In a nutshell:
A beautiful home stay in a period look modern building (few decades old) with modern amenities, real antique furniture, a super warm & helpful caretaker Rupkumar, a talented estate manager Ananya, fabulous home cooked food , a beautiful traditional mudhouse & a lot more.
Address & other details:
Instagram – NA
Facebook – NA
Google – the garden bungalow
Phone number – +917811938934
Tariff for 2: ₹3000-4000 depending on the room
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
When we had some important work in kolkata for a weekend that needed us in person but not time consuming, we decided to drive to Santiniketan. So habitually we asked our friend Indrajit Lahiri , popular as foodka. His top of the mind recommendation was Amoli, but we could not get in touch with them for booking.
So internet search started. This guest house did not show up in any popular search inspite of having high rating on most booking sites. We liked a property while browsing make my trip & this showed as ‘additional suggestion’. As soon as we started seeing the details, we realized that there was something unusual about it. Something nice, something simple. We decided to book through make my trip.
We realized later that make my trip charged almost 40% more than the rate at which we could have booked, had we done that directly.
Booking directly can be done through their website. Or by calling the number I have provided in contacts section above. They don’t have an Instagram ID or a Facebook page as I write this post – METAVERSE (read meta averse) , ha ha, pun intended.
We loved our stay here & would love to go back again for sure.
Here are a few clarifications:
1. If you want white gloved service, please do not go here. Every interaction here is like one’s experience of going to a relative’s home & staying there. Nothing is ‘formal’. Warmth of human behaviour is so abundant here – from the security person to each & every person we met. We felt ‘at home’ here.
2. All staff members have been born & brought up here. So all of them might not speak in English / hindi fluently as you might expect in a chain hotel.
3. Everything works smoothly here on good human to human behaviour. Like it was, pre liberalisation (when service providers were not perceived to be servants by a section of the consumers).
4. Respect of house rules is important to ensure an enjoyable stay. Ordering food in time, checking out in time, not playing loud music, not drinking in common areas etc.
5. Curious travellers would love this place – those who go to a place to experience the place, soak in its customs, traditions, cuisine, culture etc. However those travellers who believe in ‘I want it my way’ might not enjoy or get a fulfilling experience.
Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:
On the day of the check in, we got a WhatsApp message asking if we wanted lunch. We got to know that lunch & dinner are not made in anticipation here. Rather it has to be informed 2-3 hours in advance. The food is made only after final orders placed on WhatsApp.
As we approached the guest house, we realized it was in a quaint residential neighbourhood & that ensured that there was almost no traffic or external noise in the area.
The gateway of the guest house was a piece of art.
As we drove in, we were shown the parking area. The person in charge of security helped us with the bags till the reception.
The reception was managed alone by Rupkumar. He patiently answered all our questions & helped us get over the check in quickly. He is not the typical plastic smile ‘professionally trained’ reception person but a genuine, warm, soft spoken person with a willingness to help.
We chatted with him for some time about the property, about him, about our travel etc. he helped introduce us to Abhijit ( +917557861225 ), who drives an electric rickshaw. Abhijit showed us around Santiniketan (in our car) as requested by us. He is very knowledgeable about the place. Highly RECOMMENDED.
We were amazed at the attention to detail towards the little nuances of re creating a century old look while creating a new building. The only thing that we found to be a mismatch to this building were the ceramic tiles. I personally felt that the tiles just did not go with anything around. It was almost like dessert served on a beautiful, gold plated, hand crafted bowl, placed on a plastic table mat!!
Our room was on ground floor. Each & every furniture was antique. Very well maintained. Perfect in terms of cleanliness, spaciousness, washroom etc.
The mud house in the campus is a 2 storeyed one, built with a real lot of care & thought. We saw many two storeyed mud houses in Bolpur. This mud house at the Garden bungalow looked like a palace as compared to the other ones. Immaculately maintained.
A small lily pool in front of the mud house was just beautiful.
The mud house is rented out for photo shoots & movies. The owner also stays here when she is visiting. This is not rented out for stays.
We got to chat with Ananya, the lady who was overseeing the estate. She shared stories about the estate, about Bolpur & more. We had a great small adda.
We had dinner at the semi covered common eating area.
We had pre ordered mixed vegetables & mutton curry.
The mixed vegetable curry was like in North Indian commercial eateries, but made with a lot of care, good ingredients, right amount of oil & good spices. Loved it.
In hindsight we should have oregano ordered a daal also.
The mutton curry was just fabulous. The mutton pieces had been cooked really well. The meat was falling off the bones at the slightest nudge. The gravy was so good that we licked it off till the last drop. My partner who usually just picks up the meat & discards the gravy, was also seen enjoying the gravy just like that (using spoon)!!!
We enjoyed these with hand made phulkas.
A really memorable meal & a lovely stay.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY YUMMRAJ