Sunday, January 17, 2016

Chilli Wok, Park Street - Amazing Thai, Chinese & Burmese food!

After ages I had such heavenly Thai, Burmese and Chinese food all under one roof in Kolkata. The place occupies a prime location at Park Street and is sure to surprise you on your first visit with its vast detailed menu, lovely service and great quality of food. The restaurant is tucked away in one of the floors of the exquisite hospitality address, Myx with classy interiors and nicely decorated lobby where you can wait for your entire gang and when you are all set to go just avail the elevator (which is quite close to the waiting area) to arrive at this dimly-lit nicely decorated restaurant at the second floor. Apart from fabulous food, the place also has a small well-stocked bar, so you can surely loosen up a bit and have some great time here. If you compare this place with the other big shots at Park Street then in terms of age it’s just an infant, but this only factor doesn’t holds it back from being one of the best Oriental food joints in this part of the city.

LOCATION - - - - - The place is located at the 2nd floor of Myx which is located directly opposite Golden Spoon and diagonally opposite Peter Cat, beside KFC. It is the exact spot where Sourav’s used to be. The building is quite easy to spot (once you reach that area) with ‘Myx’ written in several boards and a typical colorful exterior where the facade of the building is built in sandstone with laser-cut lights emitting through peeled metallic sheets that gives an lovely overall effect. Also don’t worry about car parking; the place has got valet parking for guests which is an additional benefit, considering the parking hassles you face while you are at Park Street.

AMBIANCE - - - - - We chose a table just beside a huge dark wall with those Chinese inscriptions. The place has got modern Oriental interiors with authentic Chinese décor items and elegant wooden flooring. The furnitures are classy and the overall dimly-lit setup with soothing Chinese instrumentals in the background sets the mood right. Staffs are well dressed and polite. Loved the wall arts and floral motifs. Also I really liked the serving plates and bowls and certainly my well-designed chopsticks. I would suggest placing chopsticks on tables along with spoon and fork from beforehand so that guests need not ask for them.

FOOD - - - - - Below are the items we ordered for:

<< SOUPS >>

(a) Moo Hin Nga – Probably one of the best soups tried in my life. I finished the bowl in an utter urgency as if someone’s going to snatch it away from me! :) It is a Burmese Fish noodle soup having ground fish, garlic, bits of rice noodles, onion and cilantro. It was a joy to have this piece of gastronomical wonder and I bet I can savor couple of bowls of this stuff before every meal of mine at this place. Must try!


(b) Tom Kha Gai – After that wonderful Fish Soup I greedily took this entire bowl of Tom Kha Gai as I am an absolute fan of Thai cuisine and the ingredients they use! It is basically a chicken soup in dense coconut milk having ingredients like lemongrass, lime juice, galangal, tomatoes and tender chicken pieces. Again you should definitely try this out if you love the flavor and aroma of coconut milk, which I absolutely do! Must try!

(c) Chicken Wanton Clear Soup – And this was my third bowl of soup in less than 10 minutes! It was very different from the last two thickish soups which were laden with rich aromatic ingredients. I love Tung Nam’s Wanton soup which is an absolute delicacy and this Wanton soup here was close to it and apt to wash down all the rich ingredients of the past two soups. It had soft meaty chicken fillings covered in their silky wanton skin which was a joy when put inside your mouth. The broth has a subtle flavor and aroma to it. Again a Must try!

<< STARTERS >>

(a) Steamed Vegetable Dimsum – One of the best Dimsums available in the Park Street area. These steamed dumplings should be picked up by your chopsticks and transferred straight to your mouth; the explosion of glory will soon follow! They are super-soft, thin-skinned and overloaded with rich ingredients and minced veggies inside that will surely please your taste buds and inner soul. Will try the chicken/pork version of these dimsums next time. Must try!


(b) Drums of Heaven – One very common Chinese starter to say the least, the stuff was meaty, prepared perfectly and presented beautifully with finely chopped spring onion leaves all over.

(c) Crispy Chilli Baby Corn Sichan Style – Again a dish that is pretty common to us, especially when we decide to have only veg starters. The dish was prepared well and can surely be tried, though in general I personally prefer to stay away from it for my non-vegetarian preferences of food :)

(d) Yue Yang Spicy Berbecued Fish – I absolutely loved this dish and would like to recommend this to everyone. It was tad spicy and super tasty, the fish in there was fresh, well marinated and stir fried with spring onions in oyster chilli sauce. Must try!

(e) Wok Tossed Crispy Lemon Honey Chicken – The chicken cubes or pieces were tad too fried for my liking to get that crispy nature. Though the stuff tasted pretty good in that honey chilli sauce.


