For restaurants, a lot can ride on a name. Making it deviant and novel is one of the best ways to make it instantly likeable and memorable. A witty play on words helps the restaurant to stand out and get a cult following, especially if the name ties back to the food served there. We asked five popular city restaurants with unusual names on what was the germ behind the idea.

Kaala Chashma, Thane

You guessed it right—this fun restobar is inspired by the Bollywood number, Kaala chashma jachda hai. Even their logo is inspired by the hand gesture that’s used to denote sunglasses. The ambience is quirky, fun and bright and does complete justice to their tagline, Eat At The Bright Side. Its owner Kabir Samtani tells us how the brand name has helped in marketing the place. “The idea was to have a fun, catchy name that would set the tone for the vibe of the place. Back then, the song Kaala chashma was popular and people were making TikTok videos with black shades on—that just did it for us. Since the cuisine served is modern Indian, we thought it would be a great idea for the dishes and drinks to have fun Bollywood names. People found it funny and quirky and once they were here, they began to relate to the restaurant and its menu, and took pictures, which in turn worked as effective marketing.”