Daryaganj Hospitality aims to more than triple restaurant count to 50 by FY30

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The company has earmarked ₹60 crore for the expansion, which will be funded through a mix of internal accruals and private investments from family offices. “We’re profitable since the pandemic and could fund our growth internally as well, and will focus on the top eight cities in India to grow for now," Bagga told Mint.

In FY25, the company registered a gross revenue of ₹100 crore. “We expect to grow to ₹120 crore by the end of FY26 on the back of both same-store growth as well as some new outlets being added," he said.

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"Cuisine wise, the country's biggest eating-out cuisine is north Indian food and we wanted to primarily build restaurants which target families and wanted to go after the middle-of-the-range price point of ₹800-900 per person, which is a sweet spot where we did not see much competition," Bagga said. So far, the company is bootstrapped and self-funded. "We are now looking at funding from family offices," he said. The company's founder and promoter is Raghav Jaggi and all restaurants are owned and operated by the company and not franchised.

By the end of the FY26, the company intends to increase its restaurant count to 20, including a few delivery kitchens, and has a strong presence in north Indian markets like Delhi-NCR. Next, it will target the top eight cites of the country to grow, including Mumbai and Bengaluru.

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The growth push comes even as Daryaganj remains locked in a legal battle with Moti Mahal over who owns the rights to inventing popular dishes like butter chicken and dal makhani.

Owners of Daryaganj have contended that their ancestor, Kundan Lal Jaggi, was key to the founding of the original Moti Mahal in Peshawar in 1947 and also in the creation of the butter chicken recipe. Moti Mahal counters that by saying that its late founder, Kundan Lal Gujral, invented the dish and brought it to India from Peshawar post-Partition, and has filed a case against Daryaganj, alleging trademark infringement, passing off, and using a manipulated photograph of the original Peshawar restaurant. Daryaganj has emphasized that the photograph used by Moti Mahal is a joint property, as the restaurant was established by both Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi.

Daryaganj registered the "Inventors of Butter Chicken & Dal Makhani" tagline as a trademark in 2023 without any objections. The matter is currently before the Delhi high court.

Moti Mahal in Daryaganj, Delhi, was founded by Kundan Lal Gujral, Thakur Das Magu and Kundan Lal Jaggi. In 1992, all three partners of the Moti Mahal business exited and sold the business to a fourth person Vinod Chadha. Since the early 1990s, Chadha has overseen this restaurant.

The overall food services market is projected to grow from ₹5.69 trillion in 2024 to ₹7.76 trillion by 2028, expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 8.1%, according to a July 2024 report by the National Restaurant Association of India.

In FY24, casual dining, the segment Daryaganj operates in, held the largest share in the organized food segment, accounting for 48.6%.

Today, about 25% of the company's business comes from deliveries. "We pivoted to deliveries during covid, but have still seen a consistent demand in business in this segment. Delivery has eaten into the home cooking segment, but not the dining-out segment, so we don't feel there is any cannibalization," said Bagga. Earlier this year, the company also expanded to its first international location, in Bangkok, Thailand with a higher end, more modern restaurant version of Daryaganj Gold, with some modern fusion dishes. It also plans to enter other markets like the UK and the UAE.

In future, it intends to add other divisions like fast casual dining in elevated or premium food courts as well as in the artisanal Indian sweets. It would also consider taking its Bangkok Gold concept to other five-star hotel locations in India as well.