Pune Times - Restaurant Waiting Queues

he ! he!! its kindda spooky .. the very thing i mentioned in a few of my posts actually made it to Newspapers. !

here's a clip from TOI today.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Pune/Waiting_to_eat_in_Pune/articleshow/1986274.cms

The Waiting Game

Serpentine queues outside restaurants in the city have become very common on weekends and even on weekdays. How do Puneites deal with the situation? PT finds out.
It's a really tricky situation. You go to your favourite restaurant with your family or girlfriend, only to find that there is no place to sit. You have to wait for your turn to come. And in some cases, the wait can be really long. Yes, this is a new trend in Pune's culinary culture. Most of the top restaurants in the city are absolutely full on weekends and even some part of the weekdays, compelling you to wait! Because of parking woes in the city on the rise, the problem is greater.

Rajan Ghai can't remember one instance in the last six months when he could find a place in a restaurant on weekends. "Invariably, I have to wait for about half an hour. There is no point in going to some other place because the traffic and the corresponding waiting there will just add up to the same," says Ghai. For some people, clubbing is passe and they would rather go for a quiet dinner with their better half. "But you never seem to get a place instantly. Mostly, we roam around the malls adjacent to the restaurant to kill time. Sometimes the clock just doesn't move. At other times, we completely lose track of time...only to wait again!" says Ketan Agrawal. Restaurants agree that tables are almost full on weekends.
"Pune has always had a great eating out culture. It is only increasing," says Sunil Chandani of Nawab. Cookie Singh of Toscana feels that the solution to this problem is to make prior reservations and come. "That is a better way and saves time," he says.

But it is not something everyone agrees with. Ankita Mehta says, "One mostly makes plans at the eleventh hour, so it becomes difficult to make reservations then. And, when you want to do booking just before coming, mostly it is very late," she says. Her friend Sandip Agrawal seems to have found a way out. "I just pick up some pizzas and diet coke, sit in the car and enjoy. Who is going to take so much effort in waiting? Even my friends enjoy," he says.
Well, not a bad idea!

Well, am happy to note that I am not the only one that feels that eating out on a weekend, in Pune, is fast becoming a torture rather than an adventure.