In a nutshell:

A super tiny 9 seater restaurant that serves outstanding bengali ‘home food’ , at times with a twist. This was the closest to home cooked food among all my bengali food eat outs that I can remember.

Address & other details:  Big Bongg Theory

Meal for 2: Rs 500 onwards.

Cuisine type :  vegetarian & non vegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Short description – in case ur in a hurry:

As I mentioned in my earlier reviews on Bengali food, there is two broad types – Small quantities of food cooked at homes vs. large quantities of food cooked by professional cooks (thakurs). Most good bengali food restaurants serve food that is close to what the thakurs make.

Food at Big Bongg Theory was more like excellent home cooked food. Most of the food was subtle, not on the face, delicate, yet YUMM to the core & full of flavors. While some were exactly how the original recipe is, some others had interesting twists to the original.

Big Bongg Theory restaurant is actually a shop in Shahpur Jat, split into two parts – one for the see thru kitchen & the other being the Dining Room. I don’t know how the dining area originally was, but the use of wood & glass doors makes that small room get a lot of natural light & gives it a bigger feel.

The Dining room had some interesting photographs on the wall.

There was a small cupboard with some books kept on top of them.

The Owner came in a few times to speak to guests, discuss order and we cud also see her actively involved in the kitchen. Not just giving directions, but doing things on her own. Hats off. That’s amazing passion….

The furniture was heavy wooden furniture.

Menu card was outstanding. They looked like old post cards. Each postcard had a particular section – like starter veg, starter non veg, main course veg etc etc.

Loved reading the one liners at the bottom  of the postcard.

Service was by only one person. She made us feel at home and helped us take decision on menu as well.

Food was thoroughly enjoyable. Loved it.

Detailed description – in case u have the time to NJOY reading:

We started lunch with Chalkumro bora. It was totally unexpected. Buttery feel in terms of texture but watery and Juicy.

Thin layer of mustard in the middle. Crispy on the outside. The outer layer was more like a tempura. Rate it 4.5/5

Kumro o dhonepata bora was another unique creation. Unlike most leaf bora s ( vada / pakora), this one did not have the leaf randomly mixed to the batter. Here the leaves were single layer, flat and covered with a crisp translucent layer. The lines of the leaf cud b clearly seen , with the kind of transparency.

The bora was crisp, had perfect seasoning and retained the full taste and Flavor of the leaf ( pumpkin leaf).

Rate it 4.5/5 again.

The third dish we tried was Phish fry. No it’s not some unknown thing but a fish fry, written that way to mimic the Bengali pronounciation. This fish fry was different than all Anglo Bengal originated fish fries I have ever had.

This did not have the usual crumb fried dark brown outer layer. It rather had a thin, light brown, crisp outer layer that accentuated the taste and flavor of the fish.

The fish was layery, soft and juicy. Loved it.

Rate it 4.5/5 again.

Aamada shorbot was nice. It had flavours of Aam aada ( a kind of ginger that has flavours of mango). The shorbot had very tiny pieces of aamada floating in it as well. Quite refreshing I must say. Rate it 3/5.

We also ordered Mint shorbot – this was probably the only item that I did not get. I don’t know if the proportions went bad but it ended up tasting like electral water that is had as an ORS.

The drink had a punch though, what is called ‘jhhaj’ in Bangla.

I rate this dish 1/5

For main course we started with niramish torkari (means mix veg curry). The translation actually made the dish 10 times less attractive than what it actually was, due to the sheer bastardization of dishes by that name in delhi.

It takes a genius to make humble aloo, pumpkin and gourds into a curry as good as this. Super simple, no obvious ‘on the face’ masalas. Each veggie retained its uniqueness of taste, flavor &  texture. Unthinkable, unbelievable, simply awesome. Rate it 4.75/5.

This is not recommended for those who like only strong flavors & taste.

We then moved on to Boal maacher jhol – gravy of boal fish. Boal is s fish with the Middle bone only and that makes it easy for all to have. The fish was excellent in itself and so was the preparation.  The fish was YUMM and full of fish fat that added to the yummness.

The gravy was somewhat hot, the spices made their presence felt but still the gravy managed to be not ‘on the face’. It was just wow. Rate it 4.75/5

We also tried Mangsho. Gravy of slow cooked mutton. There was a tinge of sweetness, the gravy was thick and somewhat hot. Since meat and gravy was slow cooked together, the flavours of meat entered the gravy and flavours of spices entered the meat.

The meat was super soft and really YUMM.

Loved it and rate it 4.5/5

We tried musur Dal. Just as simple and good as it is at any bengali household. Not sure people used to spicy & thick kaali daal etc  wud appreciate this subtle daal in the first go. Rate it 4.25/5

We ordered Jhuri aloo bhaja with the daal – deep fried potato matchsticks. They were super crisp, perfectly salted and just too good. Rate them 4.5/5 as well.

For dessert we had Mishti doi. We asked if it was made there or it was bought from outside. We were told it is made there. It tasted more like the good thick mishti doi that shops sell. This was unlike the ‘made at home’ feel which every other item had.

Rate this 4/5

Overall rating of food & beverages at big bongg theory averages out to 4.1/5

Overall rating of just food averages out to 4.5/5

I wud surely go here again to try other food items. Wud look forward to revisiting.