Dining mid-air or half-submerged: Bengalureans opt for novelty themes to tingle their taste buds

BENGALURU: Nirmala Balakrishnan opted for an offbeat sundowner party recently. The entrepreneur ‘hung out’ with her friends, quite literally. She dined with them at 160-feet above the ground, strapped and suspended mid-air to a community dining table hooked to a crane. Organised near Manyata Tech Park overlooking Nagawara Lake, the sky-dining experience with music, mocktails and appetisers gave the bunch a thrilling 360-degree view of Bengaluru.

“Dining mid-air took me by surprise. Bengaluru finally has a bucket-list item which makes me feel proud,” says Balakrishnan.

The suspended table accommodates 22 guests who are served by an in-house chef and three stewards. The experience comes at a whopping ?4,000 onwards per head but Bengalureans are not batting an eyelid. The concept dining launched four days ago and all the slots were taken. “We chose this part of the town as it overlooks all the elements – lake, greenery and IT hub – that make Bengaluru,” says Avinash J, managing partner of Fly Dining, who plans to recreate the set-up in CBD too.


Bengaluru’s thirst for novelty in the dining scene is rising and the F&B industry is reciprocating. The IT city is now home to unusual dining experiences where unconventional ambience takes precedence over food.

Take the case of Blindfold in RT Nagar that opened last November. It’s a dark dining pop-up where customers enjoy a guided three-course Indian meal, blindfolded. Owner Kranthi Varma says: “We are an overstimulated generation with short attention span and hooked to phones. The idea behind eating a meal blindfolded is to close the eyes, sit quietly for 30 minutes and engage fully in the flavours of a dining experience.”

Since the eatery is a travelling model, Varma plans to take it to other locations like Kammanahalli and HSR Layout after two months. Varma notes that couples and migrants are primary takers.

To cater to this target group, citybased hotelier Pradeep Gowriraju has launched a concept called submerged dining. He curates a candlelight dinner in the middle of swimming pools at his properties in Yelahanka and Whitefield where guests dine half-submerged. Options to be serenaded by a guitarist, a bachata dance class, a photoshoot or a movie screening while in the pool are added to the package that costs Rs 25,000 onwards.

“Demand for innovative surprises among IT professionals and entrepreneurs has increased. Bengalureans want new and custom-made experiences. Creative experiences help us stand-out in the competitive hospitality market too,” says Gowriraju, founder of Happy Retreats.

The city’s readiness to experiment prompted coffee planter and Coffee Mechanics cofounder Ganga Prabhakar to curate an offbeat sixcourse coffee paired dinner at Supper Club in Domlur recently. Guests were served a Yemeni dish called shafoot with khaskara or coffee cherry tea. An oak barrel-aged coffee made it to the meal too.

“Like wine and single malts, people should learn to judge coffee too,” says Prabhakar, adding, “with such limited recreation options in the city, Bengalureans take to F&B to unwind. It is thus important to innovate experiences in this segment.”