Kolkata (Calcutta) Restaurants

As a foodie, I have tried out different cuisines at various restaurants across India. But what sets Marco Polo In China apart is its classy ambience and of course, the cuisine.
Starting from the reception till we left the restaurant premises, the hospitality was fantastic, and I was thrilled after going through their menu! What not do they have? Hunan, Szechwan, Cantonese.....you get all that and much more.
The food here is extremely authentic - at par with many five star hotels that I have been to. Perhaps, a reason behind this is that all the chefs here are from Korea. And the best part is that you can get the dishes modified with one or two extra ingredients to suit to your taste, i.e., they provide customized service!
A visit to this Chinese outlet is a must if you're planning a visit to Kolkata.

Favorite Dish: Chong Quin Lamb and Ginger Capsicum rice. Try out some Chinese tea after your main course. They're simply awesome!

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On 12th October our VT friends from Bristol ( UK) Grets & husband David arrived in Kolkata for a few hours on their last leg of tour to Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sikkim & India. We had decided that we shall go for Bengali dinner but when we learnt that they will have to leavefor airport at 3.30 AM to catch flight for London, we changed our plan to have Indian Tandoor or North Indian as experimenting Bengali dish ( Its normally spicy) for dinner would require proper rest for the night.

Then we moved in to our favourite place Zaranj on Sudder Street one of the better eating places of Kolkata( They are a speciality Restaurant for North West Frontier Province Cuisine & Indian Tandoor food)
What we had was a pure delight for us and Grets & David said they were delighted too!

Favorite Dish: We had Murgh Nawabi ( Chicken Reshmi Tikka Kebab), Machli ( Fish / Beckti) Masala Kebab for starter with our favourite beer Kingfisher. Then we had Zaranji Raan ( Whole Leg of Lamb marinated and then cooked in slow fire), Butter Naan ( Indian Bread made with yeast), Maa Ki Daal ( Thick Lentil soup with butter) for main course. All the dishes can be rated very high for our Indian palate, I am sure both David & Grets enjoyed it as we did.

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Dont make a mistake of going to this place by the look of it. The first person you encounter with is the main stewart who is perhaps the most ill-behaved man of the hospitality industry. Most probably the owners of this eating joint do not take into account the importance of customer satisfaction. Otherwise the present crew(staff) would not be there.The food is good but you will loose your apetite the moment you find cockroaches all over your table.But one thing that i would like to say is that their is no repentance from the side of the staff members for their mannerisms. The ambience of the place is good. Inspite of it a person will not be ready to go their a second time.
With this kind of behaviour this place will not last long in a place like Calcutta where along with good food,and ambience good behaviour and service matters a lot.

Favorite Dish: We had Peshwari Raan, a Full leg of Lamb marinated for 24hrs and then Barbecued in slow fire. We had Lasuna Paratha, parathas ( a type of Indian bread smeared with Butter prepared in a frying pan) made with garlic. The food was really excellent but we lost apetite.

I will not recommend this place to anybody.

It is clear that management has left this place to be run by their staffs only. Who is ensuring that this place will close down soon. It was not only us who found this place BAD, but the couple next to us found small cockroaches in their table, and a team of ladies were having Kitty party also loudly commented that their service is very poor and crew had no time to look after them.

Oh Calcutta is a great place to dine. Situated in the centre of the city in Forum Shopping Mall on Elgin Road. The menu is full with ample sea food varieties to keep you licking your fingers. Its specialty is the Jumbo Prawns & the Boneless Hillsa fish (speciality of Calcutta). The ambiance is quiet & romantic. The restaurant staff is friendly & courteous. If you come to Calcutta your trip is incomplete without eating at Oh Calcutta.

Favorite Dish: Jumbo Fried Prawns & Boneless Hillsa cooked in Mustard sauce.

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The Silver Oak is one of the fine dining places of Kolkata. It has emerged recently in Kolkata and located in Lansdowne Road near Rash Behari Avenue and Southern Avenue. This area lacked good quality Restaurants for many years but now almost 7/8 good restaurants have emerged in the last 6/7 years in South Kolkata.
We visited this place on Sunday evening 19th August. We had a whole Beckti fried ( Marinated and to be had with Tarter sauce), Murg Peshawari Special Kabab ( Chicken Kabab prepared in Peshawari style) as starter and to accompany with we had Foster's Beer. Munu had a Soup. All this cost us about Rs. 1150/- plus tips surely value for money. The Beckti Fish and the Kebab was really excellent. The service is fast, polite and efficient.
As soon as you take a seat they give you a cool towel dipped in chilled Cologne water! Very refreshing and sets the mood right.
They also serve wine and all sorts of spirits and also offer Thai, Chinese with Indian dishes as well. A real good place to dine out. They also have a smokers section!

Park Street is a road that comes off from Chowringhee Road a few hundred meters south of the Indian Museum. Back in the 1960's it was considered to be Kolkata's answer to Soho and today still has many glitzy restuarants and western chain fast food chains such as KFC, McDonalds, Subway and Pizza Hut. Park Street is about a 10-15 minute walk away from Sudder Street and I do recommend coming here at least one even if you're on a tight budget just to sample what's on offer. Unfortunately I was ill during my stay in Kolkata and for the first couple of days hardly ate anything. I decided on my third day to have a KFC as it would be food that I was familar with and that my stomach probably needed. My last night was spent in a rather posh Chinese restaurant on the corner of Park Street and Mirza Ghalib St where I ate everything and felt much better for it afterwards. It was a shame as I was looking forward to sampling some of the local cuisine but my stomach just wouldn't take it.

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We revisited this place again on 29th July. This time we tried Chicken Tetrazine, Chicken Chiplota, Chicken Pavlograd , Cold Chicken Ham salad and to down it with my favourite Foster Lager. The food as usual was beautiful and tasty.
Chicken Chiplota contains Sausages, cold hams, salads and the sauce makes it very tasty. Just give it a try and you will feel at home. The price is just Rs.168 or about 5 USD. The rest also costs that much about 4-5 USD per dish.

During its hay days they had a dance floor and live band was there. Some of the very famous people performed here like our very own Lois Banks, Pam Crains.
I have seen the great move actor Sashi Kapoor eating his sizzlers in my childhood!

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Our quest for better food in Kolkata is still continuing. Well our love for Chinese food will continue. I thought that I will write some tips on our famous Park Street restaurants for our friends from Europe, America, Asia, and Down Under who visit Kolkata quite often but end up eating in some lousey place or become sick after eating our Indian food at unclean and non descript place! I have seen European eating Butter nan with Chicken Bomb! simply not knowing what to eat In India! Here they will feel at home!
Mocambo completed its' 50th year in 2006. They are certainly among the best in Kolkata when it comes to better dining. They serve a variety of authentic European, Italian and Indian food. This is one of the favourite places of Europeans and movie stars. They also had a dance floor but our Marxist govt. closed it in 1977( sick!!) Our famous Pam Crains & Lois Banks used to play here!! Now it is only Bar cum Restaurant.

This place is also very near with in walking distance of Sudder Street where most of the Foreigners stay! Just give a try to this place.

Favorite Dish: Well in my child hood we used to frequent this place! We like almost all of their dishes. Recently we visited this place twice in a fortnight just to experience their better food and teach Munu about nostalgia of this place!
we had Devilled Crab and Fish Muniere as starter, followed by Chicken Tetrazine (Rakhi), Mixed Grill sizllers( Goutam), Chicken Hamburger Sizllers( Munu). we finished our meal with Chocolate Souffle! All of them were simply superb!