MUMBAI: Aspect Group walked into the Restaurant India Awards and walked out with two trophies. Hitesh Keswani, managing director and chief executive of Aspect Hospitality, was crowned “restaurateur of the year,” while the group’s Asian quick-service brand, Nom Nom Express, retained its title as “QSR chain of the year.”
The double win lands squarely across Aspect’s two biggest bets: full-service hospitality and the increasingly competitive quick-service segment. Together, the awards recognise a group that has spent recent years building consumer-facing brands, chasing operational polish and pushing innovation across formats rather than picking a single lane.
“I’m truly honoured to receive this recognition from Restaurant India. This award is not mine alone, but it also belongs to the 700-plus passionate people at Aspect Hospitality who bring our vision to life every single day,” said Hitesh Keswani. He called Nom Nom Express’s win “even more special,” framing hospitality as a people-first business built on the work of chefs, service teams and managers rather than any single name at the top.
The restaurateur award specifically credits Keswani’s role in shaping Aspect Group into a diversified hospitality operator, spanning premium dining concepts and QSR brands, with a consistent focus on differentiated guest experiences and sustainable growth rather than expansion for its own sake.
Nom Nom Express, meanwhile, picked up its QSR chain of the year title for the second consecutive year, a repeat win that Aspect QSR’s chief executive, Sandeep Singh, treated as validation rather than routine. “Winning the ‘QSR Chain of the Year’ award for the second consecutive year is a proud milestone for the entire Nom Nom Express team. This recognition is a strong validation that we are on the right path,” he said, pointing to the brand’s scalable, innovation-led model and its focus on quality, speed and consistency.
The wins sit inside a much bigger machine. Aspect Global traces its roots to 1956 as a family enterprise and has since expanded into bullion, realty, infrastructure, hospitality, sports and entertainment. Its hospitality stable includes Akina, Opa Kipos, Radio Bar and The Coconut Boy, Brunch & Cake, while its sports interests stretch to the Tiigers of Kolkata, the Varanasi Mahadev Ascenders and the Tiigers of Mumbai in wrestling.
For Aspect, the awards are less a victory lap than a marker. With 700-plus staff behind the two brands and a sprawling parent conglomerate backing them, the group looks less interested in resting on the trophies and more focused on turning them into momentum for what comes next.