We won an award. Figured you should hear it from us before it shows up as a Bangalore Mirror headline.
Nandhini Deluxe received the Exceptional Contribution to the F&B Sector award at the 2nd Edition of the VK & BM Food and Nightlife Awards 2026, held at The Chancery Pavilion, Bengaluru. The award was presented by Kripal Amanna – founder of Food Lovers TV and one of Bangalore’s most respected food critics – and actress Viranika Shetty.
What Are the VK & BM Food and Nightlife Awards?
The VK & Bangalore Mirror Food and Nightlife Awards are organised by Vijay Karnataka and Bangalore Mirror – two of the city’s largest media publications. Now in its second edition, the award recognises restaurants, bars, and nightlife venues that have shaped Bengaluru’s dining scene.
The 2026 ceremony was held at The Chancery Pavilion, one of Bangalore’s established five-star properties on Residency Road. The evening brought together restaurant owners, chefs, food media, and hospitality professionals from across the city.
Why ‘Exceptional Contribution to F&B’ Matters
This isn’t a “best biryani” trophy or a “top 10 restaurants” listicle placement. The category is Exceptional Contribution to the F&B Sector – which is about what a restaurant has done for the industry, not just what’s on its menu.
For Nandhini, that contribution is specific. We introduced Andhra cuisine to a city that didn’t have a single dedicated Andhra restaurant chain before 1989. We built the supply chain – Guntur chillies sourced directly from Andhra Pradesh, traditional cooking methods preserved at scale across 15-plus outlets. We were the first Andhra chain on Swiggy and Zomato, bringing the format to delivery before most chains had a website. We serve 10,000 customers a day without a single franchised outlet.
That’s what VK & Bangalore Mirror recognised. Not a moment. A body of work across 37 years.
Presented by Kripal Amanna and Viranika Shetty
The award was presented by Kripal Amanna, founder of Food Lovers TV and Food Lovers magazine. Kripal has over 228,000 followers on Instagram and 757,000 YouTube subscribers, and has spent decades reviewing Bangalore’s food scene. When someone who has eaten at practically every restaurant in this city hands you an award for Andhra cuisine, it carries weight.
Actress Viranika Shetty co-presented the award at the ceremony.
37 Years, Same Kitchen
We’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating on a day like this. The recipes at Nandhini haven’t changed. The Mutton Biryani uses the same spice blend we developed in 1989. The Gongura Pachadi (sorrel leaf chutney) still comes from the same Andhra preparation. The Sholay Kebab, the Chicken 65, the banana-leaf veg meals – every dish runs on the same sourcing, the same methods, the same kitchen discipline across every outlet.
From Minerva Circle to St. Marks Road to our newest outlet in Kadugodi, the food is identical. That’s not a marketing line. It’s an operational decision we made early and stuck with.
What Comes Next
We opened the St. Marks Road flagship in 2025 – 6,000 square feet, our largest space yet. Kadugodi near Seegehalli opened in March 2026, bringing Andhra food to the Whitefield corridor. Yelahanka and Nagarabhavi are operational. The kitchen count keeps growing.
Plans for outlets outside Karnataka – Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, Sydney, London – are on the table. But that’s a story for another day.
For now, we’ll put this award on the wall next to the spice rack. And tomorrow, the kitchen opens at the same time it always does.
The biryani’s still the same. The table’s still ready. Some things don’t need an award to keep going – but it’s good to be reminded that the city’s paying attention.
