Billing for your restaurant in Tripura
A plate at the table, a packet at the door and a month of office lunches, each on its own bill.
Fish, paddy and plantations: the districts that feed a Tripura kitchen
A kitchen in Tripura cooks with what the fields and the water give. Here are two districts and what their sites say.
- South Tripura's economy rests on agriculture, animal resources and fisheries: paddy, pineapple, jackfruit and banana are grown, with tea gardens, rubber and bamboo plantations.
- In Dhalai district, 76% of workers depend on agriculture; the district site names poor marketing facilities as a reason for backwardness, though NH 44 connects it.
From the plate of hilsa to the parcel that leaves before it cools
The dawn rate for the fish, entered once for the day
The hilsa on the tray was bought at the morning market, and its price moved overnight. Before the first table sits, enter the new rate for the tray's fish once, and every kilo weighed that day is billed at it. The thali on the same table keeps its plate rate, so the table reads two rates on one bill.
The lunch-hour parcel is billed before the lid goes on
At one o'clock the parcel line is longer than the tables. Make the bill as each packet is packed and send it on WhatsApp. If a customer returns saying a roti was missing, the bill shows what was given. The parcel line also stays apart from the dine-in line in the report.
Each office has its page, and the first of the month is a total
Give each office a page of its own and bill every delivery under its name. On the first of the month the page shows ten packets a day added up, and you can send the total. Nobody has to ring the peon, and nobody argues with a slip from a drawer.
Why a Tripura kitchen's price on the wall never matches the fish market's price in the morning
A plate of fish that was fair on Monday costs more than it earns by Thursday
The fish you cook at noon was bought at the morning market, and its price moves from one morning to the next. A plate that earned on Monday is losing by Thursday and nobody has seen it, because the plates were sold and the money went into the box. You find out when the month's money is short, not when the plate is served.
The office parcels and the dining hall leave the same kitchen on different scraps
At one o'clock the office boy takes his packets from the side door while the tables are served at the front. The packets are written on a scrap of their own, and the tables on slips. At closing the scrap is found under the cash box, and the day's meals cannot be told from the day's parcels.
Ten lunch packets for an office, paid at the end of the month
An office near the bazaar sends its peon every day for ten packets and pays on the first of the month. The ten packets are on a slip in a drawer, and the number in your head changes by the week. When the office asks for its total, you ring the peon to ask what he remembers.
What helps a restaurant that cooks to the market's mood and the diner's order
Bills on your phone
A thali by the plate and a hilsa by the kilo on the same table bill, ready before the diner reaches the counter.
Orders to suppliers
The morning's order of fish and vegetables written down, with a note of what actually came in the basket.
Daily reports
Dine-in and parcel lines read side by side at night, to see which item left the kitchen the most.
Online orders
A menu on your own online shop for the office that would rather order than send the peon.
Questions Tripura restaurants and tea shops ask
Visitors ask what Mui Borok is before they order it. What goes on the bill?
The dish's name, the way you say it at the table, with its rate. The visitor reads on the bill the same name you told him, and the same goes for Muya Awandru. What the dish is stays your own answer.
The office changes its list at the door. Which number goes on the bill?
The number handed over. Pick the item and enter the packets that actually leave the door at one o'clock. If the list said more than went, the bill says what went, and the office pays for what it took.
Some of the dawn's fish is not cooked by night. How do I keep it from being counted as sold?
Put the kilos you bought in stock under the fish item. A fish that is weighed and billed takes its kilos off. The fish still in the tray at night is what the stock shows, so it is not counted as sold.
Mui Borok, Muya Awandru and seven lakh visitors: what Agartala's tables serve
Agartala's signature dishes include Mui Borok, a Tripuri dish of fermented fish and bamboo shoots, and Muya Awandru, a bamboo shoot curry cooked with pork. A menu with such dishes carries items that appear nowhere else, and each can be an item of its own with its own rate.
Tripura's Chief Minister said tourist arrivals rose from 5 lakh in 2023-24 to 7 lakh in 2024-25. More visitors means more tables ordering dishes they do not know, and more reason to keep the rates of the menu written down.