Radhuni (Mirza Ghalib Street / Free School Street, Kolkata)

In a nutshell:

Spartan interiors, fast service, tasty long lost Bengali food & easy on the pocket.

the logo

Address & other details: Radhuni

Meal for 2: Rs. 100 onwards

kochu pata chingri

Cuisine type: Vegetarian & non vegetarian

Background:

Bengali food is usually associated with fish, meats & everything non vegetarian. However there r some extraordinary vegetarian food items made from leaves, stems, flowers, roots etc that cost minimal but taste YUMM e.g. Mocha (banana flower), thor (the pith of the banana stem), oal (root), bok Phool (flower), kumro Phool (pumpkin flower), kochu pata (leaf), kochu (root), lau shak (leaf) etc. These have unique tastes & flavours and most of these r different from the mainstream usually available Indian vegetarian food.

Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:

Unfortunately, availability of most of the items mentioned above have limited availability nowadays in bigger city markets of Kolkata. Some of these dishes r difficult to make & the rest r painstaking to make / need lot of patience. A visit to Radhuni can however bridge this gap – u can enjoy the excellent taste traditional Bengali vegetarian gems without having to sweat it out to make these. Some of the ‘vegetarian’ dishes contain shrimps etc.

Menu card with prices

Radhuni also has a long list of Bengali nonvegetarian dishes that r good but not outstanding. However, if u r visiting Kolkata / planning to eat out local cuisine, it cannot get better than this at that price.

The service is fast. The people here r nice – they r not typical trained Restaurant Server types. They r normal human beings who respond well to good behaviour from customers.

The interiors r Spartan – a lot like South Indian Udipi Restaurants.

Prices r unbelievably low (by Delhi / Mumbai standards).

Continue reading “Radhuni (Mirza Ghalib Street / Free School Street, Kolkata)”

Bijoli Grill (Dilli Haat, opposite INA Market & Banga Bhawan, Delhi)

In a nutshell: A pretty good option for those missing good Bengali food in Delhi / those who want to try out Bengali food without spending much. Good but not the best for connoisseurs. Meal for 2: Rs. 250 onwards Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian Description: Fish fry was excellent – Flaky & juicy fish within, flavors of Dhania & very crisp crumb outer layer. … Continue reading Bijoli Grill (Dilli Haat, opposite INA Market & Banga Bhawan, Delhi)

Love & Mustard (1st floor, Galleria Market, above Le Marche, Gurgaon)

In a nutshell:

A good start but a bad downslide in just one year of opening the restaurant (unless the chef was on holiday the last time I went there & his trainees had cooked the food)

Address & other Details: Love & Mustard

The entrance

Meal for two – Rs.200 onwards

Cuisine type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

A Billboard in Galleria Market - Love & Mustard

Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:

When we started going to this tiny Bengali (including jewish, persian, anglo Indian, mughal food popular in Kolkata) joint in Galleria market, the food was good – It was always suboptimal as compared to the best food in that category in Kolkata but was quite good as compared to similar other options in Gurgaon. This time we went there, we found that the menu card had changed & a lot of good stuff had been removed. When we started eating, it became a real challenge to control the frustration of paying & eating sub ordinary food ….. U get much better than this at people’s home in Kolkata…………… leave apart restaurants……… For Bongs, this can still b a bearable eatery to have dinner on those ‘no cooking today’ days…………… but surely not a good place to have a great ‘eat out dinner’ ………….. maybe just OK OK dinner.

interesting table top menu card

Nowadays in Bengali marriages Dinners r quite cosmopotlitan & they r usually served by caterering companies. However, the lunch that u get in a typical biyebari (marriage) is usually a multi course bengali lunch – for the close relatives & family members – it is usually cooked not by hi end caterers but groups of cooks referred to as ‘thakurs’ – I can vouch that all such lunches that I have had in the last ten years were better than the thali at Love & Mustard. So, the owner of the restaurant might as well get a good Thakur to get the food right.

Love is lost (love & passion for making good food) & the mustard is not fresh & tangy any more!!!!

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

Continue reading “Love & Mustard (1st floor, Galleria Market, above Le Marche, Gurgaon)”