Beyond the star power, into the kitchen

On a late Mumbai morning on Sunday, Scarlett House is all soft light and unhurried energy. The glasshouse at Juhu feels like it’s breathing, with sunlight spilling in from the patio garden. There’s no rush here. A table by the window is laid with scarlet napkins and brimming water glasses from India’s first Hydration Bar, with citrus, turmeric, and herb blends. Model-actor Malaika Arora’s influence is present, but not in a showy way — it’s felt in the calm pacing of the space. Even the cocktails, designed like a theatrical performance, feel softer in daylight with sun rays acting like a garnish.

Across the city in Andheri West, actor Mona Singh’s Kona Kona works in a different register. Nothing feels staged; it’s lived-in, playful, and deliberately unpolished — much like your favourite haunts often are. The bar’s unofficial mascot, a quiet little ‘Duckman’ tucked in a corner, sums it up — a reminder not to take life too seriously. Here, nostalgia drives the food: TP Nimki from tea-time afternoons, steamed momos drenched in spicy jhol straight from Darjeeling street stalls, Alleppey veg curry bright with mango and okra. If Scarlett House is a study in curation, Kona Kona is a love letter to memory, and both in their own way reject the idea that a celebrity restaurant must be all gloss and theatre. Mona Singh teamed up with Chef Jasleen Marwah and Chef Neetu Solanki to create this magic; speaking about the menu, they say, “Dishes at Kona Kona are built on a feeling of childhood meals, streetside discoveries, and family kitchens. We didn’t want to reinvent the wheel, just give it a personal touch.”

Head south to Colaba and the mood shifts again. Neuma, Karan Johar’s restored colonial bungalow, stages comfort with rooms draped in rose or washed in white, each vignette setting its own mood. Chef Suvir Saran’s menu reads like a global screenplay: Tuscan strawberry gnudi in a marinara with just enough acidity to make you pause; lamb shanks slow-braised till they barely hold together; a burnt Basque cheesecake that lands with the quiet confidence of a hit song in the third act. Here, the celebrity’s influence is unmistakable not in a meet-and-greet way, but in the instinct to treat dining as a full sensory production.

Not all celebrity restaurants are anchored in one city. Virat Kohli’s One8 Commune has stretched its wings across the country — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mohali — without losing the ease of its original brief. The menu moves confidently from pastas and sliders to mezze, kebabs, fresh salads, and desserts that range from light to indulgent. It’s not niche, but it’s intentional. The space is meant to be inclusive, to house a quiet lunch meeting as easily as a post-match celebration. You can sense the athlete’s discipline in its balance: room for treats, but nothing on the plate is without purpose. In that way, One8 feels less like a “star restaurant” and more like a lifestyle brand that happens to serve food.

Back in Gurugram lies KOCA — Kitchen of Celebratory Arts — Yuvraj Singh’s debut in hospitality. At 14,000 sq ft, it’s less a restaurant than a stage, but the drama is in the ideas rather than the scale. The kadhi chawal risotto, creamy with tempered lentils, is a straight-up nostalgia bomb, the rajma-avocado galouti a playful nudge at Delhi’s kebab culture. As Chef Megha Kohli put it, “Everybody wants to do multi-cuisine… they don’t feel confident to just focus on one.” KOCA, shaped by Chef Kohli and Chef Noah Louis Barnes, isn’t confused; it’s a celebration of personal flavours, not a patchwork. The desserts, like The Game Changer with its matcha-dark chocolate fondant, flirt with fine dining presentation but stay grounded in the joy of a treat well-earned.

What links these five spaces and keeps them relevant beyond the first-week headlines isn’t just the celebrity factor. It’s the way each has folded the founder’s personality into the bones of the place. Scarlett House has Malaika Arora’s balance of health and glamour; Kona Kona wears Mona Singh’s warmth and storytelling; Neuma reflects Karan Johar’s eye for staging and detail; One8 Commune channels Virat Kohli’s discipline and accessibility; KOCA carries Yuvraj Singh’s mix of flair and groundedness. None of them feel like hollow branding exercises; the menu, design, and service echo the same set of values.

There was a time when a celebrity restaurant in India meant a few framed photos, a ‘favourite dishes’ section, and a short shelf life. They were novelties, not institutions. Today, the surviving ones are those that see themselves not as fan magnets, but as complete experiences that would stand even if the owner’s name fell off the sign. That doesn’t mean the star wattage doesn’t help — it certainly does, in early buzz, in PR reach, in getting you to walk through the door the first time. But past that point, it’s the same unglamorous truth as any other dining room: if the food, service, and atmosphere don’t hold you, you won’t come back.

In a city like Mumbai and in an industry as volatile as Indian dining, that staying power comes from more than press photos and opening-night applause. It comes from knowing your own voice well enough to let it shape the experience for others.

As Chef Suvir Saran, who has consulted on both Neuma and One8 Commune, puts it, “Each of our restaurants tells its own love story. At One8 Commune with Virat Kohli, we celebrate mindful indulgence, plates that honour wellness and thrill with flavour. At Neuma with Karan Johar, we serve the spirit of Mumbai, its magic, chic, and infinite layers and bringing world flavours home.” In both, the aim is to remind that food is not just eaten, it is felt.

These restaurants tell you how their founders — and the chefs behind the kitchen — see the world. They hand you a lens to experience nostalgia, discipline, drama, detail and ask you to taste the world through it. When that lens and the food speak the same language, you don’t just remember the meal. You crave the conversation.

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