Samosa Singh brings order to Indian street food scene
Making deep-fried pastries that look and taste the same each day requires skillful hands.
Samosa Singh is using its tried-and-tested template to bring order to India’s fragmented street food scene by creating samosa — a traditional Indian pastry made of a crispy pastry shell filled with spiced potatoes, peas, and meat — consistently and producing it for a mass market.
“Products like samosas are not just about the taste,” Nidhi Singh, part of a husband-wife tandem behind the Indian fast-food chain, told QSR Media. “It’s about scalability and consistency.”
She noted that McDonald’s or Domino’s are not the best burger or pizza around, but people know what to expect the minute they enter their restaurants.
“Keeping all these in mind, we knew that we needed to have a central manufacturing where we can control the consistency of the product,” she said via Zoom.
The street food market of the world’s most populous nation is expected to cross $6b this year, according to Indian snack maker Shareat Foods.
Nidhi and her husband Shikhar quit their jobs at a pharmaceutical company in 2016 and used their first few months of research and development to create a semi-automated manufacturing process where the dough is kneaded and prepared the same way every time.
“My husband and I, we both thought, why can’t there be a McDonald’s for samosas? Why are there only Western products and not Indian street food?” Nidhi asked.
The two clearly knew what they wanted — a brand around the deep-fried triangular pastry, and everything about it must be consistent from day one.
The consistency of samosas bought on the street depends on the cook, Nidhi said, adding that they require skillful hands. Dough that is kneaded and rolled carefully produces thin, crispy samosas, whilst a tired cook who rolls the dough haphazardly comes up with stuffed samosas that look like dumplings.
Samosa Singh started as a business-to-business supplier for clients that included cafe chains, multiplexes, corporate offices, and airlines.
The couple opened their flagship store at Electronic City, Bangalore’s information technology hub, and another at the Kempegowda International Airport. However, they were forced to close almost as soon as they opened when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the same month they opened.
To future-proof their dream, they worked on an in-house algorithm that identified the best areas to open delivery locations. Once the lockdown was lifted, they opened several dark kitchens — fully-equipped commercial kitchens that prepare food exclusively for delivery — nationwide.
“Within a year-and-a-half span during the pandemic, we made ourselves stronger in terms of manufacturing and got closer to the consumers through online deliveries,” Singh said. They opened about 40 virtual kitchens during that time.
In September 2023, Samosa Singh opened its quick-service restaurant in Naupada, Thane in Mumbai. It also cut the number of dark stores to 20, converting some choice locations to Samosa Singh outlets. They now have more than 40 branches across India.
New markets
Samosa Singh features a simple menu that revolves around its namesake street food. They also serve chaat — a mix of crispy fried dough, tangy chutneys, yogurt, and spices. There’s also a number of hot and cold beverages, complementing its grab-and-go food appeal.
The fast-food chain is gearing up for Samosa Singh 2.0, which will see more healthy and indulgent samosa flavours on the menu,
Singh said. The launch will be backed by their newly opened manufacturing facility that can produce as many as half-a-million samosas daily.
The facility boasts an ISO 22000 certification, the international standard for food safety management systems.
“We don’t use any palm oil in our products,” Singh said. “There are no additives and no preservatives. I have a very open and transparent system.”
“Considering all that, we have a very high repeat order rate of 80% and above, whether offline or online,” she added, challenging anyone to test their products in a lab to see that their ads tell the truth.
Singh said they plan to reach 100 branches in the next 18 months and are ready to enter new markets.
“Asia-Pacific is a very big market for us, North America, and the Middle East [too],” she said. “We are already exporting to these markets. We see exports to be a very big part of our growth and future trajectory.”
