Bengal Hotel – fowl o mutton (No. 14 Bus stop, Behala, Kolkata)

In a nutshell:

My childhood favourite – Re-visited after many years & Loved the simple menu , some good & some great food at prices that surprise.

Bengal Hotel – Moton o fowl

Address & other details: Bengal Hotel

Meal for 2: Rs. 200 onwards

fish fry at Bengal Hotel

Cuisine Type: A bit of Vegetarian & predominantly Nonvegetarian

Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:

As kids we used to go to this super tiny restaurant to have fish cutlets. The ambience did not matter then coz we were not aware of ‘ambience’ in an eatery & now it does not matter to me as long as the food is superb. We used to drool over the food then & this time around I found it very good, if not as good as before.

mutton cutlet at Bengal Hotel

The owner sits right at the entrance – He handles cash & remote manages the place. There is one guy who I have seen as the manager for many years now – order taking from customers & coordinating. Food is served by ‘chhotus’.

Fish roll at Bengal Hotel Behala

The most interesting thing at this restaurant is the rate chart. The menu is printed on a board on the wall – permanent (I think it was same when I was a kid). The price of the dish is written with chalk everyday besides the description. All items r made in limited quantities & as soon as an item is sold out, the manager runs to the board & rubs off the price. Popularity still soars & by 6.30 pm onwards one by one the items start getting sold out. The shop opens at around 3.30 pm & shuts by approx. 8.00 pm.

The ‘interesting’ rate chart at Bengal Hotel, Behala

They also pack ‘fry & eat’ chops & cutlets. I have heard that NRIs carry these back home. I carry these back to Gurgaon at times.

‘fry & eat’ chops & cutlets in case u want to pack it for home

The food is Anglo Indian – Chops & cutlets that have become Bengali now & mutton & chicken curries that have a wide following in Britain these days. We tried the mutton cutlet, fish roll, fish fry & also mutton kosha. Liked the mutton cutlet, liked very much the fish roll & fish fry & super loved the mutton kosha.

Detailed Description – In case u have the time to njoy readin:

Continue reading “Bengal Hotel – fowl o mutton (No. 14 Bus stop, Behala, Kolkata)”

Yeti – The Himalayan Kitchen ( 50 A, 2nd Floor, Hauz Khas Village, Hauz Khas, New Delhi)

In a nutshell:

Quite interesting & different ‘Himalayan’ cuisine with some ‘too good’ & some ‘just good’ dishes.

The signboard with most letters missing.

Address & other details: Yeti

Meal for 2: Rs. 400 onwards

Cuisine Type : Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

the interiors

Short Description- In case u r in a hurry:

The Himalayan Range is so vast that the word ‘Himalayan cuisine’ covers a plethora of cuisines of places situated on the Himalayas. Yeti serves Nepali, Bhutanese, Tibetan& North eastern Cuisine. Pretty interesting variety I wud say, for someone in Delhi – almost no one has thought about it before.

We heard about this place & decided to try Nepali cuisine. The menu card had precisely 99 items across the cuisines mentioned above. They include so far  unknown (in Delhi) dishes & also the already popular momos, noodles & thukpas. So to focus on one cuisine at a time was the best way to do justice to the lunch.

starter platter at Yeti

As we approached the restaurant, we saw the signboard & were surprised to see missing letters in it – in a new restaurant????

The restaurant is situated in the first floor of a building almost near the gate of the Historical ‘Hauz Khas’ lake. The interiors are nice with Himalayan motifs and masks all over. The music being played here is also folk tunes from different regions – played a bit louder than ‘enjoyable’. Space being a constraint, the tables are a bit close to each other. In the peak of lunch hour, the chatter from all tables & the music make sure that decibel levels are quite high – makes u talk louder than usual.

masks on the wall

Like many other theme restaurants, they can sell the music CDs that they play / small motifs masks etc as most of these r unusual to find in Delhi.  

