“We always wanted to give a very rustic feel to our restaurant. That’s the reason why we chose the name Horn Ok Please and even styled the interiors in such a way as to provide it a rustic, old-world charm, along with a touch of modernity and state-of-the-art service. In fact, as of now, multi-cuisine restaurants are passé and theme-based restaurants are the talk of the town. With a wide range of dishes to choose from, an exotic theme just adds to the flavour of the food and the ambience makes for a great dining experience,” says Aarti Kapadia Rampal, owner of Horn Ok Please.

Seconding this thought is Sanjiv Savaille, corporate manager of The Ship in Kalyani Nagar. “The feel of the restaurant is that of a real ship. In fact, we have imported most of the furniture for the restaurant from an actual ship. The idea was the fusion of good food with pub culture. We modeled the decor on a ship to get the ‘hop on board’ feeling, along with, of course, providing some of the best cuisine available, ranging from Mediterranean to Continental," says Savaille.

Another restaurant that specialises in theme-based dining is Bollywood Masala in Kothrud. Based on a commercial potboiler theme, the restaurant boasts of pictures of actors and actresses all over. “The restaurant was launched in December last year; earlier, it was named Bistro, but we changed its name and styled it on the Bollywood theme because Hindi films are a huge topic of discussion amongst people of all ages. Incidentally, we also have actors visiting our restaurant but we cannot disclose their names. In addition to the food, we also sell movie tickets out here and have Bollywood songs playing all day long,” says Nilesh Jadhav, operations manager.

On the last lap of a trail of theme-based food joints in the city is 11 East Street Cafe in Camp. The place recreates days of red double-decker buses and colonial style lampposts; it transports you to old world London during the time of Charles Dickens. “There is a tar track road which we have created inside the restaurant, with the sides made to look like shops. A fountain nestled amid tables completes the scene. We have made it a point to ensure that whatever is on offer here is top of the lane (literally),” says Imtiaz Shaikh, general manager.