BiBi gourmand: Chet Sharma on his Mayfair restaurant one year on
The critical response to BiBi has been amazing. How do you think the past 10 months have gone?
If I think about it objectively of course it’s been a great period, especially given the challenges the wider industry has faced since we launched. We’re consistently fully booked. JKS Restaurants (BiBi’s partner) says they haven’t had more demand for any restaurant since Gymkhana launched. It’s great to be widely appreciated for what we do.
We’re sensing a but…
I’m never satisfied with what I do. It’s just the way I am. Happiness is a subjective thing. Things are going well for me both personally and professionally but perhaps it’s not so much a lack of happiness but an excess of greed. I always want to do better. It was great to come in at number five on the list, but the truth is that I want the restaurant to be higher.
It’s also been a tough launch...
Yes, it has. The restaurant is small and we’re doing big numbers - we have about 30 covers inside and we often do well over 100 in the evening. Lunches are busy, too, often to the point where it’s not that enjoyable for the team. The plan was always to turn BiBi into a seven-day-a-week operation. While the demand is certainly there that’s not been possible due to staffing challenges (BiBi is currently open for lunch and dinner from Tuesday evening to Saturday night).
It sounds like the team is quite stretched
Yes. Even with just nine services a week myself and the senior team are working long hours. It feels like we’re slipping back to a more old-school way of running a restaurant, which really wasn’t the plan. On top of that, as we approach the one-year mark a few the senior team are looking to move on, including my head chef Keiran Mustafa who is hoping to launch his own place (a Turkish Cypriot restaurant). That’s the thing about employing great people, they’re going to have plans.
What’s the solution?
We’ve already increased pay levels since we opened so there’s not much flex there. The Ivy Asia has just opened opposite and they’re able to offer people throughout the business an increase of around 30%. As a small restaurant we can’t compete with that. Recruitment is challenging too. Traditional channels are pretty much useless, the handful of kitchen hires we’ve made are people who have either eaten here or contacted me on social media. Our only option to retain our team and attract new people is to invest in staff welfare. From this month, we’re switching a new rota that will see people work 8am to 6pm one week and 3pm until close the following (team members will also have a least two days off per week). This will allow us to operate with fewer staff than we did when we launched the business.
Wouldn’t going tasting menu-only help too?
That’s the plan. From September we will be dropping a la carte in the evenings and offering a choice of two menus of slightly different lengths. We were a bit unsure about a tasting menu at the start of the project, but we’ve come to see the benefit, especially as some of our guests were confused by the a la carte menu. The Chef’s Selection menu allows us to control their journey and ultimately give them a better experience. It’s very popular too. Last Tuesday 85% of our guests took it.
What will dropping a la carte in the evenings do to BiBi’s coffers?
It’s a painful decision commercially speaking as we will do significantly fewer covers. But we will be able to have fewer staff back and front of house and wastage will also be reduced, which will soften the blow somewhat. It’s the right thing to do. At the moment our front of house staff spend a lot of time helping the guests create a menu whereas I’d ideally like them to be talking about the food, the story behind it and the produce we use.
How much does the current Chef’s Selection menu cost?
We started out at £55 but we’ve had to put it up to £85 due to food price rises. Things have really shot up. For example, during the peak of Covid when I was working on Gymkhana’s delivery service, we were getting really high quality lamb racks for £11.50. They now cost well over £30. But I still think the tasting menu offers great value because we use extremely high-quality ingredients. One of the big benefits of winning a Michelin star is that it make guests more comfortable paying a bit more. An entry level price of a little over £100 would allow us to deliver a lot more. Interestingly, we do get the odd comment on price on guest reviews but only for the la carte menu.
Have you dialled up the spicing a bit since you launched?
Absolutely not. We’ve never pulled our punches in that regard. When people came in early on they thought it would be spicy like Gymkhana. But BiBi is a different type of restaurant. The tasting menu is 15 courses with the supplement. You can’t do that number of dishes of blow-your-socks-off spice.
There’s a rumour that BiBi was looking at moving...
BiBi won’t move any time soon. We have a very strong relationship with our landlord (Grosvenor) and they gave us a lot of support (the restaurant opened in the midst of the pandemic). Besides, we do like the site even if it is a bit awkward and small. Where that rumour probably came from is that we did look at a site for something else recently.
We’re guessing you can’t tell us what?
No. But I would like to explore other elements of Indian food in London. While I don’t think we’d do another BiBi in London, we do believe there are big opportunities for BiBi internationally. We have a great many guests from New York and Paris and there’s a big appetite for high-end Indian food in both those cities that’s barely been taped into. But that’s a way off. We have so much more to achieve at the first BiBi before we start thinking about more locations.
The Opening of the Year award is sponsored by OpenTable.
