In a nutshell:
A beautifully restored heritage building multi-storeyed restaurant, really beautiful interiors, well behaved & smiling staff, not yet fully trained, excellent ambience, period feel, great place to catch up with friends & guests from other cities, good food
Address & other details:
Instagram : Chaudhuri & co.
Facebook: Chaudhuri & co.
Meal for 2: ₹1000 onwards
Cuisine type : vegetarian & non vegetarian
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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
I remember reading somewhere on the social media that Chef Joy, (the founder of the erstwhile restaurant in Calcutta, Bohemian), had planned the food at Chaudhury & company. Since Bohemian was a marvel way ahead of its time, we thought it’s a great idea to visit this new restaurant.
As we reached the restaurant, we realised that it is owned by the same people who run the famous Lucknow cuisine restaurant Oudh in Kolkata. The location of the restaurant is not in a busy street or Mall, but in an obscure lane in Southern Calcutta. So i guess the staff do not depend on casual foot falls, but on planned visits.
The restaurant is located in a beautiful heritage building. As we walked inside the restaurant, we saw a beautiful lobby area, reminding of houses from a century back.
We were shown to our table on the second floor. We took the lift. There was an option to walk through the beautiful staircase as well. On both sides of the staircase, they were beautiful sketches / some paintings from old Calcutta. Rather, sketches that reminded of old Calcutta.
all food was served in traditional Kansa ware.
A switch on the table ensured that we could easily call the server in stress of having to wave at him to draw his attention.
The staff in general were very polite and warm. However, it seemed that most of them were new or not fully trained. They were quite a few faux paus in terms of wrong dishes, making its way to our table than what we ordered. In general, we never mind on such situations, as long as the food is outstanding.
The menu card was very, very interesting. It had detailed description of the dishes and also a lot of fun Heritage newspaper Style advertisements and notes. It was quite fun going through the menu card. Evoked a lot of conversations, I must say.
The concept of food at this restaurant was around Pice hotels of Calcutta. I have written extensively about the pice hotels of Calcutta over the last decade and half these eateries are known for serving simple home like Bengali food to people who live in the city far from their homes in rural areas. This is a certain amount of ‘eatable everyday, comfort food’ kind of feel in the food of pice hotels and also freshness of ingredients that always puts pice hotels apart from the normal restaurants.
After eating at Chaudhury & Co., this is what I concluded
- If an eatery needs to be of course, air conditioned, if the washrooms need to be of course, perfectly maintained, if the service needs to be almost white gloved, if food is slightly less important to you than the conversations with your friends for a social get together, then Chaudhuri & Co. is the right place for you.
- If experiencing the real Heritage hotels is what you want, the experience of eating with strangers is an option, if chaos is tolerable as long as food is outstanding, don’t come here, just go to a real pice hotel.
Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:
we started with Tetuler sharbat
The menu card described ‘Sweet and tangy tamarind drink, perfect to beat the heat’.
What was served to us looked greenish. It Tasted like mango!! Then on enquiry we saw this was a mistake by the kitchen. Twice we were told this is correct. Then admitted. Then mistake again. Quite a few faux paus right at the beginning.
Then came what was called the final tetuler sharbat. It seemed to be very similar to the mistaken aam shorbot. Absolutely similar spicing . Very chatpata. Very generic. Good to taste. Rate it 3/5
Daab sharbat
‘Soft tender coconut cream combined with refreshing tender coconut water’ read the menu card.
The drink was not heavy, not thick, not watery. It was mildly coconutty . Good to taste. Rate it 3/5
We had picked two drinks that seemed different from the usual, when we read the menu card. Turned out to be not so different but generic & good.
Bhetkir annyorokom fish fry
‘Bhetki fillets sandwiched with a filling of water spinach seasoned with spices, cheese; deep fried’ read the menu card.
Usually we don’t like the industrial cheese that is served in most commercial mid tier restaurants in India. Inspite of the cheese, we ended up liking the fish fry. The fish was very good – juicy & flaky. The outer layer was perfectly crisp. The unusual ingredients made their presence felt. Rate it 4.25/5
Chingri diye biulir dal – Lentils simmered with prawns and mild spices. This turned out to be a really good daal. The chingri pieces were enjoyable. However the chingri did not make much difference to the flavour of the daal. Rate it 4/5.
Mourala Bati Chorchori was good to taste. Simple. It celebrated the fish. Rate it 4.25/5
Steamed Basmati Rice – it’s sad we were served basmati rice as the only option for rice in kolkata while there are so many local aromatic rice varieties in Bengal.
Loita Bhorta was a good dish to taste as it is but the fish had taken a slight backseat. The home versions I have had before at friend’s homes have been more fish flavoured. Very good to taste the way it was. Rate it 4/5
Morich Mangsho was mutton cooked with pepper as the heating agent. Soft, nice pieces of mutton. Good gravy with a feel of pepper in the aftertaste. Rate it 4/5
Dhakai Kalo Bhuna Mutton was better. Loved the intense taste & flavour. Soft pieces of mutton. Rate it 4.25/5
My memory says we liked the one at Himur Henshel even better.
Aamer Chutney was really nice – though it felt out of place in winter month of January. It had a good balance of sweet, sour, heat (scoville index) & salt. Something seasonal would have been more fun. Rate it 4.5/5
overall rating averages out to 3.86/5
We liked the food but will never return back again. That’s us – hardcore ‘food only matters’ kind of people. We would rather eat at a real pice hotel….
for everyone who is looking for a great place to catch up with friends & family, this is a very good place.