Restaurants may pass on burden to customers

''We can't change our prices at the drop of a hat. Raising price is a very serious thing.

Our restaurants are mostly frequented by the Bengali middle class which has a budget.

So we decided not to increase prices. We want to retain the goodwill,'' Nitin Shivji Kothari,  who runs Mocambo and Peter Cat restaurants on Park Street .     

Although most of the well-known eateries tried to absorb the price hike, they said that if the inflation continued to rise they would have no choice but to go for increase in the prices.     

S K Khullar, president of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (Eastern region) said that the Association has asked its members to wait for a month to observe the situation.     

Khullar, also managing director of Amber Restaurant, said that they had not yet gone for any price increase.     

A few like 'Mishra's however opted for moderate price hike to cope with the situation.     
''Prices of everything including vegetables, chicken, mutton have gone up. Apart from this, an industrial LPG cylinder used by us now costs Rs 1,071. We have to spend about 70,000 to 80,000 in a month on fuel alone. It is not possible to absorb the entire cost'', Rajesh Mishra, who runs Mishras resaturant in Salt Lake said.