The author's definition of courtesy is very different from mine. When I am dining out, here are my expectations:
1. Let me settle down. Do not shove the menu in my face as soon as I put my behind on the chair.
2. Do not hover around my table after you have handed me the menu. It's not rocket science to watch from a distance and see if I am ready to place an order.
3. Bring food in proper order. Do I need to tell you that you don't bring the soup, appetizer, main course and dessert all at once?
4. In between the meal, if you feel the need to interrupt me to ask "do you need something else", do not just barge in. Wait for a pause in conversation, and approach from where I can see you coming. If I am in midst of the conversation, and you teleport behind me, and all of a sudden I hear "do you need something else", that's bad customer service.
These aren't the things you can expect from Sarvana Bhavan. My experience is you get in, there is a huge crowd most of the times, you try to get the attention of a roaming wait staff to get a seat, the seating is too compact and all expectations of reasonable privacy are null and void, the wait staff will hand you the menu as soon as you sit down and many a times just wait there while you go through the menu. Most of the times, you get your appetizers and main course together(speedy service, eh). Once you are done with the meal, the check magically appears - the restaurant is eager to get rid of you.
Bottomline - visit if you are hungry and looking for someplace to stuff something in your face and get out, or you have heard a lot about the place and want to try it. Any other expectations won't be met.
Disclaimer: I was in Chennai for 4 years, and left about 5 years back. Things might have changed since I left, though I won't bet on it.
1. You find the first empty table around and sit. No one takes you to your table. Sometimes, you even share the table with another person if you are there without family. Many don't mind unless they are there with friends and want some private conversations (but then, the Indian restaurants are not the right place for this)
2. The menu is on the table or stuck on the wall. Most times, there are no menu. Someone comes to you and recite the whole list of available items.
3. Soup, appetizer ?? That is not part of the South Indian menu. If you order meals, you get all in one plate.
4. If you need something, you call the waiter nearest you. If required - shout or whistle. No one would mind you doing so.
The places are often crowded specially during lunch and dinner time. If you need some calm place, you have to go to upscale restaurants.
EDIT - As someone below said, you are not their target customer.
Just to add to your last statement about internet companies being relatively bribe free, I've heard pieces (rumours) from well places influential people in the government that this is changing fast too.
Allegedly, the recent court cases against Google and Facebook asking them to block content was an attempt to get them to fork over some money.
Also, the recent banning of websites of companies like dailymotion and vimeo was our not so clean judicial system at work.
While you make a good point, I have to that guy and ask for some sort of a citation on this. I've lived in Chennai for 5 years and never heard anything of the sort. (that Saravana Stores is part of the Karunanidhi empire)
Or else, we're headed towards calling some random car wash a start-up.
What makes these two chains stand out? Do they, really? How would one prove their success isn't random or fueled by some other factor?
Why is this article on the front page of HN?
These are privately owned companies. The author does not even quote sources for the billion rupee "turnover".
That all said it gets down to the old issues - does it work then why change it. If you have a process that works then however unstructured it is nomatter how you define structure it stilll works. Could it work better, maybe, maybe not.
Also saying something is unstructured is a viewpoint maybe not shared by those in such a company. For them that would be the normal way of doing business so for some it may be unstructured and for others closer to home it is the culture.
If every country looked at a problem the same, it would be rather boring though peacful. One mans idea of structure is another mans idea of extra uneeded overheads and work.
Bottom line if there happy or in business fiscaly sound then nomatter how they work, if there happy then so be it.
Edited to include source: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=1+billion+rupees+to+dol...
