Sold Out In 3 Hours: How Weekend Food Cart Became Noida's Latest Craving

On a Saturday night, a 26-year-old techie sat down for an interview with us after nearly three hours on his feet at his food cart. It was a bittersweet night - Namkeen Gosht, his one and only dish, sold out in that time but many customers went home empty-handed. At one point, he was surrounded by a crowd waiting for its share. I half expected someone to reach for Delhi-NCR's favourite line for moments when things don't go their way, 'Tu jaanta nahi mera baap kaun hai? (Do you know who my father is?)', in the hope of a miracle plate. What I saw instead was a little boy close to tears when he learned that Namkeen Gosht was over.

This is the story of Laham, a food cart started by two product managers, Rishabh Kumar and Shashikant Singh, that found almost instant fame just a few days after it rolled into a market lane in Noida. Kumar and Singh work corporate jobs five days a week and give their weekends to the cart.

Kumar said it's unlike any other food cart in Noida, whose street food scene has seen everything, from Litti Chokha to Sushi. Laham serves exactly one dish: Namkeen Gosht arranged over Malabar Coin Parathas, spread across three price points and portion sizes - half (two pieces of parathas) at Rs 159, full (four pieces) at Rs 279 and large (six pieces) at Rs 399. They also turn to their gravy option (with pieces of minced mutton) to assuage customers' cravings when the main dish runs out.

I waited 45 minutes with token no. 57 for a dish built around an ingredient I have avoided for nearly a decade; I have been a pescatarian by choice. I took one morsel so I could do justice to the review. The taste was as straightforward as the name Laham itself, succulent and no-fuss, with the comfort of home cooking, and the mutton rather than the masala doing the talking. That is one reason for the cart's virality.

Rishabh Kumar said it's unlike any other food cart in Noida, whose street food scene has seen everything, from Litti Chokha to Sushi.
Photo Credit: NDTV

Laham is Arabic for meat and the dish is inspired by one of Kumar's favourites, Laham Charsi, a street-style meat dish from Peshawar and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan which uses minimal spices.

"Laham Charsi is a favourite of mine. I had it in Hyderabad for the first time. And I love the word Laham. I think it has a nice ring to it when somebody says, 'Laham chalte hain (Let's go to Laham)'," said Kumar, who is also the cart's lead cook.

The idea, he said, is "a complete meal, but in bite-size portions, which is easier to eat on the street."

The buzz of the place is not only limited to influencers flocking to their new favourite of the season and posting reel after reel. Laham opened on September 5, and by Kumar's account it made Rs 6 lakh in revenue in its first month. That is revenue, not take-home. He said the business is in net profit, but nearly all of it goes straight back in.

Both Kumar and Singh were colleagues in Bengaluru and moved to Noida earlier this year. As product managers, they run Laham like a product, with the work split cleanly.

"I look into the product, the cooking, the marketing and the content. Shashi looks into the finances, operations and procurement. Since we are product managers, we understand how all of this works and how to streamline things," Kumar said.

The weekdays belong to the office. After work, the two sit down to discuss the business. Friday is for planning, sourcing raw material and talking to vendors. Then the weekend begins.

"On Saturdays and Sundays, we don't really sleep," Kumar said with a smile. "We close around 11 or 11.30 pm. We have to put the equipment back in the cloud kitchen. It goes on till 2 am. Then we have to wake up again at 7 or 8 am to start prep for the day."

His colleagues know, and are, he said, "very proud." Some have come to eat at the cart and posted stories, and people at the office have started to recognise him: "Are you from Laham?" Even so, he does not want his employer named. He has seen, in a previous job, how a side hustle changes the way colleagues talk about you, and he would rather not become a topic of discussion at work.

Behind the virality were nearly two years of mental notes and months of preparation - the logo, the design of the cart, the menu, the inventory.

Rishabh Kumar and Shashikant Singh work corporate jobs five days a week and give their weekends to the cart.
Photo Credit: NDTV

 Kumar has been cooking for nearly nine years, learning some of it from his parents and the rest from YouTube videos and plenty of experiments.

"When I was working in Bengaluru, the idea was to serve something that people were not getting, something which is new to that area. So, Champaran Mutton or the UP-style mutton or chicken was something that was not very common there. So I thought why not start with that. But I had to switch my job and I came to Noida. And in Noida, you can find everything. But Namkeen Gosht is one dish, which I first cooked in Bengaluru and I felt this is something very unique. It's something I don't see anywhere being served. So when I came to Noida, I cooked it again. I served it to my friends. Everyone loved it. So I decided to start with this," said Kumar.

But why would a product manager start a food cart?

"I understand two things - fashion and food," said Kumar, whose personal Instagram handle, with 14,000 followers, is mostly fit checks. "Fashion requires capital. Food is something that you can start with minimum investment."

He and Singh began with Rs 35,000, spent on the cart, lights, initial cooking material and equipment. They first cooked at Singh's rented apartment, until the landlord objected to commercial cooking, and then moved to a cloud kitchen. Planning started as soon as both had moved to Noida, but then came the month of Saawan, when many in North India do not eat meat.

"We used that month to plan everything, from designing the cart to marketing, brand logo, perfecting the recipe, etc," Kumar said. "And then D-day came. We launched on September 5." According to the latest Laham reel, they also took the help of ChatGPT to streamline things.

