Desk
NEW DELHI: Delhi’s Aquila restaurant located at Ansal Plaza is being roasted on social media for denying entry to a woman simply because she was wearing saree.
The woman, Anita Choudaary, shared her experience on Facebook, triggering outrage against the restaurant and calling for its closure.
Anita Choudaary, who is reportedly is a creative director with Doordarshan National Network, wrote, “In one of the restaurants in Delhi, saree is not considered to be a smart outfit. The restaurant’s name is Aquila. We argued over saree, and a lot of excuses were made, but I was not allowed to enter the restaurant, because the Indian attire –saree is not a smart outfit.
“I have never been insulted like this. I also feel hurt.”
She also posted a 10-second video of her encounter with the staff, with one of the restaurant manager telling Choudhaary that only those in casual smart outfit are allowed and that the saree is not smart outfit.
Responding to the backlash, the restaurant gave its version of the event on Instagram, saying that the 10-second video was part of “one hour” conversation the restaurant staff had with Choudaary during which she `slapped’ their manager.
The restaurant’s Instagram post said, “A guest visited the restaurant and was politely requested to wait at the gate as there was no reservation under her name. However, while we discussed internally as to where we could seat them, the guest entered the restaurant and began to fight and abuse our staff. What unfolded after was beyond our imagination, with the guest slapping our manager.”
About the comment by its staffer to Choudaary that saree is not a “smart casual,” the restaurant said it used just to “tackle” the situation.
“To tackle the situation and request the guest to leave, one of our gate managers made a statement on sarees not being a part of our smart casual dress code and our whole team apologises for the same.”
The restaurant posted CCTV footage of the incident and a video where showing women wearing sarees entering it.
Apologizing to angry netizens, the restaurant said, “Aquila is a homegrown brand and each member of the team stands tall as a proud Indian. Our gate manager’s statement in no way is a represents the entire team”s view on the dress code. Nowhere in our company policy does it say that we will refuse entry to anybody in ethnic wear.
“While we have all the right to take steps for the violence by the guest against our staff, we have chosen to maintain peace so far but in accordance with our policy of maintaining transparency with our stakeholders we are now issuing this statement.”
