Kolkata (Calcutta) Restaurants

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This is simply the best quality restaurant in Calcutta at any price - and this is a bargain. There are 3 branches - I suggest the central city one on Outram Sreet. Go for the lunch buffet as an introduction/sampler.

Favorite Dish: Grilled Bhetki - succulent white fish from the Bay of Bengal - fresh, fresh, fresh. A delicate sauce of mustard, chili and parmesan. Excellent selection of Deserts.

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Those who know me well, also know that I am a great food lover and like to explore, experience various kind of food. I noticed, I never wrote anything on our best food " The Lucknawi Gharana", though I am a great connousier of Biryani dishes. I have great penchant for Hyderabadi Gharana and Lucknavi Gharana. The two Gharanas of Nawabs ( mainly Nawab Wajid Ail Shah of Lucknow ( read more about him in my off the beaten path tip) and Nizams of Hyderabad), the two have patronised, experimented, indulged, promoted and pampered the greatest Chefs of India.their culinery expertise is now known all over the world. The various Kebabs, Biryanys came from their stables only. They perfected the art of Mughlai cooking, though the original Mughal food came from Samarkand in Central Asia with Babar the Emperor!

Lucknow, regraded as one of finest cities of India emanates a culture that combines emotional warmth, a high degree of shophistication, courtesey and love for gracious living. The sublime cultural richness famous a" Awadhi Tehzeeb", blends the culture of two communties living side by side for centuries, sharing similar interest, speaking a commmon language and sharing their food too. Many of the cultural traits and customs peculier to Lucknow have become living legends today. The credit for this goes to the Nawabs of Awadh, who took very keen interest in every walk of life and encouraged them to attain a rare degree of perfection.

Like various art form, the culinary art of Lucknow was also raised to a fine art under Royal patronage. A favourite past time of the nobility of Awadh was perfecting the art of cooking. The Bawarchis and Rakabdars of Awadh, by their expertise of Blending spices, achieved a high degree of finesse in cooking and presentation of food that too culinary art to the high realms.

Arsalan takes a leaf from the culinary extravaganzas of the Nawabs and brings to you a "Re-past". In an ambience and hospitality, evocative of those golden times when every meal was a feast and every feast a gourmet's delight.

Favorite Dish: We too, on Sunday ( 14th Sept'08) decided to discover exotic creations from the secret recipes of Nawab's kitchen brought to Kolkata by the chefs of Arsalan:
We treated ourselves with Kasturi Kebab, Peshawari Tikka Kebab, Lukhnavi Mutton Biryani Spl, Gosht Kali Mirch, Keema Naan, Chicken Rezala , Butter Naan and Firni as dessert. Each dish was a signature dish and I think I orederd too much food for only three of us. You can guess the quantity was generous and the size of the Naans was so big that we had to get it packed for Munu.

Out of all the food we ordered, I felt Kasturi Kebab, Gost Kali Mirch ( Mutton made with Black Pepper) and Biriany was real exotic. It was a great feeling and great treat for all of us. To taste all the items there one by one I think I will have to make at least 10 repeated visits as to explore the gastronomic delights of Nawbabs require time, patience, ambience, wilingness to explore the inner secrets of the food, only then one can enjoy the exotic food there. We found the quality of meat to be of very good. Only good quality Rewazi Mutton can make the Signature dishes a perfect one!

My this tip is also dedicated to my VT friend Kashi Mallaya ( Mallyak of Sydney)and Faiza_Ifrah ( Canada).

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Before going to Thailand our tirade with Thai food continues. On 18th November'09 we celebrated our 18th Anniversary, so we decided to go again for traditional Thai food at a Thai speciality restaurant Benjarong at South City Mall. This Thai speciality restaurant is part of a chain of restaurants from Chennai ( Madras) based company Oriental Cuisines Pvt Ltd. After placing order we were given a plate full of Mian Khum, a traditional Thai appetiser normally given to the guests in traditional Thai villages. It comprises of roasted coconut, dice of lime, ginger, chillies, onion, and peanuts wrapped in a leaf mostly spinach. Then it is smeared or dipped in to palm jaggery sauce and eaten. Each delicious bite is packed with the perfect blend of Thai flavours that includes, sweet, the salty , the sour and the bitter. It was superb appetizer in one word. We then had one of the most exotic starter Pla Meak Tod Nam Prik Pow, it is crispy fried squid with roasted chilli paste and Thai basil leaves. The main course consisted Pla Jalamat Phad Nam Prik Pow, stir fried Pomfret with roasted chilli paste. Khao Pad Tuley, Garlic & tomato flavoured rice tossed with sea food, Guay Tiew Phad Kemao Goong ( Prawn) Thai flat noodle tossed chilli & Thai Basil sauce with prawn. Lastly we were given Rambutans( Malaysian Litchi) with Fig & Ice cream scoops and fruits as dessarts. It was great and grand food and evening.

Favorite Dish: We loved all the food we were suggested and that also makes a revisit is due some other time.

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On 25th October'09 we had grand Thai dinner at Baan Thai, the speciality Thai restaurant of the Oberoi Grand( Five Star), courtesey our Bangladeshi VT friend Dr.Mahmud Hassan and his wife. We were also joined by our other VT friends from UK, Joice & Jean Chaurasia, who stayed with us for a couple of day on their visit to Kolkata.

