Dubai: When the person cooking your dish at a restaurant is the owner and manager himself, it can only suggest one thing – either he’s understaffed or the recipe is a well-guarded one.
For Al Haj Bundoo Khan’s restaurant at Global Village, the latter is true. This popular Pakistani joint has been a mainstay at Global Village since the theme park was launched in 1997 and continues to be a crowd favourite across nationalities.
“We have been with Global Village for 19 years because most of our patrons are Pakistanis who come to Global Village. But the client base is no longer just Pakistanis. Other nationalities have now developed a liking for our food as well,” Adnan Bundoo Khan, 30, co-owner and manager of the restaurant, told Gulf News during a visit.
Adnan is the great grandson of the famous Al Haj Bundoo Khan who started the family restaurant 68 years ago. The Bundoo Khan family moved from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to Pakistan before partition.
“My great-grandfather was the one who introduced barbeque in Pakistan,” said the young Bundoo Khan, who was dressed in a simple checked shirt, trousers, and plain leather slippers.
“Our family business has been using the same recipe since 1947. It has been passed on from generation to generation.”
The third and fourth generations of the Bundoo Khans are now the ones managing the more than dozen branches in Pakistan and three restaurants in Dubai, the third one being the seasonal outlet at Global Village, one of the main attractions of the Dubai Shopping Festival.
This restaurant in Dubailand offers more than 30 dishes on the menu, with meat barbeques like seekh kabab as one of their bestsellers with 200 to 300 plates sold in a day. They sell between 8,000 and 10,000 barbeques and around 500 parathas daily at the same joint.
“Business is very good. Day by day, every year, our customers are increasing and we are getting very good feedback from people who come to eat here.” On weekends, there is hardly any space at the restaurant, which can seat roughly 200 people at a time.
Bundoo Khan’s restaurant is just one of the 27 restaurants at Global Village that offer a variety of cuisines such as Indian, Iranian, Turkish, Moroccan, Chinese, Arabic, and German, among others.
“The first time I had their food many years ago when they were still near Garhoud Bridge, I loved it. I have been coming to the restaurant ever since,” said A. Rahman, a regular patron.
“I like how the owner helps the kitchen staff. I see him working and cooking without any qualms at all. They are very hands-on,” he added.
Much has changed at the restaurant through the years, Adnan said, excluding his family’s work ethic.
“Before, when the restaurant was still small, my dad and uncles used to do all the work. Now we’ve recruited additional staff, but we still help out. Maybe that’s the secret [to our success],” Adnan said, smiling modestly.
“But, like my father said, the secret really is to take care of your customers and to pay attention to their needs.”
Maqsoud Bundoo Khan, Adnan’s father, can also be seen in the kitchen when he’s in Dubai. He said the restaurant has come a long way since Global Village debuted near Garhoud Bridge 19 years ago.
“Back then there was no space for proper seating areas. People liked to eat standing or they preferred takeaways,” Maqsoud said.
Maqsoud declined to share how much their starting capital for the Global Village outlet was back then. But his son admitted that their Global Village outlet is their most profitable branch with net profit of between Dh15,000 and Dh20,000 a day.
“We’re here because of the love of the people and because they know the restaurant. Maybe when I have kids in the future, I’ll teach them how to manage the restaurant because this has given us a lot and we love to do our work here,” Adnan said.
