IN the Suryabagh area of Vizag, which is the heart of the city, near the populous Jagadamba Junction stands the Quality Inn Daspalla, a business hotel that is rated extremely high in the port city for its rooms, facilities, service, and above all its food.

The hotel stands next door to the Daspalla Raja�s old palace, which is also called Surya Bagh, and it is built on land that was leased from the Raja himself about 16 years ago. The Raja, P. C. Deo Bhanj, holds 25 per cent of the Quality Inn Daspalla�s shares, but the management is run by a group of friends and relatives that got together to start hotels in Andhra Pradesh. So far, they have three. This one in Vizag, plus another called the Comfort Inn Daspalla Executive Court, and the Jaya Residency at Kaikanda, a port town close by.

M. Raghavendra Rao, the managing director of the Quality Inn Daspalla, describes the people behind the hotels as being a committed lot of individuals who are close friends. They settled on the name �Daspalla� because it is a popular name, and also because of their distinguished neighbour, the Raja of Daspalla.

The hotel caters to the business class, it offers quality and efficiency, which are important corporate requirements anywhere in the world. It has four floors, 126 luxurious and very affordable rooms, six conference halls, a business centre, a huge underground parking area, plus all the other facilities of a five-star hotel, including four restaurants. And it is the restaurants of the Quality Inn Daspalla that attract citizens to the hotel.

�Yes, the restaurants are very popular,� agrees M. Raghavendra Rao. �From day one, we have always focussed on food, and this has paid dividends. The Quality Inn Daspalla has four restaurants. Dharani and Vaisakhi are vegetarian. And Dakshin and Dimple Bar & Restaurant are non-vegetarian. Our thalis are very popular. You can get them at all the restaurants. Our chefs are from all over India. We have six, we sourced them from various cities in West Bengal, Rajasthan, Orissa and Tamil Nadu.�

And the chefs are busy, interactive cooks, you see them rushing in and out of the restaurants like the master chefs of fine wining and dining establishments abroad, checking on buffet displays, meeting regular diners and taking down their orders, suggesting menus to big tables, revealing recipes to curious foodies. They lend and create a happy buzz about the Quality Inn Daspalla�s restaurants.

Getting a table here in the evenings is often difficult and sometimes necessitates a long wait. For this purpose, the Quality Inn Daspalla has put out sofas and seats in its lobby. You wait your turn and you watch the various activities taking place in the hotel�s lobby.

And a lot happens there. People are constantly streaming in and out. The management here has also started in the hotel itself the Daspalla Institute of Hotel Management for whose one-year and one-and-half year courses, students come from far and wide. And all the foodies of Vizag come to dine out at the Quality Inn Daspalla, because of the vast choice of food the hotel�s many restaurants offer.

It is reputed for its traditional Andhra coastal food and offers an excellent and sumptuous vegetarian thali at the Dharani restaurant that draws the outgoing and affluent members of Vizag�s Vysya community here because they are vegetarians. The non-vegetarians prefer the Dakshin because it offers an Andhra thali that is meaty and fishy and spicy!

In addition to its existing businesses, the Daspalla group also runs two separate stand-along restaurants in Vizag that are also popular for their food. There is a vegetarian restaurant called Heritage and a multicuisine restaurant called the Tycoon. �Those are meant for people of the city who do not stay at our Quality Inn Daspalla and who like our food but stay far away from the hotel,� said M. Raghavendra Rao. Besides, the Comfort Inn Daspalla Executive Court also has a multi-cuisine restaurant and bar called Royal Palace, and a vegetarian restaurant and coffee shop called Any Time. �They are popular. They carry the same stamp of authenticity, class and quality that our other restaurants have. In Vizag you will find, families swear by our food,� says M. Raghavendra Rao.