Ordering Jain food at Hinchko
What changes on a Jain thali, what stays the same, and how to ask.
What goes into the price of a ₹420 thali
Where your money goes when the plate keeps getting refilled.
Guests sometimes ask how an unlimited thali can cost ₹420 when a single main course costs as much elsewhere. Here is roughly how it works for us. Ingredients come to about ₹150 a plate on a weekday. The biggest costs are ghee, groundnut oil, flour, dal and fresh vegetables. Most guests eat less than they expect, but a few eat a great deal, and the price has to cover both.
People are the next biggest cost, about ₹120 a plate. We have eight cooks, four rotli makers, two farsan cooks, fourteen servers and three people washing up. Rotlis are rolled to order, which needs hands, and the floor needs enough servers that nobody waits.
Rent, gas, electricity and water come to around ₹60 a plate. Gas alone is significant: our tawas run from 11 am to 11 pm. What is left, about ₹90 before tax, covers repairs, replacing steel plates and bowls, and our margin. GST is included in the menu price, so ₹420 is what you pay.
The Sunday festive thali costs more because it has 31 dishes and two sweets, and the undhiyu and puran poli take hours. The weekday lunch thali is cheaper because it is fixed: no refills except rotli, and fewer dishes.