The serving staff are quite well trained & warm. The one serving us always had a smile on his face. His understanding of the items on the menu seemed to be good & he cud answer all our queries regarding food on the menu.

Serving time might be an issue for ‘non thali’ items on the menu in peak hours. We almost waited for 30 minutes for a main course dish. However what came post that was a marvel as it was freshly cooked from scratch.

The coordination however seemed to be an issue. We cud see people waiting inspite of having empty seats inside. Make sure u book a table before u land up here are it is already pretty popular.Waiting without booking can b quite a harrowing experience.

The starter thalis are humungous & in fact the quantity is too much to the point of being silly. Two people with average appetite will be almost full after just having a veg / nonveg starter platter. A good idea can be to have ‘half plate / Full plate’ or ‘bite size sampler / Big bite sampler’ etc.

Not all items on the menu are ‘exotic’ or special. There are simple dishes like stir fried potato with sesame seeds or masala chana that taste good but r not the ‘oh my God, this is out of the world’ variety. Some others like chicken fry, goat lung fry, ‘wai wai’etc. are very good.

Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:

Continue reading “Yeti – The Himalayan Kitchen ( 50 A, 2nd Floor, Hauz Khas Village, Hauz Khas, New Delhi)”

The Monk (Galaxy mall, near 32nd Milestone, NH8, Gurgaon & DLF Place Mall, Saket)

In a nutshell:

Near authentic excellent Chinese & Far East Asian food in Gurgaon

Address & other details: The Monk

the monk

Meal for 2: Rs. 1000 onwards

Cuisine type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian (yes, inspite of being called MONK)

Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:

The setting is unique – an open restaurant inside a mall – no walls – logically people passing by can peep into ur plate & comment on ur food – However it being a scarcely populated mall, nothing of that sort happens & u can have a really good time with friends & some good food. The Live kitchen is right in part of u & so u can also choose to sit on the kitchen bar on high stools.

Live Kitchen at The Monk

Loved the sweet & salty Crispy duck wontons, enjoyed the outstanding crystal dumpling shrimp, the steamed dumpling prawn with coriander & an excellent baby lamb dumpling with oriental chillies. For the maincourse, we drifted from China to Malaysia & had a mindblowing grilled salmon with penang curry in sticky rice. The dessert was fabulous ‘home made’ coconut caramel ice cream topped with mixed nuts. Red wine poached Rum & raisin ice cream is the best dessert in this place though.

My Chinese friends said ‘this food is 85% original’ during their visit to India. So I guess that speaks a lot.

Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:

Continue reading “The Monk (Galaxy mall, near 32nd Milestone, NH8, Gurgaon & DLF Place Mall, Saket)”

Peter Cat (Park Street, Kolkata)

Contributed by Guest Blogger Neha Manchanda.

YUMMRAJ has been to Peter Cat many times & loves the sizzlers & Chelo Kababs. In fact after eating the ‘close to original’ Chelo Kabab at a posh Iranian restaurant owned by an Iranian Lady in Boston, MA, USA, YUMMRAJ thought – Well this is out of the world but the one at Peter Cat (at 1/8 th the price) is on the same lines & very good too. So if the Boston one is 4.5/5, this one is surely 3.75/5.

Read YUMMRAJ’s review of Peter Cat here

In a nut shell:

The best place to have Chelo kebabs and Sizzlers

Address: Park Street, Next to Music World, Opposite KFC Kolkata

table mat at Peter cat

Peter Cat was the first restaurant where I had my first meal on landing in Kolkata some 10 years back…and the love for it continues. Step into Peter Cat and you can smell the aromatic sizzlers and see tables lined with Prawn Mocktails, Chelo Kebabs and Sizzlers (not in that order though). I love Peter Cat for its Chelo Kebabs. At any given day, at any given time (lunch / dinner) there is a bee line of people outside the restaurant waiting patiently for their turn to dig into those soft chelo kebabs and sea food sizzlers.

Continue reading “Peter Cat (Park Street, Kolkata)”