Comfort Chinese food - CHOWMAN, Saltlake, Kolkata

A must try if you are in and around Saltlake and if your soul is craving for some great Chinese food! 

AMBIANCE: To start with, this place has got an awesome peaceful ambiance, just the way I like a Chinese joint should be. The place is bit dimly lit that gels so well with the decor. Being an art lover myself, I would say this interior decor (picture below) should be the model for any upcoming Chinese joint, it's a great source of inspiration for sure.   

SERVICE: When we went in, this food joint was offering certain discounts based on some criteria. The waiters were unaware of these rules. They should know the rules which they themselves have laid down for claiming these discounts. There was one criteria where there will be 10% discount on total bill amount if one person in the group is having birthday on 4th of any month. Our group had one such person. One waiter said there will be 10% discount only on the food which this particular person is consuming, the discount will NOT be there on the total bill amount! We were amazed by this explanation, how are they supposed to measure how much this one person is consuming, and how will they bill that!! Separately? Anyway, this confusion was settled by senior representatives present there and it was agreed that the waiter was ignorant of these rules. Apart from this, the service was good otherwise, they were helpful with the food selection and were aware of the food items they are serving. Also our food came in quite on time, we didn't have to wait for too long.

FOOD: We had ordered for - Steamed Wanton (Chicken), Konjee Crispy Lamb, Lemon Coriander Thick Soup (veg), Sweet Corn Soup (Chicken), Cantonese Noodles (mixed), Chilly Wine Fish, Chowman's Special Noodles, Veg Fried Rice, Steamed Crab in Ginger Wine Sauce, Chilly Paneer, Veg Manchurian, Wok Tossed Hakka Noodles (veg).  The veg items were all good, coming to the non-veg starters - The chicken soup was nice but for the wanton - I would have loved the ones which have got thinner covering. The Crispy lamb was good, a tad too crispy though. Among non-veg main course items - we just fell in love with the Mixed Cantonese Noodles and Chilly Wine Fish! They were so simple yet so overwhelming! Chowman Special Noodles was good as well, but I expected my Crab in Ginger Wine Sauce (picture above) to be softer and juicier, the crab pieces were hard to chew, not sure if something had gone wrong, the waiters were unaware though. 

HYGIENE & PRICING: No question about cleanliness of this place, a real neat & well maintained eatery to say the least. Coming to the pricing - the food here is very rightly priced, it couldn't have been better. For none of the dishes you will feel the price has gone overboard. And may be this can be their USP as well. Premium quality Chinese food at right prices!

OVERALL: This place is a must visit for all Chinese food lovers and for foodies who are looking for some great ambiance. The place has got enough seating capacity so no issues if you come in with a large group. Overall I will give this place 80% positive feedback.

 

Meal at ORIENT, Rajarhat, Newtown

After reading few Zomato reviews of this restaurant, I was really skeptical about this place, and I thought twice before visiting this eatery. But at last we made up our mind to drop in for their Sunday Brunch. And let me say in the beginning itself, we had a nice overall experience.

The place really has a beautiful interior decor (picture above) with remarkable flooring, the personalized cabin concept is really seen less these days and this thing brings back the private and cozy element back into your dining experience which is really appreciated.

Coming to the food ordered, we went in for Sunday buffet brunch. Here they were offering unlimited mock tails which were sadly having only soft drinks and fresh lime soda, no fruit juice, etc was available. The buffet had limited offerings with one soup, salad, three-four veg items, noodles, fried rice, one fish item, one chicken dish and then followed by the dessert (picture below). Though the lesser number of count of food items was eclipsed by the taste of the dishes and overall hygiene of the place. The stir fired veg dish and the fish item deserves special mention.

Though I would like to mention that the waiters can be a bit more attentive and make the dining experience even more better. Also I felt there were less or actually no starters kept in this menu (like momo, chicken starters, etc) that should have been added. The final tax inclusive bill which we had to pay was around Rs.830/- for two.

Final verdict - Go for this Sunday brunch, I think you will not regret.

Cheers!

Lunch at AHOY ASIA, Saltlake, Kolkata

As you'll walk in this cozy restaurant, the pretty decor will definitely please you. Colorful (yet not overdone) wall decors are really a spirit lifter! When the food arrives, the pretty crockery too will impress you. Someone has really put an effort to make things just perfect!

