Rohit Khattar calls himself an anxious restaurateur. He is constantly on the lookout for new ideas or things that can be improved. But there is a slowness to how he speaks.
“I am very wired. My mind is always working,” he says in an interview with Esquire. Earlier, my secretaries used to get dictaphones from me (with notes and instructions). My daughter recently taught me how I can record voice notes on WhatsApp. I have a thought every few minutes. I just put them up in our office groups,” adds Khattar, 61, founder-chairman of Old World Hospitality, which owns Chor Bizarre and a host of other restaurants.
‘Modern meets old-school’ is a theme that also reflects in his restaurant Chor Bizarre, which has reopened again in Delhi at its original location -- the iconic Hotel Broadway -- and completes 35 years in 2025.
I had first seen Chor Bizarre from across the street on Asaf Ali Road as a teenager. Next to the signage of Hotel Broadway, the same building in which the restaurant is located, and Thugs, a retro themed bar. It was – for someone growing up at the edge of old Delhi – the stuff of yore. What would it look like from the inside, I’d ask myself.
As I found out recently, Chor Bizarre’s old-world charm is stronger than ever. We are seated at a table closest to the window that divides the noise from old Delhi’s afternoon traffic and Bollywood hits from the 80s and 90s that are playing inside. There are a few other patrons in the restaurant apart from us.
Close to the bar, a vintage 1927 Fiat car, which houses the famous Chor Bizarre chaat mobile, adds a grand finishing touch to the interiors. Khattar looked high and low across India to find the Fiat but found it at a petrol filling station down the road from the restaurant’s current location at Asaf Ali Road. “It was just kismet (fate),” Khattar says.
Many of the items inside the restaurant – from old furniture to vintage posters and signs – have been sourced by Khattar and his wife, Rashmi, who is also the group’s design director. Things like the 4-poster bed, transformed into a dining table, are from chor bazaars in Mumbai and Kolkata.
Beginning with Chor Bizarre in 1990, Old World Hospitality started Indian Accent (which recently completed 15 years), Comorin, All American Diner, Oriental Octopus, Delhi ‘O’ Delhi, Past Times, Eatopia and many more. Most of these restaurant brands have now been moved into a new group company, EHV International which now owns and operates Indian Accent, New Delhi, Mumbai & New York, Comorin, Gurugram, Hosa and Fireback in Goa, and Koloman in New York.
But Chor Bizarre, Khattar says, is like a “remnant of a different era”, competing against some of the other old restaurants in Connaught Place and nearby areas.
Khattar’s exploits in the hospitality industry are well known. He doesn’t do too many interviews. But sitting with him at this point of his career turns out to be a great chance to know more about the man behind the restaurateur.
For instance, he has plenty of memories – both books and food related – of growing up in this part of Old Delhi with his grandfather Tirath Ram Amla, who built Hotel Broadway at this location in 1956. Khattar would swear by the club sandwich, chicken a la Kiev from the hotel’s kitchen. “I remember going down to puraani Dilli to get kebabs and tikkas. I would also spend time trying to find comics at the Sunday book market. You would find all the Enid Blytons of the world there,” Khattar recalls.
The menu at Chor Bizarre is exhaustive. We opt to start with palak patta chaat, the ghazab ka tikka and some other non-vegetarian appetizers. This is followed by a small helping of tarami – Seekh Kabab, Tabak Maaz, Goshtaba, Chicken Roganjosh, Aloo Bukhara Korma, Nadroo Yakhni, Haaq, Nadroo Choorma.
Some south Indian delicacies also find their place in the restaurant’s menu now – be it the Malabar prawn curry or palakura pappu (yellow lentils made with spinach and tamarind). “The restaurant’s tagline says India’s restaurant. But we are typically known for our Kashmiri food. This time I told the chef we should include some more south Indian dishes, like the jackfruit moilee,” says Khattar.
As we take a quick tour of the restaurant after the interview, it’s hard not to spot Khattar’s attention to detail even after all these years. While looking at the chaat mobile, he spots that one of the food placard says pani puri and not gol gappe, since this is Delhi and not Mumbai. He asks his staff to get this fixed right away.
Khattar also loves eating out but is on a strict diet now. “Peanuts are a big weakness. Keep a bowl of peanuts in front of me and they will be gone in a matter of minutes.”
He used to read a lot of books but now spends a lot of time watching movies. “That’s my guilty pleasure. I hadn’t seen anything on OTT before the pandemic lockdowns,” he adds. “We are in a creative industry. In my industry, work -life balance is tough to find,” he says. “If you are heading the company, it’s difficult.”
Khattar is expanding his work. People might see more Chor Bizarres popping up at different locations. But what keeps him going after so many years in the hospitality industry? “I have never really done it for the money part. Of course, you must be successful as a restaurateur. But just good food is not enough,” Khattar adds. “It’s the quest (that keeps me going). I love the conception of a restaurant. I am not that thrilled about it. But just walking into an empty space, being able to conjure how this place is going to look eventually and how a guest is going to experience it… That drives me and I feel excited about that.”
With Chor Bizarre now open and an expansion spree on the horizon, it's normal service, as usual, for Rohit Khattar.