This story, too, begins where most great food stories do: with hunger.
Eti Bhasin’s father is a chartered accountant. The kind who measures and re-measures his every move at least X times. The kind who might prefer his daughter to finish her engineering degree before taking risks.
He didn’t.
In 2015, while Eti was in her second year at BITS Pilani Dubai Campus, her family opened Dhaba Lane Restaurant in Karama. And instead of keeping his daughter focused on thermodynamics, he let her set up stalls at university events to promote their new concept.
Speaking with The Restaurant Times, the Executive Director of Majestic Hotels and Dhaba Lane Restaurants recalls how her “first stint in hospitality began with an F&B outlet in the bustling streets of Karama,” how it pulled in traction, and how she managed through it all.
The Roots of Feminism
Before we go further, you may want to know where Eti Bhasin learned to move through male-dominated spaces as if she owned them.
Her mother was a teacher and principal. She carried authority in her stride.
“I am lucky to have witnessed my mother handle situations with integrity and confidence at all times,” Eti shares.
Today, 95 percent of her workforce is male. In hospitality, that ratio could have crushed her. Instead, she “feels privileged. [That number] has only made me feel a lot secure and made me who I am today. Yes, oftentimes, we may not realize, but stereotypes are made, and it’s merely the way one perceives and deals with it.”
Read that again. She neither fights the stereotype nor ignores it. She simply refuses to let it define the story.
That’s her mother talking: integrity, confidence, and grace under pressure.
The Pandemic
March 2020 hit with the weight of history. Restaurants across Dubai shuttered. F&B operators hemorrhaged money. Young entrepreneurs watched their dreams collapse overnight.
What did Eti do? She grabbed a marker and started writing on the delivery bags: Keep Calm & Curry On. Wash Your Hands, & Enjoy Handi. Just the tiny reassurances. Messages that said: we’re scared too, but we’re still here, and so are you.
“It was to make our customers’ stressful lives a lot lighter and filled with some positivity despite the chaos around.”
The bags went viral. Customers tagged Dhaba Lane, shared photos, and wrote comments about how a delivery bag made them cry, how they’d taped one to their refrigerator, and how they ordered more food just to see what the next message would say.
Isn’t it fascinating? Most marketing teams spend six figures trying to create that kind of connection. Eti did it with a Sharpie and the radical belief that people needed kindness more than they needed butter chicken.
Though they needed the butter chicken, too.
The Expansion
Coming out of the pandemic, operators were still finding their footing. Eti’s family, on the other hand, entered the hotel business and simultaneously expanded Dhaba Lane with two more prime locations.
Their most debated move was Jumeirah Lakes Towers. In Dubai’s F&B circles, JLT carries a reputation. High rentals, unpredictable footfall, and an unforgiving market dynamic. Many promising concepts have struggled to last there.
“I had heard a lot about restaurants not being able to sustain or make their mark at JLT,” Eti says. “We did have our apprehensions, and since it was our first outlet in New Dubai, there were a few hiccups along the way.”
It could have gone either way. “But, it was worth it,” she recalls. “We have the highest profitability margin from this standalone branch of ours. All those efforts and anxiety paid off within the first three months of opening.”
Three months. That’s how long it took for our protagonist to rewrite the market perception.
Nostalgia As An Ingredient
In April this year, Dhaba Lane launched the UAE’s tallest ever 1Kg 24-Carat Gold Kulfa Lassi. A striking 22-inch tribute to Amritsar’s iconic Gian di Lassi, but reimagined.
It went viral almost instantly.
When customers tried it, “each one was reminiscing about the good old times.” Eti shares, “But we could only pay an ode [to Gian di Lassi] by instead of the cream at the top, adding a Kulfi into the beverage.”
Attention came fast, but that wasn’t the point. What mattered was the emotion it stirred.
“In terms of reinvention, I feel traditional nostalgic street food is picking up in the UAE market. Nostalgia is key to making one feel at home or give them a sense of belongingness.”
After all, Dubai is a city built by people who left homes for better lives. They’re successful. They’re grateful. And yet, beneath all that, they’re homesick in ways they can’t name.
A kulfi lassi, in those moments, becomes time travel. Suddenly, they’re 12 again in Punjab. Their grandmother is alive, and the world feels smaller, warmer, simpler.
Finding Her Ground
Ask Eti about leadership, and she won’t rely on corporate jargon.
“In this industry, we ought to be on top of everything. From trending reels to new recipes, you have to get it all together.” In fact, the range is relentless, and that’s the reality of modern F&B. You need to understand Instagram algorithms and grandmother’s cooking in equal measure.
But, of course, none of it matters without people.
“As a leader, it’s imperative to understand the importance of teamwork. It is essential to lend an ear and be compassionate towards your co-workers and employees who have contributed to making your brand today.”
How does she manage it all? Eti says, “through yoga and meditation.” Every single day, not just when stress hits.
“We ought to take time off or relieve ourselves by engaging in some physical activities. I personally practice Yoga and Meditation every day to keep myself at bay and once back at work, back to action.”
Then comes the weekly brainstorming session with stakeholders, where ideas collide, and creative tension gives birth to a new recipe altogether.
What Success Actually Looks Like
Most entrepreneurs measure success through revenue, market share, and expansion timelines. For Eti, “it lies in being consistent in your quality of product, service, and experience.”
She says, “I count on my oldest standing employees who have been working since the inception of our F&B brands to be a testimony to our success.”
That’s right! Neither the newest hotel nor the viral dish, it’s the people who have been there [with the brand] since 2015, are her assets. Because people don’t stay in hospitality unless they feel seen and are part of something bigger than quarterly targets.
The Dream
“To open at least 11 more hotels here and worldwide.” It may sound ‘too ambitious’ to some, but for Eti, it’s simply the next step.
“Taking my father’s legacy forward is merely a dream, but we are only sowing the seeds for the future.”
Eti dreams of building something that outlives the adrenaline of new openings. She wants “to be able to create a corporate social entity that serves the underprivileged sector of society.”
The same woman who wrote ‘Keep Calm & Curry On’ on delivery bags during a lockdown now wants to formalize that instinct into a structure.
And if her record so far is any indication, she will.
They Ask, “What Do Women Bring to the Table?”
“More Empathy and kindness.”
In an industry that prizes perfection and resilience, Eti reveals empathy and kindness rarely find their way into boardrooms. And yet these are the traits that sustain operations when systems fail.
Her advice to young women? “Be passionate about what you seek to do, as that is what will drive you to lengths of achieving and realizing your dreams.”
It sounds deceptively simple. But passion, when it survives failure and fatigue, becomes infrastructure. It’s the force that keeps you writing quotes on delivery bags when the world collapses. It’s what drives you to open where everyone says you’ll fail. It’s what wakes you before dawn for yoga so you can show up clear when your team needs you.
Passion, at least, in Eti’s POV, is the engine that keeps you grounded when strategy and speed alone can’t.
What Comes Next
When asked about her greatest financial decision, Eti pauses: “I have yet to make it.”
She’s 28, leading multiple properties, managing scale, and shaping culture, and still, her biggest decision is “yet to come.”
That’s the hunger we were talking about at the start. The kind that never gets satisfied because satisfaction means you’ve stopped building.
Biggest regret? “None.”
Because somewhere in Dubai, someone still has that delivery bag from April 2020. It arrived during the worst months they could remember. Inside was food. Outside was a message written in marker: Keep Calm & Curry On.
That person might have no idea about Eti or her dream of launching eleven more hotels. They just know that on their worst day, someone took time to write words that made them feel less alone.
That’s the whole story. Everything else is just proof it worked.
