In a nutshell: A relatively new tibetan food restaurant in a very unlikely location that serves some great Tibetan and other oriental style beef dishes Address & other details: shim shim Meal for 2: ₹300 onwards Cuisine type : Very few vegetarian, mostly Nonvegetarian Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill … Continue reading Shim shim ( bright street, Park Circus KOLKATA)
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:
Very interesting ambience & food – can turn a bit adventurous as well. Check it out if u wanna venture outside the usual Chinjabi (Chinese food Punjabified) stuff that u get in Gurgaon.
At the entrance of the restaurant
Meal for 2: Rs. 300 onwards
the eating hall of the restaurant
Short description – In case u r in a hurry:
From outside it looks like a good Goa shack with outdoor sitting.
Outdoor sitting, Tibetan Kitchen
As u walk in, u enter a very colorful room with Tibetan pictures & drawings on all walls, fans on the ceiling (did not see airconditioners), British style ceiling with wooden beams.
the ceiling of the eatery
The menu cards are ‘black & white’ print-outs on normal paper & then laminated. The waiting staff wears a jacket in which the restaurant name is written. They talk to u from ‘one person’ to ‘another person’ level & not ‘trained waiter’ to ‘customer’ level. I admired the innocence of the guy when we asked ‘R the prawns fresh?’ he said ‘of course, I went myself to the market to buy it today’. They are very polite & smiling but I guess under tremendous pressure to deliver.
Tibetan lamp shade in the balcony outside the eating hall
The adventure bit – The restaurant is located right next to a ‘Wine Shop’. People come in groups, buy booze, have it in open air, bring along with them to the restaurant & drink straight from the bottle. The side effect may be that the guys in the table besides u start laughing 5 times louder at almost non laughable comments post they get drunk etc. So in a way the place might look like a cheap bistro that u get to see in Clint Eastwood movies. The only difference is that some families do come also.
the superb pork
The food is very good but not extraordinary. It is better than the food at Blue Poppy Kolkata.
Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:
For someone who claims that his raison d’être is food, not having written even once about food seems like a bad idea. But, at the outset, let me admit something. Great lover of food though I am, my knowledge of cooking ends at preparation of instant noodles! Of course, any bachelor worth his salt will vouch for instant noodles being an absolute lifeline, especially, if you are staying far away from home, in a place where the food sucks….
momos
This brings me to two of my favorite cuisines, Tibetan and Chinese. Indians at large and Bengalis in specific have this uncanny ability to embrace things they like to such an extent that one is reminded of the saying, “more loyal than the king….”
So, cricket happens to be the unofficial national game of India, Bata happens to be un-official national footwear company of middleclass India, and Chinese food, believe it or not, happens to be the national food of India too!!!
And though the Tibetan nationalist movement has not made much headway into the vice-like grip of the Chinese over Lhasa, it’s a different story all-together as far as the battle gastronomique being fought between China & Tibet is concerned, which for the un-initiated, is being fought on the streets of Calcutta!
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