In a nutshell: A sweet shop that stands out for its unique & outstanding offering in a city that is dotted with sweet shops in every nook & corner. Address & other details: Alight at Central metro station (towards Poddar Court end). U come across a statue of Maharana Pratap on ur left if u r facing Girish Park. Once in front of the statue, … Continue reading Haji Allauddin sweets (Phears Lane, Chuna Gali, near Central Metro station, Kolkata)
A cafe that is perfect for getting together & enjoying a adda amidst a very good ambience & some excellent food
Inside the cafe
Address & other details: Cafe’ The’
Meal for 2: Rs. 250 onwards
Cuisine type: Vegetarian & non vegetarian
Background:
The Bengali’s love affair with tea started in the 1800s when the British started mass producing it in India. Tea stalls sprung up over time all over & so did the ‘cabins’. Famous among many were Anandi Cabin, Basanta cabin etc which wud typically serve tea with Anglo Bengali snacks. For a good section of the middle income group, these cabins were equivalent to fine dining places that they wud visit on occasions.
Fish Kabiraji @Cafe’ The’
Bengali cuisine of today has many British influences like batter fried fish, orly, chops, cutlets, fries , kabiraji, dimer devil etc. By the way, Kabiraji is the Bengalification of the English word ‘Coverage’ since the fish / chicken is deep fried after covering it with whipped egg. ‘Dimer Devil’ is the Bengali version of ‘Devilled Egg.’ It is called ‘Devilled’ coz the original yolk of the egg is replaced by minced meat / potato filling.
Dimer devil
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
Cafe’ The’ menu card describes it as ‘the favourite place to meet & eat for artists & poets, musicians & singers, writers , thinkers, lovers, young & not so young’. It is also mentioned that the ‘cha & chop’ (beverage & snack) menu is inspired by the Cabins that dotted North Calcutta.
The very well illustrated menu card @Cafe’ The’
Apart from that there r ‘not too many restaurants serve this in Kolkata’ items like Welsh rarebit, Escalope of Chicken Milanese, fish pie, eggs Benedict etc.
The place is ideal for adda (a Bengali word for nonstop chat on a vast range of unrelated topics) & get togethers with friends & family. The ambience is very good & colourful without being jarring.
The waiting staff are attentive, warm, knowledgeable but not intrusive.
We loved this place so much that we walked in for a second time in a span of two days. We were lucky to eat the food served here during a Bangladeshi food festival named ‘Festive Platter from the Kitchens of Erstwhile Nawabs of Dhaka’. Also tried the regular fare. Super liked the food.
Bangladeshi food festival @Cafe’ The’
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to njoy Reading:
A Bengali cuisine restaurant with disgusting staff whose facial expressions suggest they r doing u a favour, South Indian Udipi Restaurant kind of interiors, a super long menu card of which I guess 60% items r not available & they serve some average to good food.
padmaparer rannaghar
Address & other details: Padmaparer Rannaghar is located on the same footpath as Gariahat Bata. Walk towards Golpark & this restaurant is on ur right.
Meal for 2: Rs. 200 onwards
tablemats that look like banana leaves
Cuisine type: Vegetarian & non vegetarian
Background:
Bengali food is usually associated with fish, meats & everything non vegetarian. However there r some extraordinary vegetarian food items made from leaves, stems, flowers, roots etc that cost minimal but taste YUMM e.g. Mocha (banana flower), thor (the pith of the banana stem), oal (root), bok Phool (flower), kumro Phool (pumpkin flower), kochu pata (leaf), kochu (root), lau shak (leaf) etc. These have unique tastes & flavours and most of these r different from the mainstream usually available Indian vegetarian food.
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
The Restaurant has come up in a place that housed a South Indian Udipi restaurant. So we saw people still coming in & asking for dosas & idlis. The Restaurant Management has decided to keep some of South Indian items in addition to a long list of Bengali items in the menu.