The Team Behind Token Numbers

Laham is mainly a four-member team: Kumar, Singh, Kumar's sister Priyanka, who helps with cooking, and his childhood friend Arpit Singh, who runs operations. Rachit, a friend from college, handles billing, and other friends and colleagues pitch in with prep and packaging.

"I have been blessed with good friends in my life. So Shashi and I are the core members. My sister is a very good cook. I have learned a lot of my cooking from her. She helps with the complete prep and she manages the kitchen now. I optimise my time by just going in and cooking," Kumar said. "We have onboarded my sister and Arpit and we are going to pay them also. I trust them a lot with the business, with the food." They are also trying to hire helpers for operations, because a small team is no match for the overwhelming response.

From 2.5 kg To 25 kg

On the first day, for the first ten minutes, nobody came. "We were approaching customers to tell them what we're selling because the concept was unique," Kumar recalled. "My first customer was drunk. He tried one plate. And then he ordered another extra-large plate because he liked it. That gave me a little confidence." That day, they sold 25 plates. On the second day, 35. Laham began with 2.5 kilos of mutton. It now serves 25 kg and plans to scale further. Kumar says the taste has not changed with scale because they have fixed the quantity of every ingredient: "The taste always comes out the same." 

Then came the day the cart was turned away. They had sold 16 kg of mutton the previous weekend and planned to serve 20 kg.

"At 6 pm, we got a message that we won't be able to put up the cart because we didn't have the required permission. And 20 kg of mutton is a lot. We couldn't let it go to waste," said Kumar.

So, they turned to takeaway. "We asked people to place their order on our WhatsApp number. But then it got overwhelming as there's just one number and only two people looking at it. We then put up a story on our Instagram that we were packing six pieces and people could come and just pick them up. And we were sold out that day too."

The cart later moved to a private property where, Kumar said, the authorisation issues no longer arise.

Festival, Pandals And Rs 5-Crore Offer

After that, there was little looking back. Laham has been invited to Horn Ok Please, arguably Delhi's biggest food festival, and to Durga Puja pandals. From October 17, they set up at two such events over 5 days (four days at one location, one at another). That clashed with weekdays and office hours, so they improvised. "My sister took care of cooking when Shashi and I were in the office during Durga Puja days."

The offers have come too. "We were even valued at Rs 5 Crore by a person who wanted to have Rs 1 crore worth of shares in the company. But we don't want that. We aren't going to take investments. We want to bootstrap it from scratch," Kumar said. "It is something very close to me and Shashi. First we want to make a strong ground for Laham - the consistency, the process. We want to be an expert in this industry first."

The 3-Year Plan

This is not a whim. Kumar has a plan, and a clock attached to it.

"The idea is to open multiple carts. If we manage to do that, we build a brand name for Laham. Then I feel we would start getting into kiosks. A kiosk would need more investment, but not as much as a restaurant. The end goal is eventually a fine-dining restaurant."

The carts and kiosks would be in Delhi-NCR and Gorakhpur, his hometown. "But the end goal is Mumbai."

The expansion to multiple locations, he said, might also be accompanied by a wider selection in the menu. He said every dish on a longer menu, chicken first and perhaps Lal Maas or Ghee Roast later, has to be as good as the Namkeen Gosht.

"For three years, neither Shashi nor I will take anything from Laham. Whatever money we would be earning, we would invest it back in Laham. After three years, our decision would follow whatever state Laham would be in," said Kumar.

So when does the day job go? Not soon. "I need my job to fund Laham as well," Kumar said, pointing to costs such as the upcoming event rent of around Rs 70,000. For the first one or two years, he does not think either founder should quit. He does have a number in mind: Rs 4 lakh a month for himself from Laham.

The Price Of The Hustle

What the numbers don't show is the burnout creeping in. The two men have handed their weekends over to the dream, and given up on sleep and rest for it.

"I love travelling but there is no time for it. I haven't been able to meet my friends. I moved from Bengaluru to Noida because my family is close by, in Gorakhpur. But I haven't got the chance to meet them because even weekends are packed now. When I think about it, I just tell myself that it's time to hustle because when else will I do it. That's how I push myself."

He has thought about a way out: "My sister and Arpit have been working with us. They know how Laham works. Eventually we would want to go into autopilot mode, where Shashi and I manage planning and the strategy. If I make my sister the head chef and hire two more people to help her, I can manage content and strategy better. We can't manage everything. Right now, I'm the only person doing both the cooking and content, and it becomes very hectic."

Asked what he had not expected from his passion project, Kumar did not mention the Rs 6-lakh revenue or the queues. He talked about a little girl who did not eat mutton. Her parents told her it was home-cooked food and that she should try it. She loved it, and the following weekend she came back with her friends.

For now, Kumar seems to be bracing for it all, a reflection of which is the "555" tattoo on his right arm.

"It's an angelic number. It means a change is coming in your life, so buckle up. And I got this tattoo just before moving to Noida. And after getting it, I switched my job, started Laham. I think it's working for me, to be honest," he said.

It really is working for him, to be honest.

This is a non-sponsored feature. You can find Laham at the Sector 76 market in Noida.