Nirula’s is India’s oldest fast food restaurant chain. Based in North India and most popular in the NCR Delhi, it was Delhi’s first fast food restaurant, opening in Connaught Place in 1977. Today it has over 70 outlets in NCR Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh states, offering a “Desi” version of Western fast food items.
Nirula’s success has led them to branch out into other ventures which include, ‘Potpourri’, an Indian cuisine, casual dining restaurant chain; ‘Nirula’s 21’, ice cream parlour chain, in addition to pastry shops and two hotels in Noida and Panipat. Recently Nirula’s opened its first franchise in Patna, their first outlet in the entire east zone.
The chain traces its origins to “Hotel India”, which opened at the L-Block in Connaught Place (CP), New Delhi in 1934, by “Nirula Brothers”, L.C. and M. Nirula; it had 12 rooms, a restaurant and a bar. In 1940, on request of the Indian Coffee Board, they opened the Indian Coffee Shop in Janpath introducing espresso coffee, which became an instant success. Soon afterwards they launched two theme restaurants —‘La Boheme’, a Hungarian restaurant; and ‘Gufa’, an Indian restaurant. In the 1950s, the ‘Chinese Room’ was opened, the oldest Chinese restaurant in Delhi. It is still on its original premises.
The 1970s saw Nirula’s venturing into the fast food business with the opening of what became Delhi’s first fast food restaurant in 1977, to which was later added: a pastry shop, snack bar, hot shoppe, and an ice cream parlour. A subsequent addition was the adjacent, waiter-served “Potpourri” salad bar. By that time Nirula’s was already a CP landmark, offering Western fast food such as burgers, pizzas, and submarines, plus an ice cream parlour offering 21 flavours.
