Kolkata (Calcutta) Restaurants

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We celebrated my birthday at Silver Oak, on Lansdowne Road. The place is a very neat and cosy eating place with very reasonable price. We selected to have Roasted Rabbit ( now it is bred in farms as a substitute to red meat), Naan, Mutton Sagwala ( mutton cooked with spinach), Murg Tikka ( as starter) and Ice cream.

Roasted Rabbit was prepared exlellently to suit our Indian taste but if you insist they will make it less spicy for you. The crew behaviour is excellent, service is very efficient and prompt. They will offer you a seat in smoking area in case you prefer to smoke. A very nice place to have dinner with your near and dear!

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This place is undoubtedly one of the most famous Dhaba ( Rustic Eatery, where Punjabi or North Indian rustic food is served) of Kolkata city. It is normally frequented by thousands of people. Situated over an acre of land, just opposite the Airport on the main highway no 34. The place has completed more than 25 years and have changed many fold. This is now attracting crowd from Calcutta city who now comes in cars only, drink minarel water or beer( Hard liquor is also served) and does not mind spending Rs.1000 or more for two persons. Naturally, seeing the crowd coming in the Greed of the owner's have creped in, they have Jacked up the prices many fold. Now they have started charging 3-4 star prices for their food. It no longer remains an eatery for the commoner or for the tourists for that matter. The food is very very expensive here and the taste!! Well there are better places in Kolkata serving very tasty food at less than half the prises. I find this is no special place and the prices are higher than Park Street restaurants. They should realize that by putting lots of butter does not make food special. If they are charging star prices then the facilities must also be of star category, crew should be clean , the ambience should be better.
I was surprised to see that one Naan costs here Rs.40 + VAT, Beer Rs.120 +VAT, Dal Makhni Rs. 95 +VAT and the quantity? Very less. In Park street a beer costs Rs. 85-100 with VAT in airconditioned atmosphere with proper service and etiquette. Here the crew behaviour is very very unprofessional. I dont recommend this place to go to eat after driving 37KMs. If they reduce their prices by 30-40% ( Chance is bleak) ten it may be worth. On top of that it has earnedthe ill reputation of being a bar, even their glass, table cloth, napkins are sponsored from liquer companies.

Favorite Dish: We had Naan, Chicken Leg Kebab, Fish Tikka, Dal Makhni, Veg Jhalfrazi & Beer. Fish Tikka is good.

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As of now many of you know our Park Street is and was the best entertainment district in India. It was full of restaurants, bars, cabarets and so on. In one word the best night life was here only. Peter Cat is one such restaurant started during British raj still continuing. It is famous for food and drinks at a very resonable price. As result it is always full, you may have to wait for sometime and it's worth.

We took Munu out on her birthday on 30th November'07 for treat. As Munu is having her exams we decided not to have a blast but a quite dinner with us. We gave treat to Munu's friends too.

Favorite Dish: The owners introduced Chello Kebab a complete dish with Rice, Butter, two potions of Kebab. It is said they brought it from Turkey as it is very popular out there. We had Chello Kebab , Cold Chicken Sala, Iced Coffee Cream. And me and Rakhi had a beer and Bloody Mary for drink. The dishes were excellent as always. I have been going to this place since childhood and the taste of the food is always better, it has not deteriorated over the last 40/50 years!

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On our anniversary we decided to try the latest Chinese Boutique, The Wall( Pan Asian)! It was open only on 10th October, during our festival Durga Puja. It's from the same owners of Comics the speciality continental restaurant and 6, Ballygunge Place, the speciality Bengali restaurant. We were really impressed with the decor, ambience, service. We ordered what we had never tried before either at Mainland China or at Tangra the China Town of Kolkata! We ordered, oAnts Climbing on the Tree: a dish prepared with Minced Lamb flavoured with sweet bean and served on a bed of crispy vermicelli, Lun Woo Yuk See: Fried spicy sliced pork woth wood ear fangs & water chestnut, That Pan Kai: Diced chicken cooked with freshly ground pepper and Shanghai Fried rice:

The potios were very good compared to the priced but the cooking style and the taste was far behind than what we expected. Remember we are having Chinese food for the last 35/40 years and I had the opportunity to taste Chinese in almost all the 200 restaurant run by the Chinese living in Kolkata and in all star hotels. I can be termed as a Chinese Food Expert. I feel tastewise & Authenticitywise Mainland China is far far ahead of every restaurants, Chinese or Non Chinese! The Wall will have to work hard to catch up, only decor is not going to help them.

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In our quest to discover new eating places at affordable price, we found this new place Kurry Klub at Free School Street. This has opened very recently on 10th November. There is another Kurry Klub at Lansdowne Road also and what I learnt from them that this is their second branch.

On our anniversary on 18th November, we decided to venture out at this place. We had lunch at this place with Chicken Steak, Crispy Honey Chicken, Fish Roll with butter paper, Squid butter pepper garlic and Crepes Fantasia as desert. The food and the service was excellent but the potions are very small compared to the price. So you end up paying more to get your stomach full. There is drink served. In my view, this place is going to have tough time with high price and small potions as it is located on Free School Street, which is very near to Park Street, where competition is waiting in the name of Peter Cat, Mocambo, Quality, Sourav's and so on. They will have to serve quality food at affordable price otherwise it will be a one time visit place! I have made it clear to them that their potions are too small( See picture). Alone the taste is not going to help them to establish.

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Now in Kolkata there are many speciality vegetarian restaurants like Delhi and Bombay. They serve North Indian and especially Rajasthani food. The food is selected by the customer himself and is totally self served. The atmosphere is very clean, odour less and perfect place to get treated.
The owner of this place is Mr.Prabhudayal Agarwal is a Marwari Businessman ( From Rajasthan) settledin Kolkata for centuries. He started his career as a ready made Marwari snack maker about 20/25 years back and then graduated in Restaurant business, now he has many restaurants like this in Kolkata and many more in all over India.
In Kolkata there is a sizeable population of Marwaris and Gujratis who are predominantly Vegetarian. They along with Bengalis( Who are Non Vegetarians) are patronising these vegetarian restaurants. Till a few years ago eating out was not in Marwari culture though they are economically very sound but now things are changing.

Now this place has a restaurant, a grocery shopping mall and a snack & chocolate shop as well. A real nice place to visit on weekend for dining and shopping as well.

Favorite Dish: We had varieties of dishes, like Raj Kachori, Veg Pizza, Dal Makhni, Naan, Malai Kofta, Allu Chaat,Gol gappa ( Phuchka). All are excelent and one has to appreciate the fact that this place caters more than thousand customers a day. Only fixed menu is available, so all the dishes are cooked in large scale. Maintaining the taste and flavour is a great task and the cooks there make it possible!

This place is highly recommended for those who dont like vegetarian food but I am sure that they will have a second thought after they visit the place!

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.