"When the New York City Indian restaurant Adda transformed from a casual Queens canteen to a swankier Manhattan hot spot, it ditched the butter chicken that diners at the original location knew and loved - its best-selling dish, at $23 per order. At the revamped Adda, there's still butter chicken, but it's no longer just a dish: It's an "experience.""
"The first thing to know about Adda's Butter Chicken Experience is that you must reserve it ahead of time, and it's offered to only six tables a night. For $42 per person - and the whole table must opt in - a chef wheels over a cart, smokes chicken over wood of your choosing, gives you tastes of three butters (smoked chile, fenugreek, and pickle tomato), then uses your selection to build the sauce to your liking."
"Across the country, restaurateurs have been turning dishes into "experiences," building on diners' desire to have Instagrammable, immersive theatrics with a meal while also tugging at the seductive allure of exclusivity. The rise of the limited-availability burger, for example, shows the success of building anticipation around a single menu item. It's not enough to just order a great burger; one must hunt it down."
Restaurants transform popular dishes into limited, personalized offerings that require reservations and table-wide participation, turning straightforward orders into curated events. Adda's Butter Chicken Experience limits service to six tables nightly, charges $42 per person, and includes a chef-smoked preparation, three butter tastings, sauce customization, and an exclusive cocktail. Operators leverage Instagrammable theatrics, tableside carts, and scarcity to build anticipation and desirability for single menu items. The limited-availability burger trend illustrates how exclusivity and hunt-driven demand can elevate a dish's status. Some venues present simplified two-way or classic preparations alongside more elaborate experiential services.
Read at Eater
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]