After initial hesitation, several small businesses like restaurants and cafes, which were hit hard by the pandemic-induced lockdown, are now warming up to the idea of cryptocurrency to make up for the losses over the past two years. A restaurant in New Delhi’s Connaught Place has decided to accept payments in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and others. The restaurant, Ardor 2.1, has also crafted a special “Digital Thaali” to lure customers. The restaurant is popular for naming its thaalis after catchy names and phrases such as Baahubali Thaali, United India Thaali, and 56 Inch Thaali.

The Digital Thaali (available for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians) offered by Ardor 2.1 has dishes that derive their names from cryptocurrencies. For instance, it has Polygon Pita And Falafel, Bunny Burger With Chilli Fries, Solana Chana Bhatura, Ethereum Butter Chicken With Kulcha, Doge Fried Rice, and Bitcoin Tikka.

Polygon is a protocol and a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks, and Bunny is a payment solution platform based on the Ethereum blockchain. Solana is a public blockchain platform that is considered a long-time rival of Ethereum.

The restaurant has decided to incentivise those who pay in cryptocurrency by reducing the cost by 20 percent, said its owner in a vlog by Delhi Food Nest.

“We decided to give some digital experience to our guests with a completely digital menu. We were thinking of doing something in crypto after one of my friends told me about it. Even though it’s a grey area, we decided ‘let’s go ahead and give it a shot.’ We also wanted to see the response, how many people were invested in crypto,” said the owner.

The price of one Digital Thaali is Rs. 2,099 (plus taxes) for non-vegetarians and Rs. 1,999 (plus taxes) for vegetarians. The move by the restaurant appears to cash in on the cryptocurrency craze.