Aga’s restaurant isn’t too familiar with the idea of down time.
It has more orders from Uber Eats than any other single location in the world, according to the food delivery company.
The Indian-Pakistani eatery sits in a Houston strip mall and doles out food en masse.
“It’s a food factory,” Aga’s CEO Shaukat Maredia said in an interview that aired Oct. 23 on TODAY. “We do 2,500 to 3,000 pounds of chicken every day. We do about the same amount of goat. We do the same amount of lamb.”
And butter?
“Oh my God! Thousands of pounds of butter per month. We go through tons,” he said.
Maredia has engineered an impressive turnaround for the restaurant, which he and his family took over in 2010 with no prior restaurant experience. He said they struggled at first.
“It was depressing (to) be honest with you,” he said while noting the eatery was “very close” to failing.
Maredia and his family turned Aga’s into a space with 750 seats before Covid helped its takeout business explode. Now, it’s the most ordered single location on Uber Eats, with Maredia estimating the restaurant gets 1,400 to 1,500 orders per day during the week and more than 2,000 on weekends.
Making it all run seamless is a process. There are up to 100 employees working in two kitchens, one for prep and the other for assembly. There is a conveyor belt taking food from the kitchen to the counter where delivery drivers await.
Shirlenzia Williams is one of those drivers, earning about $100 a day from Aga’s alone.
“They leave big tips for these ones. I guess the food is really good, and they’re really quick, too,” she said.
Maredia says the reason the restaurant — and, in particular, the lamb chops — has become so in demand is pretty simple.
“It’s all about the quality of food. Every ingredient we use is top notch. So, the taste is always there, the freshness is always there. They get their order delivered within 15 minutes,” he said.
“It’s always piping hot,” he added.
Maredia is also proud of how Aga’s has taken off.
“For Indian-Pakistani restaurant to dominate the world, it speaks for itself,” he said.
He also isn’t taken aback by the response, “because our quality is that great,” he said.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
