Serving the World's Best on an Urban Platter

With their first brick-and-mortar store dedicated to bringing you ingredients from far and wide, letting you experience all that's new out there to make your meals special, Urban Platter has kicked it up a notch
Text: Shraddha Mishra

It was not too long ago that we began to expect our nearest grocery stores to stock up on premium ingredients that we might go looking for when wanting to cook a special meal at home… ingredients other than what we kept in our masala dabbas to make something different from our staple roti-sabzi-dal-chawal.
And we were introduced to Urban Platter, a little more than half a decade ago. Add the Himalayan Pink Salt to the flavours in your food, they said. And that was just the beginning of the new-age brand presenting Indian consumers with exciting new ingredients one after another.

Urban Platter has grown into a brand that is known and trusted for great quality ingredients. If you seek products that meet special dietary requirements, it is your go-to. Be it through their own website, social media or online retailing channels, we had been shopping for their products only through e-commerce. Some modern retail outlets too stock a few of their products, but for a company with over 1200 units, a mere shelf at a retail store isn't nearly enough.

What all the gourmets and food enthusiasts like us needed, and hoped for, was a place specially dedicated to all the products displayed right before us, where one can find what one needs, see what else is new, touch-feel-taste-understand it all while choosing those favourites and taking them home to enjoy.
Everyone's wishes were heard and Urban Platter's very first brick-and-mortar store was launched in 2021. The 300+ sq. ft. store located in Pali Hill, Bombay, is a shopper's wonderland. With the wide range of products by the brand displayed at a one-stop-shop, the Urban Platter Store makes it a great pleasure to shop for food.

We have been enjoying the almond milk since many years, and never miss a chance to pick up some of their dairy-free products whenever we spot them at a pop-up or food exhibition. Naturally, when we entered the store we headed right to the vegan section. And lo and behold there was a wall full of products that catered to the new-age lifestyle. Right from nut milks to vegan Mozzarella, Feta and Parmesan cheese, even a Cheddar-style vegan mac and cheese caught our attention.

As we checked out shelf after shelf, we wondered how come we missed seeing so many products while shopping online. "You must have simply entered the name of your favourite product in the search bar, clicked and bought just that," explained Chirag Kenia, Founder of Urban Platter.
"Even if you browse more, there's only so much time you will spend exploring on your phone or computer. We wanted to bring to our consumers an experience that makes shopping more intriguing and exciting for them. And that experience can be enjoyed at the Urban Platter Store.

An experience it is, indeed, to be able to see, taste and feel these premium ingredients. We've got to confess, we were a bit hesitant in buying the very popular Korean Gochujang chilli paste. Will it be too hot to handle? Or are we missing a delicious ingredient in our home cooking? We wondered. But when we saw Urban Platter's Gochujang displayed at the store, we requested a sample and immediately added it to our cart. Instantly, we made up our mind to spend that evening enjoying some K-drama on Netflix while digging into home-made Korean noodles. How's that for a hot and spicy evening!
Shopping online has its merits, too, people can visit websites, compare similar products from the plethora of options that the web presents, place an order and have it delivered right to the doorstep. It has especially been a boon for tier-2 and tier-3 cities according to Chirag, who is proud of his brand's reach and popularity within the country.

So why did the brand with a strong digital presence decide to set up a physical store, we asked Chirag. "This one's for you, our consumers!" he says. "A physical store allows us to be a part of the real world. It lets us meet our buyers, see the reactions on their face when they're buying our products, even offer to help them out whenever we can and indulge in an exchange of ideas."
There's a lot to explore and discover at the Urban Platter Store. You might stumble upon some new products for cooking with your dietary choices, or you may get acquainted to some imported ingredients for Continental, Oriental or Middle Eastern cuisine. And if you let yourself indulge enough, you will also take home a passion and an inspiration to get creative in your kitchen and give your home cooking an uplift.

The Urban Platter Store
Shiv Asthan Heights, Shop No. 2, 16th Rd, Pali Village, Bandra (W), Mumbai 400050
Mob: 0 86579 85973