Food Tasting session at Crossroad Café, Kolkata

Over the past few years most of the sprouting cafes across the city has only disappointed me. Some has got awesome ambiance but lags behind in quality of the food, some has got amazing food but is so cramped up that you cannot take your friends and family there, while there are many which serves nice food, has got nice ambiance but the beverages served are not that great. Also not to forget, ‘price’ is also an important factor in cafes since at couple of places you will find everything else is fitting your requirements except the budget. It’s really not that easy to setup a picture perfect café having all the boxes ticked. So I really thought reasonably priced amazing cafes are a myth, and I had given up all the hopes :(

But finally when I visited Crossroad Café my perception changed a lot. The place was overall a piece of heaven for fun loving food lovers like me, who concentrate mainly on quality of the food and beverages and just demands a relaxed ambiance. So let us delve deep into this food talk to realize a bit more about the food and beverages that are being served here. But before that let me cover few other paraphernalia, like ambiance, location, etc.

The place is located on the crossing of Prince anwar shah road and Lake gardens Flyover, diagonally opposite the Smart Kolkata Restaurant and close to Mandar khabar. You have to walk few meters towards the flyover from the crossing and you can spot this place on your right.

It is a classy little 22 seater café with optimally spaced out, neat and comfortable seating. The place is brightly colored and well lit that by design exudes warmth and happiness. The walls have got simple graffiti teamed up with colorful chairs and white table top. The worn out brick wall design on the wall is quite a trademark of this place. As you walk in to this place, you will notice lovely glass jars of home-made pickles placed there on wall shelves that look really nice and colorful. Also there is a wall mounted television to give you some company if you are out of friends or Smartphone! And not to forget the lovely Cliff Richard numbers which were being played during our stay at this place, so big thumbs up for that as well.

Now let us come to the foods which were tried at this place. It was a really long list – I had tried loads of food and beverages items along with my fellow Panchphoron members which left us super satisfied, maybe for the entire weekend! So here are the items tried:

:: BEVERAGES ::

a) Cafe latte – Great way to start the day with a cup of steaming latte. It was served in a bit conical coffee mug. The stuff tasted good as it should be and had a perfect proportion of milk and espresso in there.

Cafe Latte

b) Cold coffee – I tried two types of cold coffee after trying the café latte. The variants were - caramel and Irish. Both infact looked similar with same color shade and both served in similar quirky glass jars with lids covered. Caramel one tasted better according to me with a visible lining of dripping caramel running though the midway if the glass making it look bit different from the Irish cold coffee. The proportion of coffee and caramel in there were just perfect, just loved it. Must try!

Virgin mojito

c) Virgin mojito – Served in a similar glass jar with covered lid. It was just perfect, not like it’s served at some places with an overdose of mint leaves or lemon. It had the right proportion of all the stuffs that made it taste so good. Though very common, but it was the most refreshing drink to start with.

d) Blueberry mojito – This was the vanilla mojito drink spiced up with some proportion of blueberry juice in there, but that juice made it tad too tangy for my poor taste buds. Though the proportion of mint was all good, not something I’ll try again.

e) Sparkling Espresso – This was a lovely blend of watermelon syrup, soda and 50ml espresso shot. It looked sparkling red and was presented with a slice of watermelon. The taste was something unique, both the essence of strong coffee flavor and the calm watermelon touch was present there in amazingly equal proportion, it was so good I finished it off much before anyone realized :) Must try!

f) Mango passion twist – This was another awesome drink. It was bit thickinsh in texture and was prepared with dense mango juice and pulp with crushed mint mixed into it. The awesome mix of mango and mint was again quite unique and I thoroughly loved it. Worth a try!

g) Passionfruit lemonade – This was another refreshing drink with a mix of passion fruit pulp, lemon juice and sugar syrup. It really tasted nice with all those ingredients coming together in correct proportion in that sturdy looking glass jar with covered lid.

The amazing Kulfi Shake!

h) Kulfi shake – This was one of the most satisfying drinks I have had in any café. It was a thick bubbly white colored drink with a strong essence of elaichi in that old-school chilled kulfi shake. If I say it was ‘excellent’, it would be an under statement. I will definitely try this again if I am here. Must try for sure!

