Meet Samosa Singh: Bengaluru’s culinary spin on India’s classic triangle snack

Samosa Singh offers unique preparations like Manhcurian samosa, Cheese Chilli samosa and Masala Corn Samosa. Image Courtesy: Samosa Singh

Redefining the Indian snacking scene with their ‘Garma Garam Samosas' is the Bengaluru-based snack haunt - Samosa Singh. Located at multiple corners of the city, they serve piping-hot experiences packed with the zing and excitement of nostalgic street food revered by Indians. The eatery takes the traditional Indian samosa to a whole new level with its classic potato and peas fillings to unique combinations like kadhai paneer and cheese corn samosa.

Started by a couple from Bengaluru, Nidhi Singh and Shikhar Veer Singh who dropped their jobs in a bid to dish lip-smacking samosas in a healthful manner. The idea for the startup came from Shikhar's love for samosas and his desire to make it a popular snack in the city. The couple saw the gap early on - missing hygiene, and no fast food-like outlet available for Indian snacks.

The current fast-food restaurants in Bengaluru usually offer pizzas and burgers, making customers turn to street vendors for Indian snacks and savouries. Midday.com spoke to the founders of Samosa Singh to dig into what makes their samosas so special.

Founded by Shikhar Veer Singh and Nidhi Singh in 2017, Samosa Singh aims to serve hygienic and zingy samosas to redefine Indian snack market. Image Courtesy: Samosa Singh

1. What is the story behind the inception of Samosa Singh? What inspired the founders to start this venture?

The family of Samosa Singh set out to reclaim the rightful place of Samosa in the story of Indian snacking. Re-branded for the modern age, the team at Samosa Singh deployed 100,000 plus man-hours of research and development to give it a unique triangle interlocking shape making it less oily and lighter. A gourmet avatar with proprietary technology that lets it stay crispy for more time.

The rebirth of the Samosa as Samosa Singh is a story of innovation, aspiration and finally, of the love for legacy. It also narrates the tale of the perfect marriage between great business acumen and the myriad regional sensibilities of this nation - all wrapped up in the simple folds of a Samosa.

2. How did Samosa Singh begin its journey in the food industry, and what were the initial challenges faced by the team?

Cooking involves multiple processes - that if followed optimally result in a great product. We want our samosas to be fresh, without any preservatives with the warmth and crunchiness that is associated with this national snack! So, we deliberated and did a great number of trials to turn out the best version of the samosa that would resonate and appeal to our audience.

As a result of our continuous R&D - Our samosas are healthier and non-greasy (50 pct less fat), despite frying and yet have the satisfying crunch, warmth, and flavor of India's favorite snack.

Challenges and continuous learning are a quintessential part of the life of an entrepreneur. We strive each day to make it better than the previous and grow, and evolve through the learnings. It has been a long and eventful journey of being a scientist and then giving it all up to actually build a high-growth successful business. As first-time entrepreneurs who quit jobs to pursue our dream, put everything we made and had into the business and a soul to commit oneself to it, so, truthfully - we have seen it all!

3. In a market with traditional samosas, what led Samosa Singh to focus on creating innovative and unique samosa flavors?

With the Indian street food market being highly unorganized, we gauged an opportunity to develop a strong and hygienic product. We have been able to innovate and launch exciting flavours that go best with the samosas - like Manchurian samosa, kadai paneer samosa, masala corn samosa, etc. These varieties have been wonderfully accepted across the geographies as they resonate with our Indian palette.

The key objective was to fill the existing gap in the Indian samosa market by providing a hygienic, fresh, and thrilling convergence of types with regional tastes in one location, resulting in a large popular appeal.

4. Could you share some of the most popular and unique samosa flavours that have been introduced by Samosa Singh?

We had a good demand for the Chinese version of samosas from customers but adding noodles inside the samosa dough is not a very appealing texture for the palette. Therefore, we improvised and came up with an exciting variant of Chinese Manchurian samosa that has mixed vegetable manchurian balls tossed in the Chinese style gravy and then the mixture is folded inside the samosa. This variant is highly popular and well-accepted across various locations.

5. What role do customer preferences and feedback play in the creation of new samosa varieties? How do you balance traditional tastes with modern flavors?

Customer feedback is critical for the success of any business. Before launching any new product flavour/variant we also do a pilot study and understand the market acceptance, uptake and accordingly launch across all cities and locations.

Also, we have certain regional flavours aligned according to regional preferences. For example - more spicy versions for the Telangana region; some curd-based cold chaats in Mumbai etc. These tweaking and customisations are well accepted and support further acceptance of the brand in the geographies.

6. Are there any plans for expanding the range of innovative items beyond samosas in the future?

Apart from samosa, we have explored other snacking products as well to meet consumer demands. We have a variety of options such as kachori, dahi bhalla and various chaat which are bestsellers along with samosas. In addition, we have scrumptious desserts like gulab jamun, rabdi and ras malai which complement the Indian flavors. Samosa Singh's menu is a reflection of true Indian street food culture encompassing the all-time favorites samosas, kachori chaats and sweets.

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