<< MOCKTAILS >>

(a) Orange Chilli Cooler – Oh this is a gem of a mocktail and I would go for this everytime I’m here. It was an orange juice based cooler with a dash of spicy hot chilli and jaljeera in it. Super refreshing! Must try!

(b) Blue Lagoon – This was kinda okayish and the flavor was totally eclipsed by the super flavorful and tasty Orange Chilli cooler. Neither did it look that promising nor that ‘blue’!

<< MAINS >>

(a) Thai Minced Basil Chicken – I absolutely love Thai dishes having lemongrass, lime and basil leaves in them. Thai Minced Basil Chicken is kinda common Thai dish at many eateries in Thailand and when I tasted it here the stuff tasted pretty authentic. The sweet basil with minced chicken is an absolute joy with some steamed rice. But please be noted that the dish is basically pretty dry and it different from Thai green, red or yellow curry! 

(b) Bangkok Chicken – We were pleasantly surprised with this dish as it was super tasty and soul satisfying. I had recommended this dish and couple of my friends who were not so acquainted with Thai cuisine decided to have that faith in me; I was overjoyed to see the expression on their faces when they first tried this dish with some steamed rice! They were extremely pleased and their facial expressions told the story and I didn’t have to wait for their words in appreciation of this dish. Very well marinated tender chicken pieces covered in Thai spices with all the seasonal veggies and potato cubes. It had key Thai ingredients like galangal, basil leaves, kafir lime and coconut milk. It’s so soothing and amazing. Must try!


(c) Shredded Chicken in Garlic Sauce – This dish was suggested by the person looking after our table and I bet it was a lovely suggestion. It had the right proportion of ginger and garlic to it with white scallions and tender chicken pieces.

(d) Burnt Chilli garlic Noodles – Oh I absolutely loved the aroma of burnt garlic in there, as the name suggests it was tad spicy that gave it the kick. Loads of veggies and nicely tossed and stir fired noodles, sure you can go for this.

(e) Burnt garlic Fried Rice – Similar to the noodles it had lovely aroma of burnt garlic minus the spiciness which is apt for a rice preparation. Had veggies like onion, beans, spring onions, tomatoes, etc and tasted great. Also to mention, I loved the cucumber salad and kimchi salad that were provided on our table, I almost finished the kimchi salad as it had the right proportion of all the small ingredients giving it that perfect taste.

 

<< DESSERTS >>

(a) Fried Ice Cream with Hot Chocolate Sauce – We were extremely filled when the three desserts were served on our table. Most of us had surrendered by then. But this Fried Ice cream was so good I kept on scooping it down till it was almost finish. Loved that crispy fried exterior and that vanilla ice cream inside with sprinkled hot chocolate sauce, the brownie base and cherry on top added the ultimate punch to it that is unforgettable. Must try!

(b) Hot Chocolate Roll – The much talked about dessert of Chilli Wok. Almost everyone has recommended it in their review. And yes, it tasted great, a piece of heaven for chocolate lovers, but for ice cream fanatics like me I would prefer a dollop of vanilla ice cream along with it. I was actually having some ice cream while I finished couple of these rolls. Must try!

(c) Darsan with Ice Cream – Common darsan with two scoops of vanilla ice cream, nothing fancy and the dish tasted perfectly fine with a tad too sweet darsan, but that’s okay for my sweet tooth.

SERVICE - - - - - One of the highlights of this place is their courteous service. The person (called Mr.Prasenjit) looking after our order was the in-charge that day and he was extremely efficient, polite and prompt. He remembered our order and didn’t even note it down on paper, he remembered this long list of food items we had ordered and nothing was missed in the end, that’s highly commendable. He had a candid chat with me about staff training, food and the service in general and discussed how their staffs were trained every week on special cuisines like Thai, Burmese and Japanese. I actually found couple of their staffs not very acquainted with all the ingredients like lemongrass, basil leaf, etc used in the Thai dishes but I believe they will soon be trained in this line.

PRICE - - - - - The high quality food at this place comes with a price tag and is quite a pricey affair without any discount or coupon :) Though we were handed few meal coupons for two by Prasenjit which are infact quite reasonably priced.

CONCLUSION - - - - - Here are my granular ratings:

Food quantity: 3.8/5
Food quality: 4.3/5
Food presentation: 4/5
Value for money: 3.7/5
Ambiance: 3.9/5
Service: 4.2/5

Overall rating comes to nearly 4 out of 5. That clearly indicates the high quality this place has to offer. Definitely try this place out and leave your comments below for your recommendations which I can try out next time. This place was absolutely amazing and a piece of heaven for crazy lovers of Thai cuisine, like me! Big thumbs up from my end. And if you loved reading this post, give it a thumbs up as well! :)


Cheers!

Chilli Wok Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato 

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