LUCKNOW: After the statewide shortage of meat and chicken after state government enforced complete closure of illegal slaughterhouses and meat shops, most small restaurant and hotels in Lucknow have stopped serving non-vegetarian dishes. Some have increased vegetarian items on the menu while others are coping with their reserved stock of meat. Their only consolation is that the upcoming Navratri festival is times when sale of non-vegetarian dishes goes down any way.
The bigger hotels in city are meanwhile coping with reserved stock of meat. Head chef of a five star hotel in the city said, “We have enough meat for 3-4 days but for further use, we need to arrange in advance, given the statewide strike of meat traders. The demand for non-vegetarian items anyway goes down around Navratri, so there is not much to panic. But if the strike is not called off beyond Navratri, even five-star hotels would be in trouble.”
There are around 500 small and big registered restaurants and hotels in Lucknow. Members of UP Hotel and Restaurant Association told TOI, “Most hotels were not hit as they were being supplied by licensed meat vendors. But since all meat suppliers have joined the city strike, which is expected to spread across state soon, the crisis may hit restaurants and hotels too.”
Many small eating joints, cafes, snack corners in city which had non-vegetarian items on their menu have discontinued serving them. A Gol Market restaurateur said, “I have stopped serving all non-vegetarian items for the past three days as there is acute shortage of meat supply. As most of my sale was dependent on non-vegetarian dishes, it has dipped by almost 30% now.” Another owner of a popular non-vegetarian eating joint said, “We close our shop only on Tuesdays and Navratras but we were forced to shut down Saturday onwards because of meat shortage.”

Source: Times of India