PANAJI
The ongoing LPG shortage in Goa is beginning to ripple through the State’s restaurant and hospitality industry, forcing eateries to shut entire kitchen sections, scale down menus and send workers home as cooking gas becomes increasingly difficult to secure.
Across several places, restaurant managers admitted that daily operations have turned into a precarious exercise -- planning menus not around demand, but around how much gas remains in the kitchen.
At Soul Curry, a multi-cuisine restaurant in Panaji, the impact is already visible on the menu and in the kitchen. “At least one cylinder is needed even after restricting cooking. Right now we can manage with the stock we have today. From tomorrow, we may not have a cylinder,” Roy Shishir, assistant manager at the restaurant, said.
The shortage has forced the restaurant to shut down its Chinese and South Indian sections entirely, leaving staff from those departments temporarily without work.
“We are serving thalis but not the authentic Goan meals and not in bulk cooking,” he said, adding, “The thali price has gone up slightly because staffers now come much earlier in the morning to cook on chulhas (earthen stove). Lighting the flame and preparing everything takes much longer.”
Only the tandoori counter and a limited range of gravies continue to operate.
A few meters away, the situation is even more difficult at Sheetal Pure Veg, a well-known South Indian restaurant. Proprietor Surendra Shetty said the restaurant has been reduced to serving only thalis after running out of cooking gas.
“We have no stock and we are uncertain how to continue if the situation continues like this. The gas agencies are not responding and customers have definitely reduced. The restaurant is almost shut,” he said.
With sections closed and customers dwindling, the uncertainty has begun weighing on workers, as well as many of them are migrant employees who depend entirely on restaurant jobs.
“Some staffers are sitting idle because their sections are closed. For many of them, this is their only source of income,” a cook at a Porvorim-based fine-dining restaurant said.
Other establishments are attempting to keep operations afloat by turning to alternative cooking methods.
At Mudra Cloud Kitchen in St Cruz, owner Rajeshri Vaigankar said the kitchen has shifted much of its cooking to traditional chulhas and induction cooktops.
“Chulha and induction are handling most of our work right now,” Vaigankar said, explaining that LPG is kept only as a backup and used for certain items.
Her cloud kitchen serves mainly customers in St Cruz, Panaji and nearby areas, with a large share of orders coming through online platforms in addition to takeaway and limited dine-in. For now, Vaigankar said, the establishment has managed to maintain its menu and prices.
“At the moment, many businesses are managing, but with acute restrictions. If the situation continues for long, it will definitely affect business activity. If restaurants and eatery outlets are forced to shut temporarily, it will create employment challenges,” staff at an unnamed dhaba-styled outlet in Arpora said.
Even where menus remain intact, the shortage is quietly pushing up costs elsewhere including small outlets and online platforms. Tea that would be priced at Rs 10 is now Rs 15 while a cup of coffee has also spiked to Rs 25 from Rs 20.
Customers ordering online have begun noticing steep increases in the price of certain snack items, with street food nearly doubling on some delivery platforms.
Restaurant owners have stated they are trying to hold prices steady and keep kitchens running for as long as possible. But with gas supplies uncertain and sections of kitchens already going dark, many admit the coming days will determine how long they can continue operating normally.
The Goa Hotel & Restaurants Association has already issued an advisory to ensure that visitors do not go hungry even as establishments adopt emergency measures to conserve commercial LPG. President Gaurish Dhond said restaurants are advised to drastically trim menus and prioritise dishes that require less gas and shorter cooking cycles.
