With new commercial hot spots, Noida registers boom in dine-out options

From quirky cafes to fine dining restaurants, the twin cities of Noida and Greater Noida have been witnessing a surge in number of eateries setting up shop to cater to the ever-expanding customer base in these cities.

From just 332 restaurant licences issued by the Gautam Budh Nagar’s food safety administration (FSA) in 2019, the number has increased to 708 in 2023, shows data available with the district administration.

According to Archana Dheeran, designated officer, FSA, over 10 new applications for restaurant licences are coming in every month.

“There has been a surge in the number of restaurants opening in Noida and Greater Noida since the past one year. During the pandemic, in fiscal 2020-2021, the number of applications had dipped, but now the number has picked up once again,” said the official.

According to district data, in fiscal 2018-19, 332 restaurant licences were issued, 334 in 2019-20, 240 in 2020-21, 497 in 2021-22 and 708 in 2022-23.

Additional district magistrate Nitin Madan, who is in charge of FSA, said the reason for the uptick in restaurants can also be attributed to the simplified licensing norms, which have now been digitised.

“Before 2021, restaurant licences took days to be issued as documents had to be submitted physically. However, now, everything is done online and it barely takes two days for a person to get their licence. Hence, an ease of doing business has also led to an increase in number of restaurants opening shop,” he said.

Be it residents, students, corporate professionals or those staying in nearby cities, people are flocking to Gautam Budh Nagar to try out new gastronomical experiences, says Varun Khera, president of National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI), Noida chapter.

“Noida, Greater Noida poses as an upcoming market for restaurateurs who are looking to open businesses to a new customer base. As more and more people are making the twin cities their home, more people are exploring the dining out landscape in the city, creating more business for restaurateurs,” said Khera, who has been running fine dining restaurant, Desi Vibes, and cafe, Kaffiaa, from the Sector 18 market since the past several years.

Noida and Greater Noida are also preferred base for restauranteurs because of lower rentals compared to Delhi and Gurugram, he added.

“At least 80% of the new restaurants belong to restauranteurs who are just launching their ventures. Hence, Noida seems an apt market because of the lower rental values as compared to Delhi and Gurugram,” said Khera.

Market experts say customers are now exploring spots beyond the Sector 18 and Sector 38A hubs of shopping malls and restaurants.

Several new spots offering a wide variety of eating out options have come up at the commercial complexes in Sectors along the expressway such as sectors 92, 142, 137, 129, 104 in Noida and new malls in Greater Noida West’s Sector 4.

Deepak Kapoor, director, Gulshan Homz, which started a commercial space this March offering well-known franchise restaurants and cafes in Sector 129 along the expressway, said patrons want to explore other parts of the city when it comes to dining out.

“People want to get out of the congested lanes of Sectors 18 and Sector 38A and get a better dining experiences in the plush infrastructure along the expressway. For long, Noida had only one commercial district, but, now, several more are coming up along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway as the demand is also increasing,” said Kapoor.

Several business owners who have successfully established base in Sector 38A have now opened their branches in new commercial spaces along the expressway.

Saurabh Agrawal, founder and chief executive officer, “Rubarru Clubstraunt”, located in Gardens Galleria, opened another branch in Sector 142 in September 2022.

“The Sector 18-38A commercial district can never go down in terms of footfall as it is centrally located and caters to people not just from Noida and Greater Noida, but also from Delhi, Ghaziabad and Faridabad. However, additionally, there is a section of people from the city who like to explore new places and that is why even new commercial hubs are doing well in the city,” said Agrawal.

Yogesh Sharma, owner of “Karigari “restaurant in Sector 51 and Sector 142, adds that compared to previous years, the paying capacity of customers in Noida and Greater Noida seems to have increased, leading to more and more restaurants opening up in these cities.

“The surge in number of restaurants in Noida would not have been possible had these establishments not been doing well. The reason all of them are successful is because the paying capacity of people in Noida and Greater Noida are now on a par with that of people in Gurugram or Delhi. As more people dine out, the hospitality industry also expands,” said Sharma, who owns two clubs in Sector 63 and 32.