Aquila restaurant in Delhi’s upscale Khel Gaon Marg has drawn flak for its ‘no saree’ rule for the patrons. On Monday, Twitter user and journalist Anita Choudhary shared a video where the restaurant manager disallowed her from entering for wearing a saree. As per restaurant’s policy, they have a dress code ‘smart casuals’ and saree is not a ‘smart casual’.
Saree is not allowed in Aquila restaurant as Indian Saree is now not an smart outfit.What is the concrete definition of Smart outfit plz tell me @AmitShah @HardeepSPuri @CPDelhi @NCWIndia
— anita choudhary (@anitachoudhary) September 20, 2021
Please define smart outfit so I will stop wearing saree @PMishra_Journo #lovesaree pic.twitter.com/c9nsXNJOAO
Saree is the Indian traditional attire. A restaurant employee, presumably the manager on the floor, can be heard saying that the restaurant has dress code of smart casuals and saree isn’t one.
Soon after the video went viral, netizens were divided on the treatment meted out to the patron.
Why should anyone outrage? Their restaurant, their rules. They should have rights on whom to serve. Ppl follow dress code when they attend pubs etc. Dont visit the place if you are not comfortable.
— Doesn’t matter (@one_who_was_not) September 22, 2021
Some said that it is the restaurant’s prerogative because ‘right to admission’ is reserved with the establishment.
Very true
— anita choudhary (@anitachoudhary) September 21, 2021
While others were of the opinion that these restaurants with such seemingly discriminatory behaviour towards the patrons.
Soon there were people outraging about the same on food review and delivery website Zomato where they downvoted the restaurant and left negative reviews.
There were tens of reviews on Aquila by users in just past two days, most of them unhappy with the service and had left a negative review with 1 star out of 5, with 1 being the worst.
Soon, Zomato put up a warning on the landing page of Aquila that they are monitoring the reviews being put up on this restaurant.
As of now, the rating stands at 2 stars average. Zomato has said that the restaurant is getting a lot of media attention due to ‘recent events’ and hence they are monitoring the reviews closely to comply with content guidelines.
In fact, the landing page of the restaurant on Zomato has a notice that due to certain social media activity or news coverage, the establishment (Aquila) is getting a lot of attention and some of the opinions mentioned in reviews may not be about food, service or ambience. Hence, as a neutral platform, Zomato is currently moderating the activity to keep the platform neutral.
Zomato also said that some reviews which may not match their code of conduct may be removed.