We tried their buffet, which had lamb, chicken and fish as starter. All 3 were good, but the chicken deserves a special mention. Along with the starters there is a chicken soup which is strictly OK. The best part - they serve you the starters at your table. :)

The main course has Chinese, Thai and Japanese dishes. The veg Thai green curry that we had was really delicious. Wish they had a non-veg green curry as well! Also the chilli garlic prawn was excellent! They have a variety of veg and non-veg Sushi (picture below) in the main course and we tried a few which we found good. The dessert had only mangoes (which was also finished when we asked for more!), vanilla ice cream and darsan.

At over Rs.550 (including taxes), the menu will leave you wanting for more. Hope more variety will be added to the list which will make the place really worth visiting. For now I would say it's a little overpriced considering the insufficient variety.

Awesome bangal food - KASTURI, Ballygunge, Kolkata

We had been to Kasturi on a cloudy Sunday afternoon, we reached their around 2pm and found ourselves behind a long queue! We had to wait outside for about 40 minutes and when we went inside we had to wait exactly 10 minutes just for the waiters to clean the table, and then another 20 minutes for the food to get served!! When the dishes came in we were simply starving and uber-impatient! But yes, then the Kochupata Chingri Bhapa did its trick... and we just started hogging the food!

We had ordered for:
Rice, Veg Shukta, Chicken Bata, Chittal Muitha, Doi Hilsa, Hilsa Bhapa, Kochupata Chingri Bhapa, Mutton Dak-bunglow, Pabda Jhol, Aam Panna Shorbot.

Quite an order for a Sunday lunch!! But anyway here I would like to mention that couple of dishes like Chittal Muitha, Kochupata Chingri Bhapa, Hilsa Bhapa were awesome! If you are at Kasturi try out their 'bata' dishes. And it'll be a crime if you don't try out their Kochupata Chingri Bhapa (picture below). Believe me, I finished one full plate rice with one bowl of Kochupata Chingri Bhapa, it was a gastronomical delight! The prices are very reasonable. Our bill amount was around 2200/-, too cheap for such a mammoth meal!

The ambiance can be improved a lot, the place is bit cramped at present, but they are expanding, will take up another floor in the same building, so after that's done it'll be a better place with more space.

The service was not bad, but I guess on a Sunday afternoon the waiters were struggling to cope up with the orders and demand. Otherwise there is nothing bad about their service or behavior.

Regarding the rush and long waiting time which I had mentioned in the beginning, you can easily avoid that if you are at this place on a weekday, else you'll find this rush on Saturdays and more on Sundays. Minimum waiting time after 1:30PM is around 30 minutes. But whatever maybe the case, it's worth waiting for the awesome food which is being served inside.

Regarding parking of your cars - you can park them easily on the road bang opposite to this eatery, even on Sundays you'll find a parking.. maybe 3-4 minutes walking distance away!! :-) But you'll find one.

Overall, this is a great place to be, if you are a bengali (or rather bangal) food lover, this is your holy spot! I rate it 4 out of 5. Such good food at such reasonable rates, well that's a rare combination. Go for it, and do let me know if this post was helpful.

Cheers!

 

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Here I am back, it has been more than five years since I first posted some crap here on my page. Well, I have been to hell and back during this time. I have seen the lows which I had never even seen in my nightmares, also on the other hand I have been introduced to such moments of bliss that one can only dream of.

Anyway, I am really happy now that I haven't started blogging regularly five years back! The first post only shows how it would've gone (well I've deleted that now!). Also now the reason to maintain this blog has changed to some great extents. After all these years I feel the urge to write and share my mind with you, it might be anything actually under the sun, but primarily my posts would circle around my recipes and my food reviews -

Food reviews - I'll post my Culinary Explorations here and I will be posting reviews on various restaurants which I generally keep on writing for Zomato. I will share only those reviews here which are really worth sharing.

Lists - I am a fan of making lists but most of the times they are not that great :) If I can come up with some meaningful and helpful list (maybe Top 5 or Top 10 list on some food related subject) then I'll surely post those here in this blog.

Recipes - I might share some recipes, infact only those recipes which I have cooked at my place (and people have appreciated) and have introduced some personal touch n twists in them.

For my poetries, paintings or short stories please go to my another blog: https://debajyotibasuray.wordpress.com/

There are several other topics about which I might just want to share my thoughts but sadly those will not make their place here on this page. But truly speaking, these food exploration and my paintings/writings (on the other mentioned blog) cover me more or less as a person, and if I can actually express myself well then it should be a nice read for you guys as well.... This is the beginning. Welcome to Foodie dada!!!