In a nutshell:

A great place to enjoy an evening out with friends and family over adda and some very good Bengali food ( at times with a twist).

This post also covers a nabobarsho (Bengali new year) special menu.

Address & other details:  Oh Calcutta

Meal for 2: 1000 onwards

Cuisine type :  vegetarian  nonvegetarian

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 u r in a hurry:

Oh Calcutta has been around for quite some time now. They have a chain that serves almost uniform food across (a bit non uniformity I guess happens due to difference in water, local ingredients etc). So even if one is used to a Kolkata restaurant, he / she might not find the Delhi one very different.

Food here is more ‘restaurant like’ than home like, more biyebari (marriage feast) type & closer to Thakur cooked food than the one cooked by ‘ma’ or one’s favorite kakima/ mashima.

There r quite some dishes that are difficult to make at home & hence the best thing to do is to eat it here. Few other dishes have a twist to the tale & they r surely unique.

I find some people say it is expensive & others say it is not. Yes, it is expensive, as compared to say Swadhin Bharat or Young Bengal but then prime real estate, full service, air conditioning and everything else that a fine dining offers comes at a cost. Anyway, pricing is a matter of personal income & propensity to spend & hence I wud not comment on this.

The Mumbai Tardeo restaurant  had a retro look to it, like most other Oh Calcutta restaurants. The furniture was wooden & old style.

There was a large painting on the wall depicting Kolkata.

A hand pulled rickshaw was displayed outside (the concept had come from china in early 1900s and has stayed back).

During the festival they had further decorated the place with shola (a white pith, dried milky white spongy plant matter that can be shaped) carvings.

Service was excellent thruout – very warm & professional, except on one occasion where two boys messed up.

Menu card was very detailed & amply described the dishes for people who are new to the cuisine.

Loved the food in general. Super loved the nabobarsho special.

Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:

Tomato chutney had a smoked feel, had a perfect balance of salt, chilly and sour. Loved it and rate it 4.5/5

Raita was made from Hung curd – it was creamy , intense and super Yumm. Rate it 4.25/5

Aloo kabli as a munchy was very interesting. It had a great balance of salt, chilly and sour as well. Rate it  4.25/5

Mochar chop ( a crumb fried round cutlet with banana flower filling) was very good.  It had a very thin but very crisp outer layer that was very enjoyable.

The banana flower filling was very good on its own but I have had this better at oh Calcutta KolkatA as well as gurgaon. I guess it has to do with the quality of banana flower. Rate it 4/5.

Rosun bhapa macch was a very interesting dish. It was boneless steamed fish with a very garlicky sauce. Super loved it. The fish was very fresh and just excellent. The flavours of garlic as well as fish made their presence felt. Rate it 4.5/5.

Mutton tikia was a dish that we were told was ‘under trial for an upcoming nabobarsho ( Bengali new year) festival’. We tried it and loved it a lot. Intense flavor and taste of mutton made it special. Excellent I Wud day. Rate it 4.5/5

The Dip was made of hung curd and fried garlic. Hung curd made it creamy and nice. Garlic flavor was just too good. One of the finest dips I have had in a while. Loved eating it as it is and also with the tikia. Rate it 4.95/5

Dhakai fish tikka was really good. It has boneless pieces of fish that was flaky and juicy. Loved the flavours and the burnt edges. Rate it 4.5/5

For main course we had Kosha mangsho and luchi. Kosha mangsho ( slow cooked mutton) was a bit sweetish due to it having a lot of onions. Slow cooking had made the meat super supple and fall off the bones. Rate it 4.5/5

Nolen gurer ice cream is something that i wud hv had several times at oh Calcutta. It still never attempts to bore the tastebuds. The flavor of nolen gur was very enjoyable and so was the mawa mixed in the ice cream. Rate it 4.75/5

The Fresh lime soda was a bit over sweet. It was very good otherwise. Rate it 4/5.

Aam aada peach shorbot was a vey new offering. Loved the punch in the aam aada drink. Rate it 4.5/5

Orange and mint drink was also very good. It was however more ‘known’ as compared to the previous 4.25/5

Day 2:

Nabobarsho festival – we revisited the restaurant for nabobarsho festival.

 

Chingri kolmi cutlet was a great Cutlet in general. It had thin very crisp outer layer, chingri and kolmi filling with strong flavours of fresh and good prawns. The taste was overtly prawns as well.

Kolmi preferred to remain in the back ground from the olfactory aspect as well as from the tastebuds point of view – from the first bite to last bite. Rate it 4.25/5

Mocha ilish was a very interesting dish. Ilish fish fillet was deboned and then a cover of mocha ( banana flower) was put around it and cooked. The result was very interesting. Flavours and taste of both mocha and ilish made their presence felt. The outer layer was a bit burnt and that made it feel better. Fish was excellent. Rate it 4.5/5.

We then moved to chingri potoler dolma ( as per menu card). What came was potoler dalna renamed and served as potoler dolma. I wud hv never ordered this had I known what was coming. Potoler Dolma is an Armenian inspired Bengali dish that has (usually) a meat filled inside a green vegetable called Potol ( parwal in Hindi). We imagined that it wud b a curry with potol stuffed with chingri (prawns).

It turned out that they made a curry with potol and chingri floating beside each other!!!!

Must say that the curry was excellent. The potols were young and nice. The prawns were super fresh. The curry tasted excellent.  Wud hv rated it 4.5/5. However due to the Googly inflicted upon us by the restaurant re-rate it as 2.5/5.

Tel koi was an aberration from the way it is made at most homes however it was fantastic. We polished off the gravy to the last drop ….the fish was super fresh and Yumm. Rate this dish 4.5/5

Parshey shorshey was very good too. The mustard had immense punch. The fish was very good quality and very enjoyable. Unlike in most commercial establishments, the fish was not over fried and that made it very good. Rate it 4.25/5.

Borishaler chingri pulao was a masterpiece. Flavourful rice, lovely flavours of ghee, perfect balance of taste, excellent prawns with awesome texture …… Every element was beyond expectations. Rate it 4.95/5

Sajnekhalir mangsher jhol was a relatively thin gravy ( jhol) of mutton. Good balance of spice and meat flavours.

The meat was supple and Yumm to taste. Rate it 4.5/5

Patishapta (dessert – rice pancake with coconut and Jaggery filling) was good to taste but was dry by the time we ate it. A rush of guests came when we were about to order dessert and also the last dish. A commotion broke loose among the staff and I guess someone forgot to place order for our last dish of main course. Someone got our dessert b4 main course came etc etc

The taste of the patishapta was very good. The filling was awesome. Am sure it wud hv been a great dish had we eaten it immediately after being made. The state in which we ate it, wud rate it 3.25/5.

We were also served paan wrapped in a dried leaf. The paan was very good. Not overtly sweet but very balanced in all ways.

Overall rating of food at oh Calcutta averages out to 4.3/5

Wud surely revisit.