Describing their Thai food in detail would be difficult as each and every dish was painstakingly and authentically made by their executive chef, which was confirmed by Dr.Hassan, who have spent long time in Bangkok and have tasted best of Thai food in classy restaurant of Thailand. We savoured all the dishes including Pad Thai, Satay( I dont' recall all the names).
Baan Thai is an exclusive dining place in Oberoi Grand with proper genuine decor and sitting arrangement in Thai style. The soft Thai music, the soft sopken waitresses clad in perfect Thai dinner/ festival attire create perfect ambience as if we are dining in at the best place in Thailand. Each and every food on the menu is signature dish of their executive Chef, who is a five star chef from Thailand. We had Thai food at many places in Kolkata and in other cities of India but this was surely the best and tastier than before.

Favorite Dish: I dont recall names of all the dishes but I think Dr. Hasan would surely remeber, I shall get it from him.
The Satay, Pad Thai, the desserts, The Prawns, Lamb meat all of them was excellent. The Red wine we tried was also superb, perfectly chilled and tasted great. Rakhi, Jean, Munu, Joice & Manu Boudi tried Thai soup, which was also great.

It was a real great experience!

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Yesterday, we thought we shall have Thai food. So we set out for Salt Lake, Eastern Kolkata about 27kms from my residence at Golf Green in South Kolkata. This time we selected Dash of This Dash of That a speciality restaurant, specialising in South East Asian food. we took one Indonesian shrimp rice called " Nasi Goreng, one Chilly Crab dish Singapore style, One Special Garlic shrimp, Indonesian style and one Mix Hakka Noodle Vietnamese style. The owner of this restaurant has spent many years in South East Asia on business and have learnt the delicate cooking style of Indonesia and Vietnam. The result is superb cooking and very tasty food. But, I must comment she laks the art of marketing her expertise. She has kept the prices of food and drinks at star level, depriving the general foodies of the real taste of South East Asian food. May be she wants to cater to only very exclusive crowd with lot of money. Where as the Salt Lake City Centre is having at least 12 restaurants, including many resto pubs, jamming session, KFC, Lounge Bars all are thriving with young crowd but this place despite very clean is deserted. At 9.30pm only Rakhi, Munu and myself were the customer on a busy Sunday evening.
I noticed, it was not the food ( which was very tasy) but the price of food and drinks ( the cheapest indian whiskey was Rs90/- plus VAT tax 12.5% for a 30ml peg) are astronomically high. The Cocktails like Bloody Mary were all more than Rs300/- plus. In a better restaurant like Bar Be Que nation it was Rs150/- per glass inclusive of tax. Besides this advertisement is totally missing. We too learn about this place from a book published by Kingfisher beer. Otherwise we had been to City Centre more than 100 times.

Favorite Dish: We must admit, though it was expensive, we really savoured the Chilly Crab, Nasi Goreng Rice and Garlic Shrimp of Singapore Style. All of them were just superb. I wanted to meet the lady owner of the place but she was not there.

May be a little bit of marketing will make this place thriving with customers!! City of Calcutta has no dearth of foodies, who like to go out and spend money for better eating! And Salt Lake itself is full of moneyed people.

Goodluck to them!

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On last 29th May'09 we decided to explore China Town again. We had been to China Town of Tangra, Eastern Kolkata for more than 100 time in the last 4/5 years, we have been going to many places most to our favourites, Shun Li, kimling, Beijing, Big Boss, Golden Dragon etc. But that day we thought of trying some small place , our wait and search ultimately paid off. We discovered a real good eating place. The price of the dishes were almost equal to the other restaurants we normally frequent, but the food was really really delicious. In one word heavenly.

We ordered Garlic Pepper Chicken as a starter, which was liked by Munu so much that she almost consumed half of the full plate. For main course we had Mix Cantonese Rice noodle in sauce, Chilli Green Pepper Chicken, Cantonese Chinese Chopsuey.

We also learnt it's sister concern of Beijing but the cook and staffs are different. The drinks are far cheaper than Beijing and they make good cocktail. I had two Vodka based ones. The potions were good, three of us could not finish the food there. So we took a doggy bag , which Munu had next day.

The service was very good and sincere, we were served by the two boys who were very polite. We had to tip them well as they just earned it.

We shall visit this place again soon.

Favorite Dish: Garlic Pepper Chicken and Mix Cantonese Rice Noodle, was heavenly.

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We have been thinking of visiting this place for sometime as the owner of Comics and The Wall wanted us to try this place for Bengali cuisine. About after a year of the invitition on 2nd Jan we decided to visit this place all of sudden.
As the name suggest this place is situated at 6, Ballygunge place and serves speciality Bengali food.

We tried Beckti Paturi ( Beckti fish smoked and cooked in mustard paste), Chital Muitha ( Fish balls made from Chital fish and cooked in gravy), Mutton Pulao ( Bengali style), Plain steamed rice, Tel Koi ( Indegenous variety of Telapia fish). The food and cooking style was superb and very tasty. Prices are bit high.

Favorite Dish: Chital Muitha

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Flurys has been around for many years. It has a prime location on a busy corner in Park Street, and is the best place for cakes & desserts. They bake on the premises, and the variety is quite unbelievable. Dozens of different pastries, cakes and wicked looking desserts tempt the palate.
Flurys also serve good meals- breakfast is western-style, and the toast is always crispy and warm.
The dinner menu is international- with fish dishes dominating.
So- any type of meal can be had at this very popular restuarant. They open early- we had our very first meal in Kolkata early one mornig (7.30am) here,and have frequented it often.
The cakes and coffee are a real treat.
Flurys has an art-deco theme- large mirrors, chandeliers and art-deco paintings. There is a huge tank of sea-water filled with colourful tropical fish (very relaxing to watch)
The service depends on how busy the place gets- on quiet days (seldom), it moves swiftly. But when it is packed- as it is most of the time- be prepared to wait-( a long time.)

Favorite Dish: The cakes & pastries are very good. Crepe's & fresh creme with berries. Excellent. The coffee is also very good.