Restaurants designed from the business outward.

Concept · Design · Development

Breakthrough Design Studio is an operator-led hospitality practice in Gurgaon, opening, repositioning and improving restaurants, bars, cafés and breweries across Delhi NCR and India.

Explore the Work

Ālaya Café & Bar, Shillong

Two decades inside hospitality.

Breakthrough Design Studio treats a restaurant as a business before it treats it as a room. Strategy, concept, design, food and beverage, operations and brand are developed together rather than handed from one specialist to the next.

The studio was established in 2018. Its way of working was formed before that, on the operating side of the industry, where a venue is judged by how it trades long after opening night.

Three starting points

Selected Brands & Hospitality Work

Brands Rish Saini founded or directs, and venues designed or developed by his studio.

  • Underdoggs
  • Mrs Kaur's Bakery & Cafe
  • Ālaya Café & Bar
  • Uptown Escape
  • Nuts & Brew
  • Woks & Pans

Selected work

Venues built to trade.

From concepts built from scratch to venues for the brands Rish directs, each one planned around the business it has to support.

All work

A restaurant is a system.

Each decision in a restaurant sets the terms for the next. Get the order right and the business holds together; get it wrong and the cost shows after opening.

  1. 01Concept

    The concept decides who the venue is for and which occasions it serves. Every later decision is tested against it.

  2. 02Customer

    The customer sets the price point, the length of a visit and the hours the venue has to trade.

  3. 03Revenue

    Revenue depends on covers and average spend, and it sets what the menu, rent, fit-out and team can cost.

  4. 04Menu

    The menu influences equipment, preparation, kitchen area, staffing, margins and service speed, so it is settled before the kitchen is drawn.

  5. 05Kitchen

    The kitchen’s size, equipment and position set capital cost and peak output, and decide where everything else can go.

  6. 06Space

    Layout affects covers, circulation, service efficiency, guest comfort and revenue. It also sets the routes the team walks every shift.

  7. 07Service

    The service style sets staffing and training, which decide whether a quiet Tuesday is run as well as a full Saturday.

  8. 08Brand

    The brand begins as reputation earned in service. Identity, menus, uniforms and social channels then have to say the same thing.

  9. 09Growth

    Growth is the result of the whole guest experience working consistently. It cannot be added afterwards by marketing alone.

BDS works across the chain.

The BDS approach

Expertise

Six disciplines, planned as one.

A project may need one of them, or all six.

All expertise
  1. 01Concept & StrategyThe commercial case, positioning and feasibility, settled before money is committed to interiors and equipment.
  2. 02Brand Identity & StorytellingName, story, identity and voice, defined with the concept so every touchpoint belongs to one world.
  3. 03Restaurant Design & BuildInteriors planned around covers, kitchen flow and service as carefully as atmosphere, then carried through to site.
  4. 04Food & Beverage DevelopmentMenus and beverage programmes written for the customer, the price point and the kitchen that must deliver them.
  5. 05Operations, Training & LaunchOperating systems, staffing, training and pre-opening plans that let a team deliver the concept on every shift.
  6. 06Brand Activation & GrowthMarketing, photography, CRM and team handover built on the same idea as the venue, and judged by repeat visits.

Specialist expertise

Rish Saini, Founder & Director of Breakthrough Design Studio
Rish Saini, Founder & Director

Founder

Built by an operator.

We approach every concept as a brand from day one. Every detail, every experience, and every design decision should tell the same story.

Founder & Director
Breakthrough Design Studio
2018
Founder & Director
UnderdoggsTen locations across India; six more under fit-out.
2011
Director
Mrs Kaur’s Bakery & Cafe
2009

Rish Saini’s hospitality career began in 2006, serving tables at restaurants in the United States. He personally designed five Underdoggs venues, Aerocity, Cyber Hub, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar, and the Mrs Kaur’s Bakery & Cafe flagship on Golf Course Road in Gurugram.

Through BDS, Rish creates unique restaurant concepts from scratch, each built for its location and the market it will trade in. Owners bring the vision; the studio brings it to life across the whole experience: menu, service, brand and space.

About Rish Saini About the studio

Rish Saini’s specialist platform

AI for Hospitality

From running restaurants to building smarter systems.

Rish applies AI across the businesses he runs and the hospitality projects he leads. Through AI for Hospitality, he shares practical methods, resources and private advisory to help owners keep knowledge in the business, build consistent standards and gain more control as they grow.

Visit aiforhospitality.in (opens in a new tab)Private AI advisory with Rish (opens in a new tab)

Featured project

Cafe by day. Cocktail bar by night.

Uptown Escape · Guwahati · Café & Cocktail Bar · 2019

Uptown Escape was developed around a commercial question: how one venue could earn from both the daytime café trade and the evening cocktail trade.

Uptown Escape's bar in its café set-up by day: the back bar holds teapots, tea and plants above banquettes and white-topped tables
By day
The same bar at Uptown Escape after dark: spirits on the lit back bar, woven high stools and planting along the gantry
By night

The commercial problem

Hospitality real estate is expensive, yet many concepts are productive for only part of the day. Cafés tend to be strongest through breakfast, lunch and afternoon, then taper into the evening. Cocktail bars often face the reverse pattern.

The insight

Those two demand curves are complementary. A single business could change its mood, use and spend as the day goes on, and keep one expensive site trading for longer.

BDS scopeA full A-to-Z hospitality consultancy, from concept development to completion of the venue.

View the project

Testimonials

In their words

Owners and partners on working with Rish and the studio.

Testimonial 1 of 6, Mayank Agarwal

“Rish’s ability to bring a concept to life from scratch is impeccable. With Ālaya, he and the team at Breakthrough Design Studio brought every detail together so thoughtfully that the brand felt like it had existed for years.

He’s meticulous, curious, and deeply invested in what he creates, consistently going above and beyond expectations. Rish has helped us create a landmark for Shillong, something we’re truly proud to call our own.”

Mayank Agarwal, Ālaya Café & Bar, Shillong

“If you want the best, look no further. Breakthrough delivered an exceptional concept for us in Guwahati. Winning not only the hearts of our customers but also the awards for the city’s best restaurant for all day dining and most Instagrammable restaurant two years running.”

Womhasa Sohtun, Uptown Escape, Guwahati

“Having worked with multiple consultants, Breakthrough delivers the best results with the utmost passion and attention to details. Working with Rish has been a brilliant experience. I would not work with anybody else.”

Rahul Jasrasaria, Nuts & Brew, Guwahati

“Although our partners in Underdoggs, Rish & his team re-imagined the Underdoggs brand with a fresh perspective bringing forth a whole new experience that’s modern and classy. Glad to see him follow his passion to create new concepts for the industry.”

Samarth Sidana, Underdoggs

“Breakthrough has the ability to see the vision you have for your brand and further build upon it with passion & creativity. Delivering a best in class brand image that drives in business, builds loyalty & boosts brand value.”

Sunny Chopra, Tandoori Times

“We loved their professionalism and passion for their craft. They provided our fast casual concept with the best in class aesthetics while keeping our budget in mind. Great experience working with Breakthrough.”

Chirayu Seth, Woks & Pans, Gurugram

Press & recognition

Selected recognition

Each item names who it belongs to. The awards belong to the brands named, not to BDS, and none is a design award.

All recognition

Insights

On the decisions that shape a restaurant.

Articles by Rish Saini on concept, dayparts and design, written from the operator’s side of the table.

All insights

Building or transforming a hospitality business?

Whether you are starting with an idea, repositioning an established venue or taking a brand beyond its first site, begin with the business you want to build.

Work With BDS

Or call +91 98187 00006