Billing for your restaurant or hotel in Odisha
The thali, the fried fish and the parcel at the door end up on the right bill, even when the tables turn fast.
Why an Odisha hotel counter goes wrong in the Puri rush, the pakhala hour and the evening line
In the Puri winter rush the tables turn faster than the slips
Puri sees a rush of tourists from December to February, and the Puri Hotel Association said 90 per cent of hotels were booked from 22 December to 15 January. A restaurant in those weeks fills and empties its tables all day, families ask for one bill to be split in two, and parcels wait at the door. By the third day of the rush a slip has gone missing and nobody knows which table it was.
In the hot months the pakhala hour needs its own board
In the hot months a plate of pakhala with fried fish and badi chura sells all afternoon, and the board by the counter was painted for rice and dalma. A customer asks what the pakhala costs with one more piece of fish, and the cook calls out a rate across the kitchen, a different one each time. The plate goes out, and the bill is whatever was shouted.
The evening line, paid in coins, notes and UPI
When the evening crowd comes for dahi bara and a plate of kakara pitha, they eat standing and pay in coins, notes or UPI, and most want to leave quickly. You take the money, remember the dish and hope the drawer matches the plates that went. At closing the cash is a few notes short and the QR payments are on a different phone.
From the table that adds a dish to the evening queue for dahi bara
Pakhala with one more piece of fish, and the parcel at the door
A guest at the table wants pakhala with one more piece of fried fish. The plate and the extra piece are two lines, and the total follows. Another stands at the door for a parcel. His bill is made while the box is being closed, and he is gone before the line behind him has moved.
Which of dahi bara, kakara pitha and snack mix the evening line wants first
In the evening the line for dahi bara is long, and kakara pitha and the bowl of snack mix are what the people behind it ask for next. Make each its own item, and at night you see which of the three the line wanted first.
The three o'clock count tells you what to cook for the evening
Keep rice in kilos and dalma in plates as items. By three the phone shows the kilos of rice that went and the plates of dalma, so the evening's pot of dalma is sized from the plates and the rice from the kilos.
Prawns, puja crowds and leaf plates: where Odisha's kitchens look for supplies
An Odisha kitchen buys from its own district and its neighbours. A few places, and what they are known for.
- Balasore district has been declared Odisha's production and processing cluster for scampi, the freshwater prawn.
- Cuttack is home to silver filigree, and its craftsmen get business from the city's Durga Puja, which had 165 puja committees in 2019.
- Sal and siali leaf plates are a main trade in Mayurbhanj, and Betanati in the district is one of Odisha's two main leaf plate trade centres (2008 report).
Questions Odisha restaurant and hotel owners ask
A table of eight pilgrims wants the bill split into two. How do I do that?
Make two bills from the same table. Put the dishes of the first four on one and the rest on the other, and each bill has its own total to pay.
In the Puri winter season the pilgrims eat fish and my count runs out early. How do I decide how many to fry tomorrow?
Read the last few days of the fish item in the daily report. The days the count reached zero tell you how many more pieces to fry, and you start tomorrow with that number.
Pakhala sells only in the hot months. Can I take it off the menu and put it back later?
Yes. Items can be added and taken off whenever you like. The bills already made keep the dish, and when the heat comes back you put it on again with its rate.
A pilgrim family wants one plate of dahi bara packed for the road. Is that a separate item from the plate eaten here?
Yes, when its rate differs. Make the packed plate its own item, so the plate eaten at the table and the plate carried away show apart in the evening count.
Puri's hotels and the food trucks of Khao Gali
Puri has 759 hotels including Konark and Satpada, according to the Puri District Tourism Office. ETV Bharat reports that 70,000 tourists visit the town every day.
Khao Gali near Ram Mandir in Bhubaneswar has over 30 food trucks. It was named a Clean Street Food Hub by FSSAI, and it draws crowds in the evening.