Uno-In Hotel bars

nationals; ironically, its head and staff are Indians

Langford Cross Road

Japanese nationals

Nic U Iqbal

Japanese food

Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike

in its racism. BANGALOREMIRROR sent a Brit to

see if they will have a different set of rules, in

typically Indian fashion, for the whites. Howard

Murphy , founder of Amurco and from

Manchester, was told on Monday lunch hour

by the receptionist that the place is ''restricted

to Japanese” and denied him entry. “Later

another person -- I presume he was the manager

-- came and said the same thing...that

the place is meant only for Japanese. It's just

racist.”

Keega, was our next decoy. His experience:

“We parked the bike outside.A guard opened

the gate for us and I said I want to eat lunch

here. He guided me to the place where the

restaurant was. An executive officer came to

who seemed like heads at the restaurant

came. They (all Indians) saw me and said that

there. So told them that. Then one guy

came and told me that this is only for Japanese.

out. They told me to go eat elsewhere. I said

that I wanted to have Japanese food. He got

annoyed with me and started to bully me out."

Bangalore Mirror

just had to eat at Uno In's

open-air cafe to satiate its curiosity pangs.

Having virtually begged to be let in,

here goes the accidental review, without

any fear or favour. Not that it will help you,

unless you are a Japanese reading this

Unabashedly racist,all otherThe hotel makes no bones about it. Its website categorically states: Located in Bangalore, we are a hotel exclusively for Japanese. Situated onin Shanthinagar, Hotel Uno-In, which also houses a Japanese rooftop restaurant called Teppen, has a policy of not allowing access to Indians, or for that matter, any other non-Japanese nationals.Adjacent to the KTM showroom, Uno-In started two years ago with the sole aim of catering tovisiting the city for work or tour. It’s clear the hotel is not eager to advertise its presence as a hand-painted sign on the mouth of the road is the only giveaway to the place situated at the cul-de-sac.Based on an incident (we will come back to it later) that happened a few months back, these reporters visited the hotel with a colleague and got a first-hand taste of the discriminatory attitude. The moment they stepped foot into the lobby and expressed a desire to have lunch at the hotel’s rooftop restaurant Teppen, they were told ‘Indians’ were not allowed. Below is a transcript of the recorded conversation that took place with, MD and CEO of Nippon Infrastructure which runs the hotel.Hi. We are here for Teppen.Yes, but only Japanese people allowed ma’am. No Indian people.No, we were not told that. A friend of ours recommended the place to us and said it has amazingHi, I am Nic. This is a dedicated place for Japanese people alone.No, but we heard so much about this place from our Japanese friends.I know but we really don’t do that. It is really hard to maintain the quality system and we just have Japanese corporate people visiting us. We are the Nippon group and we have tie-ups with our own Japanese companies. Their people come to us. The entire hotel is for the Japanese alone and we don’t entertain anyone else.After about five minutes of cajoling, we were allowed in with Iqbal stating, “I run the whole show so you can go in as my guests.” The afterthought of a welcome seemed to be directly linked to the absence of any Japanese guests (and hence no one at all) in the restaurant.Recalling an 'incident' in March, Amisha Garg Agarwal, director (strategy planning), Percept/H said, “A couple of months back some colleagues accompanied our Japanese clients to the hotel for lunch. But they didn’t allow my colleagues in, stating, ‘Indians are not allowed’, despite the clients insisting they be permitted into the restaurant.”She says when they sought an explanation, they were told Indians demanded Indian and vegetarian food. “We have heard about many more such cases from our Japanese friends in the city,” she said.Ishiro Takazuma (name changed on request), a Japanese advertising professional who frequently travels to Bangalore for work, said that during one of his initial sojourns, he had stayed at the Uno-In and knew the food there was good. So when some Japanese colleagues were in the vicinity along with a couple of Indian colleagues a couple of months back, he recommended Uno-In’s restaurant. “We have never had any problem there before but our Indian colleagues were stopped from accompanying us into the restaurant. They relented on our insistence, though. I understand their policy of catering only to Japanese clients and their rights to reservation, but they should not have stopped our Indian friends from entering the place when they were with us.”The 'rights of admission reserved' rule is in the realm of ambiguity at best. When we asked the(BBMP), the issuing authority for trade licences, about how far an establishment can go in its 'right of admission reserved' rule, the officials had no clue. ''We have never come across it till now. We issue licences, check if the health, safety and cleanliness standards are being maintained. Nothing beyond it,'' said an official.When Bangalore Mirror contacted Uno-In's Iqbal for comment, he said they had no qualms in admitting any customer, but they mainly catered to the needs of those residing in their corporate houses, mostly comprising the Japanese. “It is not a walk-in restaurant which is why we haven’t even publicised it as a restaurant. We do not have the infrastructure to function as a full-fledged restaurant which is why we have limited it to only Japanese delegates. And we do not entertain anyone else apart from Japanese people. However, if people come and request to have a Japanese meal, we do not mind catering to their requests.” That, based on experiences earlier by some Bangaloreans and the reporters is bunkum.To its credit, Uno-In seems to be 'fair-handed'An African PhD student, Charles Mwirijime here and along with him four other peopleit’s not a restaurant first. I could see the tablesHe got a bit angry and tried to chase meSo how does this exclusively-for-Japanese restaurant look inside? Teppen, an open-air café on the fourth floor of Uno-In, exudes the air of an office cafeteria. Since we were the only customers — and Indians at that — the staff was initially a touch wary but eased up after we returned their bow and smiled. The menu carried just the Japanese names of the dishes which is understandable considering its clientèle. A waiter pointed out the chicken items, and even a vegetarian dish, he thought we may prefer over-fried pork with the skin on.As we had heard of Daikon (radish), we decided to order that hoping it might be served with a dressing of vinegar and sesame. But the bowl of raw, shredded radish placed in front of us was unseasoned. We, thus, sincerely apologise if this isn’t Japanese etiquette, but we doused it in the soya sauce placed on our table to alter it to suit our palate. What we could make out was that most items on the menu were set meals – essentially a protein served on a platter with rice, miso soup, pickled cucumber and raw vegetables.It suffices here to say that we left with the knowledge that we had got a taste of authentic Japanese food. For what it’s worth, the fried jumbo shrimps enveloped in thick hot and crispy batter and the miso soup with tofu cubes went down well, but if anybody wants to have sushi, they will need to come here for dinner as they aren't available at lunch.