Bengali + selected south Indian food
The menu card is very very interesting. It has a super long list of traditional Bengali food items. Infact, I came to know of this restaurant from facebook – someone found it interesting & had uploaded it & I shared it. However what was disturbing was 60% of items in the list were not available. I understand that all ingredients are not available on all days – Good restaurants do a ‘curry of the day’, ‘starter of the day’ etc for such items instead of giving hope to the customer & then saying ‘we do not have this’.
the colorful menu card
Waiters were dressed in Panjabi pajama – traditional Bengali dress. Even the younger guys were strange in behaviour. Forget a warmth in dealing with guests, they were not just cold – they were freezing cold. Either they r paid low / simultaneously had fights at home before they came to office or someone forced them to come to work on a day when they were expecting a holiday. In case the Owners r reading this post, they must act on it – send in friends / relatives posing as normal customers & let them experience it.
Smile is something they r not used to & the behaviour was as disgusting as it cud get or even more than that. In fact trade unionized waiters of erstwhile government run eateries were better than these chaps.
Dining Hall at Padmaparer Rannaghar
I am sure I will not revisit unless I am dying to have tasty bengali food specifically in Gariahat.
At 1.10 pm, the restaurant had 2 tables filled – first it felt strange. Later I guessed the reason.
Food was good in general – some were great, some average & some aweful.
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to njoy Reading:
In a nutshell: A Legendary Sweetshop selling traditional as well as unusual Bengali sweets – Good enough to justify a 1 hr local train trip from Kolkata to just feast on these. Address & other details: Ask anyone at Chandannagore Train station or virtually anywhere in Chandannagore Meal for 2: Rs. 60 onwards Cuisine type: Vegetarian Background: the Portuguese connection Bengali sweets are different from … Continue reading Surjya Kumar Modak (Chandannagore, West Bengal)
In a nutshell: A mid-sized Hole in the wall eatery that serves super YUMM Anglo Bengali cuisine. Address & other details: Enter Sadananda Road from Rashbehari more side & walk towards Hazra. The shop is on the left side. Meal for 2: Rs. 150 onwards Cuisine type: Vegetarian & non vegetarian Background: Bengali cuisine of today has many British influences like batter fried fish, orly, … Continue reading Apanjan (Sadananda Road, near Rashbehari Crossing, Kolkata)
Spartan interiors, fast service, tasty long lost Bengali food & easy on the pocket.
the logo
Address & other details: Radhuni
Meal for 2: Rs. 100 onwards
kochu pata chingri
Cuisine type: Vegetarian & non vegetarian
Background:
Bengali food is usually associated with fish, meats & everything non vegetarian. However there r some extraordinary vegetarian food items made from leaves, stems, flowers, roots etc that cost minimal but taste YUMM e.g. Mocha (banana flower), thor (the pith of the banana stem), oal (root), bok Phool (flower), kumro Phool (pumpkin flower), kochu pata (leaf), kochu (root), lau shak (leaf) etc. These have unique tastes & flavours and most of these r different from the mainstream usually available Indian vegetarian food.
Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:
Unfortunately, availability of most of the items mentioned above have limited availability nowadays in bigger city markets of Kolkata. Some of these dishes r difficult to make & the rest r painstaking to make / need lot of patience. A visit to Radhuni can however bridge this gap – u can enjoy the excellent taste traditional Bengali vegetarian gems without having to sweat it out to make these. Some of the ‘vegetarian’ dishes contain shrimps etc.
Menu card with prices
Radhuni also has a long list of Bengali nonvegetarian dishes that r good but not outstanding. However, if u r visiting Kolkata / planning to eat out local cuisine, it cannot get better than this at that price.
The service is fast. The people here r nice – they r not typical trained Restaurant Server types. They r normal human beings who respond well to good behaviour from customers.
The interiors r Spartan – a lot like South Indian Udipi Restaurants.
Prices r unbelievably low (by Delhi / Mumbai standards).
A super duper single menu joint that is just a hole in the wall shop but serves some excellent kababs.
superb sutli kabab at Adam’s
Address & other details:Alight at Central metro station (towards Poddar Court end). U come across a statue of Maharana Pratap on ur left if u r facing Girish Park. Once in front of the statue, take the road to the right (if u r facing the statue). Take first right turn from there & go straight. The shop is on the left near Haji Allauddin Sweet shop.
Shop Board of Adam’s kabab
Meal for 2: Rs. 80 onwards
Cuisine Type: Nonvegetarian
Description:
Many years back, I was floored by the sutli kabab here.
For the uninitiated, Sutli kabab is made by wrapping a paste of meat & spices around a metal sheekh, tying it with a cotton thread & then doing it on a barbeque pit. Once the kabab is done, the thread is removed & the kabab is served.
