Amit Bagga on Recreating 1947, Competing in Delhi, and and the Birth of Daryaganj 

From collecting restaurant clippings at 16 to co-founding one of Delhi’s most loved North Indian brands, Amit Bagga’s journey is about resilience, reinvention, and staying true to authentic flavours. He shares how early plans failed, lessons from setbacks, and the origin of Daryaganj, the brand bringing back butter chicken and dal makhani in their purest form along with practical insights on running a successful restaurant.

We heard that at just 16, you began making a scrapbook of restaurant industry articles from the Economic Times. What inspired that, and how did it shape your journey?

Amit Bagga: I’ve always been a foodie, and at 16, I started subscribing to the Economic Times, cutting out every restaurant or hotel article I found. Over time, I built a scrapbook with hundreds of clippings, which gave me early insight into the industry and made me determined to open a restaurant. After school, I convinced my family to back a South Delhi location, but in 2001, property sealing and soaring rents killed the plan, and I was heartbroken.

I shifted to launching salons instead, until a chance meeting with a restaurateur friend in Khan Market pulled me back in. Initially, I refused, determined never to enter the restaurant business. But soon realized I loved building restaurants from scratch and that’s how my first venture, Boombox Cafe, was born. Followed by OTB in Hauz Khas Village. Both did really well. The numbers were crazy back then.

That must have felt like a great start. What came next?

Amit Bagga: It did, and I decided to scale with food-based concepts, believing they were more sustainable than bar-focused businesses. I launched three new brands: Farsi (Middle Eastern shawarma), Desia (Indian street food), and Makina (Mexican); all in Hauz Khas Village. That was my biggest mistake. I put all my eggs in one basket, in a market that was unregulated and facing infrastructure issues. Then, Farsi’s license got rejected due to “traffic congestion.” Slowly, the market declined, and all three shut within months.

So it wasn’t just the new ventures, even OTB suffered?

Amit Bagga: Exactly. With Hauz Khas dying, OTB also had to close. I sold other restaurants to cover debts. By 2015–16, from having six to seven restaurants, I had none. People, including relatives, wrote me off, saying my career was finished.

Looking back, what were your key learnings from that phase?

Amit Bagga: Three main ones:

1. Don’t open all your brands in one market, it’s too risky.
2. Pick the right first location, even a great concept will fail if the location is wrong.
3. Focus on food-based concepts for longevity, bars and cafés have low loyalty; food brands can last decades.

Also, I realised a brand should have a strong story.

What inspired Daryaganj, and how did you turn that legacy into a brand?

Amit Bagga: The idea came when my childhood friend Raghav Jaggi shared how his grandfather, Mr. Kundan Lal Jaggi, co-invented butter chicken and dal makhani in 1947 at his restaurant in Daryaganj after migrating from Peshawar. These dishes define Indian cuisine globally, but little-known origin. 

In 2017, I met Mr. Jaggi, recorded his stories, and learned about the original techniques and ingredients. Demand was so high back then they even owned a poultry farm, with inflation-adjusted revenues of ₹7–8 crores a month. Sadly, he passed away before we opened, but with his blessings, we launched the first Daryaganj in April 2019 to honour that legacy.

When you launched Daryaganj in 2019, how was the response to the first restaurant?

Amit Bagga: Six months before opening, I began food trials using inputs from Mr. Kundan Lal Jaggi on how dishes were made in 1947. With no written recipes, I reconstructed them from family memories, removed modern gadgets like mixer grinders, and even hand-churned butter. I wanted the team to imagine cooking in 1947, using only the equipment and ingredients of that time. 

During chef hiring, I’d ask how they made butter chicken or dal makhani. They’d list 18 ingredients. I’d tell them to remove 10. They’d be shocked, but my point was simple; over decades, chefs have overcomplicated Indian food. The best results come from fewer, high-quality ingredients and authentic techniques.

You decided to launch a classic North Indian brand in Delhi, the most competitive butter chicken and dal makhani market in the world?

Amit Bagga: Exactly. Many people told me it was a mistake, that the future was in fusion or modern Indian concepts. But I felt classic North Indian cuisine was no longer being served properly. Delhi has North Indian restaurants on every corner, but only about 1% serve the kind of quality I envisioned. I took it as a challenge, if we can prove ourselves in Delhi, we can succeed anywhere.

That’s counterintuitive, entering the most competitive space. But according to you, how is Daryaganj positioned, and what makes the experience unique?

Amit Bagga: We position Daryaganj as serving comfort North Indian food at reasonable prices, with great value and a contemporary yet nostalgic setting. But it’s more than food, we design the experience around all five senses. 

• Sight: relaxed premium interiors with brick walls, retro accents, and warm lighting.
• Touch: comfortable seating, earthy table surfaces, brass bowls for butter chicken, bone china plates for mains. 
• Smell: a signature fragrance blending a contemporary note with an Indian flower, refined over 100 iterations. 
• Sound: 300–400 soulful, unplugged classics by new-age artists to connect with all generations. 
• Taste: light yet flavourful food by returning to authentic techniques and simplifying recipes.

Let’s break down the unit economics of a Daryaganj store.

Amit Bagga: For most restaurants, there are three big costs: COGS (food & beverage cost), manpower, and rent.

• COGS – We’ve brought this down to 28% through menu engineering.
• Manpower – Salaries plus statutory compliances and service charge cost us about 15–17%.
• Rent – Capped at 15% of sales.

On top of that:

• Utilities – 2–3%
• Aggregator & booking commissions – 4–5% (Zomato, Swiggy, Easy Diner, Dineout)
• Marketing – Only 1–1.5%, max 2% including digital spends.

We focus heavily on word-of-mouth marketing, channelling resources into customer experience instead of ad spend.

So you spend far less on marketing than most brands?

Amit Bagga: Yes. We believe the best marketing is a happy customer. We are extremely customer-obsessed, every review from every platform is pulled into one dashboard daily. We run sentiment analysis to identify trends, and our customer experience head personally monitors them.

If a negative review comes in, it triggers an immediate ticket to the outlet manager. The manager must answer three things:

1. Why did it happen?
2. How will you prevent it in the future?
3. What’s the resolution for the guest?

If a young aspiring restaurateur walked in today with ₹2 crore and said, “I want to open a restaurant,” what would you tell them?

Amit Bagga: First, don’t enter this industry if you think it’s glamorous, it’s one of the toughest businesses. You work when everyone else is celebrating: New Year’s Eve, festivals, family occasions.

Second, don’t get in just for money. As Steve Jobs said, only passion will make you persevere through challenges. In restaurants, you need 99.99% things to go right every single day. Without passion, you won’t survive.

Third, gain hands-on experience. Work for a restaurateur, or at least spend time in a live restaurant environment. I even offer, if you want to enter this business, come spend a week with me at Daryaganj and see what it’s really like. You’ll quickly realise it’s not as easy as it looks.

Conclusion

Amit Bagga’s journey shows that great brands need more than good food, they thrive on passion, precision, and a focus on customer experience. By reviving 1947 recipes and creating a five-senses dining experience, Daryaganj honours culinary heritage while building a sustainable growth model. His story reminds aspiring restaurateurs that with vision, discipline, and heart, challenges can become a lasting legacy.