Representative photo
Bhubaneswar: Popular restaurants, cafés and mid-range hotels across the city have begun rolling out “temporary menus” with revised prices, citing an acute shortage of LPG triggered by the escalating West Asia conflict.The crisis, which has already disrupted street-food hubs and small eateries, has now begun reshaping the city’s mainstream food and hospitality sector. The restaurant owners have clearly mentioned in the card— “Temporary menu for LPG outage”.
According to restaurant owners, the prices of several dishes have been hiked by 30% to 40%, while many non-essential or low-demand items have been dropped from menus to minimise cooking fuel usage.Only high-demand signature dishes are being retained at most outlets to keep kitchens functional with limited LPG stock. “This is really a difficult situation we are dealing with in decades,” said Md Alam Ali, a popular restaurant manager at Master Canteen.The crunch has also forced several popular restaurants to suspend online delivery services, a move that has left both food lovers and gig-economy workers upset. Delivery executives say their earnings have dipped sharply over the past week as fewer orders are being accepted by partner restaurants.To stay afloat, some eateries have switched to makeshift strategies, which is precooking items and storing them before reheating in electric ovens at the time of delivery or dine-in. Owners admit this is not ideal, but say the situation has given them little choice.“We are getting only a fraction of our usual LPG supply. We had no option but to revise prices and trim the menu,” said Partha Mohapatra, manager of a popular chain restaurant in Jayadev Vihar.Biswas Jena, a café owner in Patia, added that they had to shut down online delivery because they cannot keep up with unpredictable cooking timelines. “People are frustrated, and so are we, but we are helpless,” he said.Customers, too, are feeling the pinch as their favourite dishes disappear from menus or arrive at higher prices. “Almost every place we went to today had changed menus pasted on the wall. Items were fewer, and everything was costlier,” said Ananya Pasayat, a college student.Gig workers say the sudden drop in delivery orders has hit them hard. “My daily income has fallen by at least 40%. Many restaurants are simply not taking online orders,” said Rakesh, a food delivery executive near Saheed Nagar.With the West Asia conflict showing no signs of easing, the LPG supply situation remains uncertain, and restaurateurs fear they may have to further restrict operations if the shortage continues. For now, Bhubaneswar’s food scene — from budget eateries to mid-level hotels — is bracing for a prolonged disruption, sources said.