Sutli kabab being prepared
The sutli kabab I had then was unbelievably soft, spicy, hot, awesomely tasty & was just out of the world. I thought it to be the best in its category then. Earlier this year I had a similar thing at Babu Bhai Kababwale, Chilti Qabar, purani Dilli. I was very impressed but I thought that Adam’s was better.
sutli kabab on Barbeque pit
Back then Adam’s Kabab name was not written anywhere. The elderly guy at the shop used to sit on the floor. This time we found a young guy with earphones manning the shop, sitting on a high cement slab with Adam’s kabab written. In case u r wondering about the name Adam, it refers to the first human being according to Islam who is also considered the first prophet.
An encounter with piping hot Rosogollas at a para (neighbourhood) shop floored me & all my co-snackers. I won’t even suggest that this is the best rosogolla in Kolkata but on its own, it is excellent to taste, especially when hot.
piping hot roshogollas
Meal for 2: Rs. 20 onwards
Cuisine Type: Vegetarian
The story:
Hot piping Rosogolla is a unique thing to have. It tastes like no other sweet – warm when served, smell & taste of fresh chhena (curdled milk) but different from just chhena. Bengalis also vouch for its medicinal properties – supposedly helps recover from bad stomach.
I got initiated to this many years back at a shop near my erstwhile office – He wud sell rosogollas during the day but the hot ones that he used to serve in the evening were way better.
the nondescript sweet shop where we had the roshogollas
As I moved to Delhi NCR few years back, I was surprised to find that people prefer cold refrigerated rasgullas. When cold, the rosogollas tend to become brittle & hence a bit chewy.
The current encounter with hot rosogollas happened by chance while I was visting a cousin’s place. I was so impressed by the hot rosogolla that I shamelessly asked for more to be told that they had got only a few. I went out to the shop immediately with everyone at his home & told the shop owner ‘ we r so impressed by ur rosogollas that we all came to eat more.
A long History of excellence, sadly struggling to keep up with its earlier Glory – A lunch here left us with a cold feeling & also food that was surely lower than expectations.
Shiraz as a name rings a bell with Most Calcuttans (since the Days when Kolkata was Calcutta). I have had many good experiences in the past here like many others. Over the years I have seen a decline & had stopped going here & insead to the newly opened Arsalan. Similar experiences cud b heard from others as well. This time around I made it a point to revisit Shiraz & check it out myself…………….
Burrah Kabab @ Shiraz
There are two restaurants at Park Street Mullickbazar area. One is a few shops away from the other. The newer one is closer to the crossing & the older one is a few shops away. The newer one is swankier as well. We decided to go to the Old one.
Menu Card @ Shiraz
The old restaurant has a non airconditioned ground floor & an airconditioned first floor. Furniture, look & ambience of the first floor is much upgraded as compared to the ground floor. The look at first floor was that of an old Eightees restaurant. Cubicles made with set of sofas facing each other. Lighting was dim.
colorful picture studded menu card
The staff of this place need a special mention. Some of them seem to walk out of a 70’s movie. They have been in the same job of waiting tables for decades, have got bored enough & that shows on their face every moment, appear at the tables like robots without any facial expression & at times frown if too many questions are asked. The uniform has quite a ‘Nawabi Khansama’ look. The relatively younger Manager who I guess was the only person in suit, was also quite serious faced. He was continuing to speak to me in English even though I was speaking in Bengali. It was then that I did what I do best – mentally poke. I striked a conversation on ‘what is popular her / what is legendary her, I have come from far to eat here/ what is ‘mash-hoor’ (famous) here etc & within 3 -4 sentences each, the customer – server barrier fell apart. We were talking to each other as two human beings & the interaction was excellent since then for the rest of our stay.
mutton chaap @ Shiraz
The food is surely very good in isolation but as compared to others, this one takes a beating – Straight away from Arsalan Park Circus & surely from Aafreen, Metiabruz. We were unlucky to get stale meat in one of the dishes, very happy to get a replacement after we reported the same & even more disappointed when the replacement turned out to b stale as well.
Raita @ Shiraz
However, inspite of that, people throng to this place in thousands, more due to emotional reasons than pure culinary ones.
