Rish Saini Get in touch

Rish Saini

Hospitality founder and operatorGurugram

Rish Saini seated at a bar counter in a black leather jacket

From the restaurant floor to the whole idea.

I build and run hospitality businesses. Twenty years in hospitality, starting on the restaurant floor, shape how I design the rooms, the brands and the systems behind them.

Explore the work My story

Since 2006, in brief

I started on the floor. I still work from it.

Most of my working life has been spent inside businesses I help run. That is where I learned to design: by seeing what a room, a menu or a brand costs once the doors open.

  1. 2006

    Started on the restaurant floor, serving tables in the United States.

  2. 2009

    Became a director of Mrs Kaur’s Bakery & Cafe, my father’s bakery and café.

  3. 2011

    Founded Underdoggs, a sports bar built for many sports at once.

  4. 2017

    Designed my first Underdoggs venues: Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar.

  5. 2018

    Started Breakthrough Design Studio and began creating concepts for other owners.

  6. 2025

    Designed the Mrs Kaur’s Bakery & Cafe flagship on Golf Course Road, Gurugram.

  7. Today

    Building Underdoggs and Mrs Kaur’s, and AI for Hospitality alongside them.

Selected work

Three projects, three kinds of contribution

  1. The central island bar at Underdoggs Aerocity under a slatted timber ceiling, with screens along both walls.

    Underdoggs

    Punjab, New Delhi and Gurugram · 2017–2019

    Founder & Director · designed five venues

    Venues designed by someone who also has to run them, for a brand built around the busiest hour of the week.

  2. The navy shopfront of Mrs Kaur’s on Golf Course Road, with a gold script sign, glazed doors and planters in front.

    Mrs Kaur’s Bakery & Cafe

    Golf Course Road, Gurugram · 2025

    Director · designed the flagship

    A flagship for a twenty-year-old family bakery that many people grew up with: familiar to them, and built to work from breakfast to dinner.

  3. The Ālaya dining hall by day: a central aisle of green marble tables and cream chairs under timber beams and fabric pendants, with the bar and windows beyond.

    Ālaya Café & Bar

    Shillong · 2026

    Breakthrough Design Studio · concept to opening

    An open brief taken all the way: name, identity, rooms, food and drink, training and launch, planned as one engagement.

All work

How I build

Four rules I build by

  1. Start with how it will trade

    Before a drawing, I want to know who comes, when, and what they spend. At Uptown Escape that question produced the whole concept: a café by day and a cocktail bar by night.

  2. Design for the ordinary night

    Opening night flatters every room. A venue has to work on a quiet weekday as well as on a sold-out match night, for the guests and for the team.

  3. Live with the consequences

    I run the businesses I design for, so I see what slows the bar, which tables stay empty and what the team quietly works around. That goes into the next decision.

  4. Write down what works

    When something works, I turn it into a method the team can repeat. AI helps me turn those methods into systems, which I share through AI for Hospitality.

Where I’m building now

Two businesses I run, and one place where the methods go

  • A bar seen through rounded arch openings, a football match playing on screens on either side.

    Underdoggs

    Founder & Director · since 2011

    A sports bar brand built for many sports at once, with food, games and its own beer. Ten locations across India, with six more under fit-out.

    underdoggs.com (external site)
  • A long glass bakery counter of pastries and cakes set into navy cabinetry, with arched shelving above.

    Mrs Kaur’s Bakery & Cafe

    Director · since 2009

    My father’s bakery and café, founded in Khan Market in 2006 and twenty years old this year. I direct its food and beverage development.

    mrskaurs.com (external site)
  • Rish Saini reviewing a tablet with a colleague at the host stand at Ālaya Café & Bar

    AI for Hospitality

    Founder

    Where the methods from these businesses become practical guides, templates and real examples for restaurant, bar and café owners, with a free weekly newsletter.

    aiforhospitality.in (external site)

Through the lens

I photograph the places I build

A camera is also how I check whether a room’s light, materials and sightlines hold together. Most people meet a venue in photographs before they walk in.

See the photography
  • The Ālaya rooftop terrace at night, large rattan pendants glowing over the seating, with the lights of Shillong beyond the railing.
    Ālaya Café & Bar, Shillong · Breakthrough Design Studio, 2026
  • Screens showing a Manchester derby football match above a ring-shaped UNDERDOGGS sign and a lit bar.
    Match night at Underdoggs, 2026
  • A tray of glossy croissants above a row of chocolate brownies.
    Mrs Kaur’s bakery, 2025
  • Holi revellers covered in coloured powder crowd together, one smiling man making a victory sign.
    Holi, 2024
  • A courtyard of carved white stucco arches above a timber balcony, Morocco.
    Morocco, 2024

Notes

Writing from the operator’s side

Short essays on building hospitality businesses from the operator’s side.

All notes

Get in touch

Building something in hospitality?

Get in touch about Underdoggs or Mrs Kaur’s, joining the teams, press and speaking, or AI in hospitality.

Ways to reach me
Ālaya’s glazed frontage at night, rattan pendants lit along the timber canopy and planters below.
Ālaya Café & Bar, Shillong · Breakthrough Design Studio, 2026