We have been Haldiram customers for more than a decade now. The food was very good, though not exceptional, and restaurants were family friendly. However, we really liked it because of consistency in quality, serving portions etc. In India, it is tough to guarantee that you will like the food of a restaurant and will get enough as per your needs. Food quality, portion sizes and service levels vary dramatically depending on many factors. As customers generally accept this, there is hardly any incentive on part of the restaurants to maintain a certain standard.
Haldiram was a welcome exception to this. They standardized their food quality, portions, service quality, decor etc. You knew that a certain level of experience was guaranteed when you went in there.
Sadly, this no longer seems to be the case. Over past 3-4 months, we have been regularly observing a dramatic decline in food quality and portions. This has occurred on weekdays-weekends, breakfast-lunch-dinner and across multiple restaurants. This has led us to the conclusion that there has been a deliberate reduction from earlier standards. even now HR restaurants are consistent, but to a lower standard.
Some easily noticeable things are:
Food quality has gone down. We have seen this across the menu - thalis, grilled items, South Indian food, chaats, pizzas and Chinese items. However, quality of sweets still seems to be the same. We rarely try their ice-creams and kulfis etc.
Cutlery is always see-through plastic now. This reduces the portions as well as makes eating more cumbersome and less enjoyable. It is painful to see some patrons struggle with plastic cutlery while eating vadas, noodles etc.
There is considerable reluctance on part of service staff to provide adequate portions, even when asked to do so. I have observed customers arguing with service staff on this. Once, when requested, the service person was able to more than double my portion of sambhar. The question is, why was so it less to start with?
Nowadays, we almost always decide on Bikanerwala which has maintained its standards. Haldiram, sadly, is becoming less of an option with each day.