained by that line.
The tandoor rule that small Delhi eateries talk about
In December 2025 the Delhi Pollution Control Committee banned coal and firewood tandoors in all hotels, restaurants and open eateries; only electric or gas-based tandoors are allowed. The roti is still sold by the piece, and the table's bill counts rotis in the same way whatever heats the oven.
For small Delhi eateries and street vendors, coal and wood are far more accessible than electric or gas tandoors, and cramped kitchens often cannot fit the new equipment. A small eatery decides by its own numbers, how many rotis go on a day and how long the lunch hour runs, and those numbers sit in each day's sales.