Second time’s the charm: Nasi And Mee relaunches breakfast club in Bengaluru

In India, breakfast is an occasion in itself. And, it differs from region to region—Southern India has its crispy dosas and fluffy idlis; the Gujaratis have their fried snacks and jalebis; Punjabis love their paranthas, and Bengal takes pride in its luchi and ghugni. 

While Indians have embraced other breakfast options like bread omelette, Southeast Asian breakfast has largely remained underrepresented on the Indian breakfast table. 

Now, as travel to Southeast Asia has become affordable, Indians are being more experimental with their food and they want their culinary experiences abroad to be replicated closer home. This has led to the advent of Southeast Asian breakfast clubs and café. 

To tap into this growing demand, Asian eatery joint Nasi And Mee has re-launched its Shiok! Breakfast Club. 

Interestingly, the chain of restaurants had first introduced its Asian-inspired breakfast at its first outlet in Bengaluru’s Koramangala as early as 2017. Despite good initial feedback, Nasi And Mee had to stop its breakfast menu after a couple of weeks. 

“Back in the days, our competition in Koramangala was with English breakfast places like Whole in the Wall, and 154 Breakfast Club…This time around we know that there is already an acceptance for Asian-inspired breakfasts and that’s already our forte,” says Sreepathy Palliath, Marketing Manager at Foodsta Kitchens. 

Agrees Dilip Krishnan, Co-founder and CEO India of Foodsta Kitchens, the Singapore-headquartered parent company of Nasi and Mee. He adds: “Customers' taste has evolved…COVID-19 has really accelerated that. The average Indian consumer travelled quite a bit the last few years and they consumed a lot of content about food, and that changed their perspective.” 

Unique offerings 

Founded by Ravi Nahappan, Foodsta Kitchens was already in the F&B business with brands like Alt Pizza, Green Monster, Bloom, ABC, Fat Mario and CJ Fried Chicken.

In an attempt to bring a taste of his home in Singapore back to his roots in India, Nahappan launched Nasi and Mee in Bengaluru in 2015. The Bengaluru launch was followed by expansion to Chennai and Kochi. The brand opened an outlet in Mumbai as well, but gradually shut shop there after the pandemic. 

Every Nasi and Mee—five in Bengaluru, two in Chennai and one in Kochi—feature a unique concept or culinary experience. The first outlet in Koramangala is designed like a canteen, while the Manyata Tech Park outlet features a live sushi bar, along with a seven-course Omakase experience. 

The restaurant chain recently celebrated its tenth anniversary with the launch of its flagship outlet in Convent Road, Bengaluru. The new outlet, while also featuring the live sushi bar, offers Asian-inspired breakfast. 

Built like a glasshouse, the ‘Underwater Grotto’ themed space, hand painted by artists Fabrice and Valentine of Blaise Murals, creates a backdrop of water bodies dotted around Southeast Asia for lazy weekend breakfasts. 

“In Central Bengaluru, people tend to go out for late breakfasts on weekends, and with all the natural light coming in, breakfast was a no-brainer,” says Sreepathy. 

Bengaluru has recently seen an increasing appetite for Southeast Asian breakfasts. Kopitiam Lah, India’s first Malaysian eatery and coffee shop opened in Bengaluru earlier last year. This was followed by social club Muro launching its breakfast club, hinting towards consumers’ interest in breakfasts that are beyond the usual. 

Building the menu

The menu at the Shiok! (a Singaporean expression meaning excitement) Breakfast Club at Nasi And Mee at Canteen Road is not heavily Asian, but very Asian-inspired. 

No Southeast Asian breakfast is complete without a kaya or coconut jam, and butter toast, and Nasi And Mee takes it seriously. The restaurant has also introduced a matcha-infused Fren-Cha toast. The restaurant imports its culinary-grade matcha from a Malaysian supplier. 

“Building from the toasts, we wanted to incorporate eggs, an important element of breakfasts…We had Tom Yum Benedict back in the days (2017), but did not want to recreate the same thing,” says Sreepathy. This time around, the menu features a XO chilli Benedict, available in three variants—avocado, salmon and chicken ham. 

“We wanted to push the fact that we have really good and fresh ingredients. We buy the entire salmon and process it on a weekly basis…It then goes into our sushi and the Benedict,” explains Sreepathy. 

“It was only after running the breakfast club for two to three weeks that we realised that we needed to add a lot more Asian elements into the menu,” Sreepathy adds. 

The revised menu now includes Southeast Asian classics—the Singaporean Mee Laksa or spice flat rice noodle soup; and Bao ‘Dang, a version of the roti-curry made from scallion bao pancakes, served with mock-meat, chicken or lamb rendang. 

“On the week that we launched laksa, we sold about 12 to 15 bowls of it!” he adds. 

The Besar or big breakfast comprises a platter featuring eggs, mock meat rendang (coconut milk-stewed meat curry), Asian hash browns (made from turnips and carrots), sliced Hass avocado, smoked chicken sausages and toasted Hokkaido milk bread—an Asian-version of the breakfast of champions. 

The Dim Sums feature a mushroom and water chestnut version, a chicken and prawn sui mai, prawn har gao and lamb baos. 

The beverage menu has the popular Singaporean Kopi or coffee, and Malaysian Milo, along with a few smoothies, iced teas and juices. 

Business expansion

Much like the salmon, Nasi And Mee ensures quality by making its ramen in-house too, in its warehouse in Bengaluru. “We launched ramen two years ago as a limited time offering, but since it did phenomenally well, we made it a part of the menu,” says Dilip. 

Backed by substantial sales—ramen now makes up to 7% of the total revenue—Foodsta Kitchen plans to open a new affordable format dedicated to just ramens, in Bengaluru around July. The company is also working on a bubble tea format that it plans to launch soon.

Besides that, the brand Nasi and Mee is now looking to venture into Coimbatore and Hyderabad. Why the focus on Southern India? “Mumbai and Delhi already have existing Asian restaurants and brands. We view that wherever we are operating, we need to be number one or two, that’s another way we stay relevant. So instead of spreading us thin, we want to double down on the markets that we have,” Dilip adds. 

Shiok! Breakfast Club timings: Friday to Sunday, 8 30 AM to 11 30 AM 

Cost: Rs 290 upwards