Does SB command this premium pricing?

One thing that has never ceased to amaze me is the price of dishes served at "Hotel Saravana Bhavan" which claims to be one of the largest chains of quality vegetarian restaurants! Starting from the basic items (the inevitable idly, dosas) until the proclaimed or claimed premium dishes (the ubiquitous punjabi, chinese etc), their prices command a huge premium vis-a-vis many other restaurants of their class in especially Chennai as well other cities where they run from!

Take for example, A plate of Pongal. It is made of plain rice and a some cereals and some top-ups. It could be considered very well a simple dish. And the portion that SB serves would not even be more than 60 - 75 grams. If we simply calculate the ingredients and the cost involved (excluding logistics and the restaurant's cost of preparing it) it would come to around 5 - 7 rupees (since they prepare in huge quantities). And, if we add to it SB's brand value and price for their hygiene (which again I will put at around 3 - 5 rupees), the dish could come somewhere between 10 - 12 rupees. But guess the cost of a plate of pongal? it is an exhorbitant 20+ rupees in an SB restaurant! Whatever may be the overhead like air-conditioning, rental, supply chain management etc, a simple dish should not be sold for more than 10 - 15 rupees. Another example is that of one of my very favourites, Onion Rava Dosa or ORD (mmmm!! :) ). Many hotels (with comparable or a little lesser class service as that of SB) sell ORD for around 20 - 25 whereas SB prices them at 45+taxes. Isn't this ridiculous? But who is there to ask? Will The government set up a regulator like Hotel Tariff and Dishes Prices Regulatory Authority of India??? :)) That was a ridiculous suggestion, but only people have to give proper responses to such premium pricing! When there are pockets to pay, there will be bottomless pits to suck them empty!!!

Digressing a little, Incessant rains lashed Chennai city for almost two days! In fact, yesterday, it poured HUGE cats and dogs ( :) ) and people couldn't step out of the house from the mornings till late evening! And yes, the rain water harvesting and rain water storms did come to rescue and drained mose of the rain water...

Waiting for some more rains to pour down and declare holidays!!! :))...