Today we’d like to introduce you to Roshan KC.
Hi Roshan, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My late father used to cook really good food. He used to come home after work and cook dinner for us. Everything he made was always delicious and he knew how to play with spices. Men working in the kitchen is not usual in Nepal but he enjoyed doing it. He liked good food and inviting others to try his food. Our small kitchen was the gathering place for guests. Every Saturday, we cooked extra food for guests, people used to just show up after temple visits back then. My father passed away in 2002 when he was only 52, the only memories I have are with my father when he was cooking and feeding us. Basanti, a decade-year-old in making, is my tribute to my father for instilling me the love of food, and the joy it brings to share it with others.
– I came to the US in 2000 and started culinary school in City College of San Francisco with a hope of returning to Nepal one day and to open a French restaurant.
– While going to college in San Francisco, worked in a few French bistros and I supported my family back home- after my father’s passing. I also met my wife in San Francisco and got married in 2006. While living in San Francisco, I also got an opportunity to be a partner in a French restaurant which couldn’t survive the 2008/2009 financial crisis but gave me first-hand experience of running a restaurant. We moved Southern California in early 2010.
– After moving to Southern California. I worked at fine resorts, hotels and restaurants. I helped opened a few nice upscale restaurants- one of the proud projects was opening Avant restaurant at Rancho Bernardo Inn Resorts in San Diego. Although I enjoyed working in fine resorts and hotels but deep inside my heart, I always wanted to open a neighborhood restaurant- where family can come enjoy the meal and create memories life. I love listening small kids telling me you have the best restaurant or they wanted to celebrate their birthday in our restaurant. Regulars bringing their friends and out-of-town guest as well as families are some of the best moments of working in the restaurant.
– In 2017, I got an opportunity to buy a small restaurant in San Juan Capistrano. We didn’t had a lot of savings as we had just bought a house, but I was hopeful about the prospect of having an Indian restaurant in San Juan Capistrano. We just put our love and sweat into our restaurant. My wife, my mom and my two young boys came to help clean and decorate the restaurant. Good food with good customer service were the only thing for us to sell. After opening, we were blessed by the community of San Juan and neighboring cities. During the pandemic, we survived because of takeout. Just the other day, one of the regular patrons since our opening, passed away. Family came to pick up food the same night and to celebrate his life. After a few days, Carol (wife) called me and asked me to cater for the funeral service for 250 people. I called her back again- if she wanted to review the menu, she told me I trust your food and your judgment.
– After four years of success, we opened our second location Basanti in Talega village San Clemente. I am very blessed by the South OC community for the support and love.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
-Running a restaurant and being a small business in an unpredictable economic climate is always a struggle. In addition, finding right people to work in an ethnic restaurant is always a struggle, we have very limited skilled workforce pool.
– Introducing an ethnic food and ongoing marketing continues to be a challenge.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Basanti Indian Cuisine?
We serve reasonably priced Indian comfort food. We cook our food with blend of aromatic spices and herbs to make it flavorful. There is a misconception that Indian food are spicy, it is not always true. Spice level is a choice, which we can do with a request.
BASANTI is community restaurant surrounded by young families. As a parent of 10 & 7 years old, I understand daily challenges that parents goes through specially when it comes to kid’s eating habit. Our menu is kids/family friendly. We have something for everyone to enjoy and to come back. In fact – we serve school lunch once a week across the street. School kids love our food; they wait whole week for our food.
Our menu also serves to those who has dietary restriction, our 95% of menu items are gluten-free and 80% dairy-free and lots of vegetarian and vegan-friendly options.
Most Indian restaurants in South Orange County serve North Indian food and some serve South Indian few serve Indo-Chinese. BASANTI serves North Indian but what we just started in San Clemente location serving Indian Chhat (street food) on Saturday lunch 11am-2:00pm. Lot of us who grew up in India or Nepal- eating Indian Chhat (Street Food) miss it in Orange County. Once we started Indian Street Food, there has been a positive buzz, and we have guests driving from other cities to try the food.
I am proud of what we serve and how we love serving it. Value and complete guest satisfaction is our brand.
Beside take-outs and dining service in the restaurant, we offer catering service for the events, we do wedding, corporate events and in-house simple parties too. We do offer catering services from Los Angeles to San Diego.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success has many forms, per Dipak Chopra. To me- simply making other people happy with the food is my success. Nothing makes me more happier than a little guests enjoying the food and sending homemade postcards with thank you notes. I feel so blessed when a mom tells me her daughter or son wanted to celebrate a birthday in Basanti or we are their best restaurant.
My wife and I work hard every day to support my family and give them a better life and better opportunity than we had. I am able to achieve that by doing what I love doing it.
Pricing:
- $5
- $24
Contact Info:
- Website: basantirestaurant.com
- Instagram: basanti_restaurant
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/basantirestaurant
