Life ain’t a rosy paradise, it gives new heights every now
and then, new conditions, new hurdles, new rules and then it changes all the
rules; but you need to still strive hard and go ahead to live on, you need to
find your solace, your stress busters, your moments of disconnect from the maddening
world, memories that make you happy… or rather Hoppi! Yes people, an easy
solution and defined destination for refueling your lost energy, passion and
vigor has arrived at Acropolis mall, Kolkata – it’s Hoppipola! It delivers all
the fun that it promises, definitely along with lovely food, super-innovative
drinks, vibrant ambiance and warm service :)
I was invited to the Bloggers Meet and Food Tasting event at
this place, and only after I reached there I realized it’s like a whiff of
fresh air for which I was craving for long! The place will surely catch your
attention from a distance when you reach the 4th floor of the mall
which houses this Icelandic named restaurant under the umbrella of Speciality
Restaurants Ltd (which boasts of other award winning brand restaurants like
Mainland China, Café Mezzuna, Oh Calcutta, Sigree Global Grill, etc). Like
already said, the Icelandic name of this chain of restaurants actually means ‘jumping
in puddles’, and I was really curious to check out if my experience will be
anything close to this name!
Well, right now this is the only place in town
that lets you scribble and draw on your tables, play games, read books, play
table soccer, play drinking games, and shake your legs to the awesome music while
sipping your favorite cocktail or beer. It pretty much gives you enough space and
moments to bring back the child in you who was on the brink of getting lost in
this rat race.
This place actually stresses a bit more on alcohol when
compared to Café Mezzuna or the likes, so it is an all-day bar and bonhomie! You
can stay to yourself by sipping your drink and reading your favorite novel or
play some games which are available, maybe with some new group of people. Or
else you can go ahead to try your luck at hourly shot competition, the
Chuggathon, etc to win goodies and trophies :) But then it’ll be real tough to
convince the child inside you to leave this place in the end! And then the food
comprises a relatively smaller part of the focus here and comprises mainly of
finger foods, pub grubs or bar bites along with some really flavorful comfort
mains and few desserts. Again coming back to the bar menu, I should say it’s
real fun and moreover they allow you to play with your drink like for example,
Da Vinci Tini where you can paint in your glass and pour the drink in that and
drink from it.
LOCATION - - - - - This place is located on the 4th
floor of Acropolis Mall at Kasba (beside Geetanjali Stadium). The mall has
ample parking space, so no issues in that regard.
AMBIANCE - - - - - Well this is the catalyst which will help
you to spend some quality time with that part of you which refuses to grow up!
The ambiance is really vibrant, colorful, fun filled, warm, and exudes
positivity and happiness. You will fall in love with all its elements right on
your first visit, that’s a guarantee from my side. The place is mainly white
and blue color themed and even the flooring bears that color and lovely motifs.
It has both indoor and outdoor seating, though the outdoor is not close to
nature since it is in a mall; but anyway I loved the openness of the outdoor
seating along with all the fun elements and pristine décor with light
Mediterranean hues. I loved the colored glass walls and separators.
The place
has bioscopes installed on walls, table soccer, a library where you can spend
some time with the nice collection of books, a video game corner with bean bags,
quirky black board tables with boxes of colored chalks on all tables (along
with salt and pepper shakers!) so that you can keep on scribbling and drawing
while you are waiting for the food.
The ambiance is just too funky and when you
look up you will find the ‘sky’ is filled with large and medium sized
aeroplanes suspended with strings. The seating is fun yet the design is classy
and overall they are comfortable. The music which is played is really awesome,
when we were there Linkin Park and Metallica numbers were being played and
that’ll surely keep young diners glued to their seats for some more time :)
FOOD - - - - - Now coming to the food, the place served
quick bar bites along with sumptuous meals with fresh flavors. There is an
unorthodox mix of cuisines like – American, Jamaican, Asian, Mediterranean and
Italian. The food is not very traditional and specially the drinks. The
presentations are sometimes out of the world and the preparation methodology is
also pretty unique.
At our food tasting event we were served one nice array of
cocktails, starters and mains. Here they are –
<< Vegetarian Starter >>
a) Harrissan
Paneer – The presentation first caught my attention, it was presented on a
typical Indian rural miniature cot. It was so unique! The six Paneer pieces
were quite nicely sliced and were flavorful, fresh and soft. Of course well
garnished and presented as well.
b) Smoking
Carlos – The six pieces of well rolled cigars looked so appetizing that we
hardly could click any pic! The covering was really crisp and the dip was just
right to go with. The jalapeno and corn filling was really so comforting for
me.
c) OMG
– Another great vegetarian starter tried! One of the best mushroom starters I
have tried in a while! There were crisp fried button mushrooms all stuffed with
cheese :)
<< Non-vegetarian Starter >>
a) Chicken
Trilogy – Coming to the non-veg starters the Chicken Trilogy was served but
here I guess the presentation could have been a bit better. They were three
different colored and flavored Chicken satays with total six in numbers. It was
nice and tasty but the meat could have been a tad bouncy.
b) Fishful
thinking – These are the classic fish fingers with a dip, nice and fresh.
c) The
New Age Wing Man – This was the best non-veg starter for sure since it had the
juicy bits I was looking for. These are succulent chicken wings drenched in tangy
freshly prepared buffalo wing sauce, yummy!
