This is review of a special bengali set menu (I call it BENgali BENto Box) by this global cuisine eatery.

In a nutshell:

An eatery who serves select dishes from different parts of the globe, serious about making good food from good local Produce & good quality Imported meats & fishes.

Address & other details: hello pumpkin

Instagram- hello pumpkin

Facebook – hello pumpkin

Meal for 2: ₹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.

YUMMRAJ rates all the food items & then gives 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

This is a concept eatery by chef subhayan das. Pre lockdown he was running a lovely restaurant named poppins hotal. We had met chef about a decade back, at olive Mehrauli . He was fresh out of college then, & was making & serving churros at a Sunday brunch. Those were one of the best churros we have ever had.

We started following him on social media & have eaten at all places he has worked at / run.

When we saw a durga pujo menu of chef subhayan on social media, we decided to place order.

There were few numbers & a simple WhatsApp conversation closed the ordering. Payment happened thru a link that get sent.

Food arrived thru wefast. Contrary to my earlier exoerience with wefast, they are fast nosediving into a delivery disaster zone. The man came 20 minutes later, citing ‘I got list coz did not put my google map on’!!!

The set menu was short & perfect for two people . 4 items – 1 starter, 1 main course, 1 cereal, 1 dessert. There were 3 platters – fish, kosha mangsho & vegetarian.

The food was Almost there in terms of the traditional dish (authenticity) , but with Some or the other liberties taken in each dish.

We loved our lunch.

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

Dimer devil – well I would call it dimer angel (pun intended). No chillis, nothing devilish. Ha ha. Or DIM BHADROLOK:)

Well, the quintessential dimer devil sold in kolkata is a lot meaner, hot, has more robust flavors & taste than the version that hello pumpkin sent us. That doesn’t make it bad at all.

What is dimer devil – it’s a Bengali’s interpretation of the British devilled eggs (devilled being used to denote – not in its pure form). A boiled egg is coated with cooked minced meat (keema), potato, spices & then crumb fried. There are versions with & without the keema as well.

The dimer devil by hello pumpkin was more a saheb (British) version – almost no chillies, very subtly spiced, use of best quality organic farm eggs, cooked to perfection (not hard boiled, not runny, just right). It was more a British dish than being a Bengali dimer devil. Yet, if I consider it as a food item without comparing with anything – it was very good.

Rate it 4/5

Triangle parotas are uniquely bengali – salt is added so that it can be munched as it is. Team hello pumpkin added ajwain to it, that made it interesting & new. Perfect texture parotas, as good as they can get. Rate it 4.5/5

Kosha mangsho had a dhania patta seasoning – once we removed it, it was the classic kosha mangsho & I must tell u this was better than what most restaurants serve – be it in kolkata or in other cities. Way better than kosha mangsho at oh calcutta.

The sweetness from caramelised onions, the chilly aftertaste, the smoothness of spices, the outstanding texture of slow cooked mutton, the mingling of flavors of meat & spices. Outstanding. Rate it 4.95/5

For dessert there was ‘shoktigorer lyangcha’. Shoktigorh (shaktigarh – a place in Bengal, a short drive from kolkata). Someone long back started a shop that sold elongated, deep fried sweets named lyangcha – conceptually like gulab jamun but made in a different way with different ingredients). It Vance popular & now there are many shops on Feb highway selling this sweet.

In bengali sweets that are with ras (sugar syrup) , the thickness of the liquid makes a huge difference in taste & texture of the sweet. This lyangcha by hello pumpkin faced a problem like this – the Ras was slightly thinner than ideal. Result – in one of the two lyangchas, the ras permeated too much, thus making the body soft & breakable. The other one was perfect. Microwave 12 seconds yielded best texture results.

The center of the lyangcha had good quality khoya kheer (reduced milk). That made a huge difference. The taste got a balance of sweet & salt.

Rate The texture of broken one 2/5. Rate the taste 4.5/5. If I have to compare with a traditional, commercially made lyangcha. This one was like home made. It was not made effortlessly. I could sense the struggle of making it. If I think of this as just another sweet with no strings attached, this was a lovely sweet made with great ingredients.

Rate the sweet 3.25/5 based on averages mentioned above.

The joy we got from eating the sweet was surely 4/5. The unbroken one was 4/5.

Overall rating of food from hello pumpkin averages out to 4.4/5

Highly recommended by YUMMRAJ