It allows family and friends with varying taste buds and inclinations to dine together and eat what they like.

Said Shweta Rao, is a software professional in Bangalore: “Often a group of friends or family can’t agree on one particular cuisine and results in a meal that is eaten grudgingly by at least one person. But multi-cuisine restaurants offer an opportunity for everyone to be happy.”

This is also because waiters at multi-cuisine restaurants are generally long-time employees who know their menu and guests well. Most are also open throughout the day.

According to food historian Kurush F Dalal, the evolution of multi-cuisine restaurants came from Indian restaurants simply trying to attract more customers.

“They were of two grades – some were high-end and offered both Indian and a gentrified Continental cuisine, and became very popular with upmarket families dining out,” he said.

“There were other low-end multi-cuisine restaurants that offered a mix of South Indian, Mughlai and Chinese food that had inexpensive but tasty food and fast service.”

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There are not too many places where you can have an Irish stew along with a Murgh Makhni. Even today, it’s a popular place with both a cafe and a bakery and classics on its menu.

The revamped 80-year-old Kwality’s in Connaught Place in the heart of New Delhi is another example of a successful multi-cuisine restaurant that has been frequented by generations of Indians.

With a Raj-era charm, and dressed up servers, their eclectic menu has everything from Vietnamese cold coffee and Indian lassis to burgers, kebabs and bread and butter pudding.

Sucheta Rawal, a US-based travel writer who grew up in Chandigarh in North India, has great memories of frequenting fast food-style Indian multi-cuisine restaurants Hot Millions as a young girl, “where you could get anything from a pizza and burger to a dosa”.

“It was always fun and casual and appealing to a whole group and a great concept for friends or families to dine together,” she said.

“Multi-cuisine restaurants also developed in Indian business hotels where there was limited space and having different speciality restaurants like five-star restaurants, was not feasible,” explains Dalal. These hotels usually had a 24-hour coffee shop that served a buffet breakfast and had an assortment of menu items from different cuisines- from sandwiches to a dosa, but they were more for hotel guests and did not necessarily have the best chefs.

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But many discerning diners and foodies avoid multi-cuisine restaurants and say their food is always mediocre. Rob Peck, an American married to an Indian who lives in Chennai, said: “I disagree with these restaurants conceptually as no single chef can master all the different sections on these extensive menus. I see it more as a convenience.”

Reem Khokhar, a Delhi based journalist said that to her they feel “old fashioned and faded, and never seem to offer authentic food”.

From a Goan chicken roll to an Indonesian satay or a Japanese Hamachi Carpaccio- this is the best of all worlds. Chef Ashish Bhasin, the hotel’s culinary and F&B director, said variety is part of the multi-cuisine restaurant experience, as the different spices, flavours and cuisines are enjoyed by people from different nationalities and religions. “I think that the diversity that multi-cuisine restaurants bring on the table unites the guests who dine there”.