<< Main Course >>
a) Cup
of Oriental (Chicken) – It is one typical Thai dish but served in a big cup for
that twist. The Thai green curry was mild and looked like a white curry. The
intense flavors of galangal, basil leaves, kafir lime and lemon grass made my
day for sure. The flavors were just perfect. It was served with steamed rice
and together they tasted just great. Must Try!
b) Spaghetti Aglio Alio (Non-Veg) – Oh boy! I
loved this one, maybe the most. I loved the spicy kick it provided. It was
almost smeared with dry red chilli flakes and maybe a bit of chilli oil and was
bursting with flavors in my mouth! I never had a better (and spicier) version
of this dish before! :) Loved it, and please try it.
<< Dessert >>
a) Ice
cream with chocolate sauce – This is the saddest part! They really don’t have
any option in desserts, maybe they’ve got only two and when we were there they
offered us vanilla ice cream scoop with chocolate sauce on it :( And it tasted
just like vanilla ice cream scoop with chocolate sauce on it, like it’s
available anywhere else in the city, sad!
<< Cocktails >>
a) IQ
– It was served in a glass bulb! Yes you read it right :) The red colored vodka
based drink was bit bitter in the beginning for the mix of cranberry,
watermelon, etc but had that lovely bend which just made it so good to taste in
the end. Work of art in true sense! Most of the drinks available here can be
shared by two or three, but IQ is for one, the bulb is all yours!
b) Bird
cage – This one is the real work of art! The most innovative presentation and
deserves some award for sure :) It is available in 1000 ml bucket which is
placed in a real arty bird cage; it can be shared by three for sure. It has got
the kick from white rum mixed with orange liqueur, pineapple chunks, hazelnut,
kiwi and pomegranate… it has got everything more or less, just that bird in the
cage is missing maybe :)
c) Da
Vinci Tini – Oh this is for the fine artists and painters around the world,
this glass is your canvas and you can drink the paint and passion after you
express them on your canvas! It has got separate containers with vodka espresso
and baileys with choice of dark/white/caramel chocolate and then you have got
your brush and big conical glass which is your canvas. Paint with the chocolate
sauce in the canvas, then pour the drink in it and take a sip :)
d) Hoppi
Bath Tub – It has got crushed ginger, basil, burnt orange, white rum and beer
from the bottle which is just place upside down on the bath tub. The presentation
is out of the box and the taste is amazing as well.
e) Drown
in a Bucket – Oh this had the best kick I guess. It had some huge amount of
tequila along with Peach, orange juice, rosemary, etc. Just awesome!
Also we were shown live demo for cocktail preparations. Hoppipola
signature cocktails like Hoppi Bath Tub and Drown in a Bucket were prepared in
front of us, infact I had participated in helping them out in the preparation
of Hoppi Bath Tub :) That was really fun-filled and informative.
SERVICE - - - - - The service as already said, was very warm
and friendly. The servers were interactive and fun loving. I kept on asking the
names of the dishes and every time they replied back with a smile.
As per the
concept note provided to me I can say the prices are pretty comfortable and it
is around INR 1200 plus taxes for two.
SUMMARY - - - - - Here are my granular ratings:
Food quantity: 4.5/5
Food quality: 4/5
Food presentation: 5/5
Value for money*: 4/5
Ambiance: 5/5
Service: 5/5
* Value for money quotient was evaluated by checking out the
price indication provided in our concept note, since our meal was
complementary.
My overall rating comes close to 4.5 out of 5 which is just
awesome I guess :)
CONCLUSION – I would like to thank Hoppipola management and
Candid for this lovely invitation, we really had a great time. This is surely a
place where you can just open up and be yourself every time you are here, there
is something for everyone, for every type of individual, it’s scattered all
over. I am glad that now Kolkata has got one Hoppipola.
No one will lent you a
magnifying glass to search the lost innocence and child in you, but Hoppipola
does, it surely puts the effort and you need to make use of the elements to
pull that off. Oh I guess after all these discussions my drinks are now all over!
So, this is the place fellas. This place will surely help you recollect how to
again be hoppi…eek… billions of blistering barnacles… I meant ‘happy’! :)
Cheers!
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