Hospitality · UAE
Thanjai
Thanjai is the portfolio's restaurant business: South Indian and Tamil cooking in Dubai and Ajman, run under the Thanjai Elite Restaurant name.
The name comes from Thanjavur, the Tamil city known for its temples and its rice. Thanjai's kitchens cook the way that part of the country eats: biryani and rice plates, parottas, dosas, thalis and slow-cooked meat curries, served on a banana leaf with poori, pappadam and a row of small dishes. The menu does not stop there. Its own photography also shows mutton rogan josh and schezwan chicken noodles, the North Indian and Indo-Chinese plates a busy Gulf restaurant is asked for.
The brand lists three restaurants: Hor Al Anz in Deira, Jebel Ali Industrial 1, and one in Ajman. They offer dine-in, takeaway and delivery, and orders are also placed on the restaurant's own site. Two licensed companies carry the name in the portfolio, Thanjai Elite Restaurant L.L.C and its registered branch, each holding its own UAE licence.
The brand's own material is set in three scripts. The lockup puts THANJAI ELITE in green and RESTAURANT LLC in orange beside the same name in Arabic, with a crossed spoon and fork in an orange badge and a line reading Since 2013. In the menu creatives, English headline copy runs beside small green paper tags printed in Tamil, so the food is named to Tamil-speaking customers in their own script.
Hospitality is a different discipline from technology or real estate, and Thanjai is run as one: the same menu, cooked the same way, in every room and at every service. The badge on the lockup dates the business to 2013, which places it alongside You & Me at the beginning of the portfolio's history. The portfolio's earlier hospitality in Dubai ran through New Elite Cafeteria L.L.C, formerly Fresh Mind Cafetaria; licence details for both Thanjai companies are listed under corporate information.
Capabilities
The kitchen
- Biryani and rice plates
- Parottas, dosas and thalis
- Home-style meat curries, including mutton masala and mutton rogan josh
- Indo-Chinese dishes, including schezwan chicken noodles
- Banana-leaf meals with rice, poori, pappadam and small curries
- Dosas served with sambar and chutneys
Service and locations
- Dine-in, takeaway and delivery
- Orders taken on the restaurant's own site
- Hor Al Anz, Deira (Dubai)
- Jebel Ali Industrial 1 (Dubai)
- Ajman
Milestones
- 2013Thanjai's lockup carries a badge reading Since 2013. The date is the brand's own statement rather than a licence record, and it is published here as the brand states it.
- Two licensed companiesTwo licensed companies carry the Thanjai name in the portfolio, Thanjai Elite Restaurant L.L.C and its registered branch, each holding its own UAE licence. The licence numbers are listed under corporate information.
- Three restaurantsThe brand's own ordering site and Instagram account list restaurants at Hor Al Anz in Deira, at Jebel Ali Industrial 1 and in Ajman.
- Earlier hospitalityThe portfolio's other hospitality company in Dubai is New Elite Cafeteria L.L.C, earlier named Fresh Mind Cafetaria, recorded as hospitality history.
From the kitchen
Mutton masala. 
Dosa with chutneys. 
Schezwan chicken noodles. 
Mutton rogan josh.
Reading on this sector
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