:: FOOD ::

a) Sweet corn balls – This was the first starter that came our way, it had eight corn balls in the plate and each of them left a sense of bliss when consumed. The fried corn had a crispy effect to it served with cheese atop and at its base. The cheesy affair was too satisfying in the end. It was garnished with chopped coriander leaves and very finely sliced red and yellow bell peppers.

Sweet Corn Balls

b) Harissa chicken skewers – This dish looked amazing, it had bright red chicken skewers that looked very inviting. The good part is no artificial color is used here for this redness. It was served with a small bowl of salad and lemon. The stuff was grilled to perfection but I guess I would have loved the garlicky effect a bit more. It was again garnished with chopped coriander leaves atop and lettuce in the base.

Harissa Chicken Skewers

c) Thai spice crispy fish – This was one amazing dish that literally melts in your mouth. The fish used in there was very fresh and tossed with basil, chopped red chilies and garlic to produce that soothing and tasty affair. The dish was garnished with chopped coriander and sesame seeds.

Thai Spice Crispy Fish

  
d) BBQ roasted chicken pizza – Oh this was an amazing thin crust pizza prepared with loads of love and cheese! The roasted chunky chicken pieces had a awesome smoky feel to it and was dropped in generous quantity on that pizza, the toppings had onions but some other toppings added to this could have added a bit more zing. Though I felt this was one of the best homemade pizzas I have had, the sauce was awesome to be true, very flavorful. Must try!

BBQ Roasted Chicken Pizza

e) Falafel wrap – I just tasted this dish since it was mainly served for my vegetarian friends, this classic wrap has got the subtle tastes derived from the tomato and eggplants in there, also it was served with a parsley salad which you should try while having this.

f) Burrito – This Mexican dish had lovely wheat flour tortilla wrapped into cylindrical shape to enclose the filling of grounded beans. Tasted kinda okayish to me and yes, this was one pure vegetarian dish.

g) Grilled fish with stir fried vegetables – This amazing dish was served in a crispy pastry basket tossed with caper coriander lime. It is one of their signature dishes and you must try this out for the grilled fish in there and the awesome presentation. The fish was truly amazing and very fresh, very flavorful and aromatic. The garlic bread goes very well with this. It was garnished with some red paprika to hit the bull’s eye in the end. Must try!  

Grilled fish with stir fried vegetables

h) BBQ roasted chicken with saffron pilaf – This dish looked very appetizing, mainly for that roasted chicken legs in there, it had a dark brown touch to it and went very well with the subtle taste of the saffron pilaf. The taste of the barbeque sauce dominated here as expected which was really well prepared (yes that sauce is prepared in-house). Presentation was again top notch! Worth a try!

BBQ roasted chicken with saffron pilaf

i) Chicken beaten steak – The perfectly beaten chicken steaks are something unique you’ll generally not find in this part of the city. This dish is work of a master chef and as usual the dish had some mind blowing presentation with crispy sweet potato straw sprinkled on top. The base of the dish had some cheesy Italian risotto, the beaten chicken steak was served with a drizzle of gambolota sauce. This dish is basically a fusion of Moroccan beaten steak and Italian risotto! Must try!

Chicken beaten steak

Chicken beaten steak with risotto

j) Veg pizza – This was again ordered for our veggie friends. But I really liked it when I tried a slice, which basically concludes this place serves some amazing pizza, in general! This thin-crust pizza had toppings of mushroom, spinach, garlic, etc and was loaded with cheese, the overall flavor was subtle and some sprinkle of oregano and red chilli flakes will only do good.

Veg pizza

 
k) Grilled cottage cheese bruschetta – Maybe one of the best cottage cheese dishes I have tried in a while! The super soft cottage cheese on top teamed up with some lovely Italian grilled bread rubbed with garlic, the salsa salad in the middle was just perfect in taste and not very tangy or sour. It was presented with some lettuce, thinly sliced red and yellow bell peppers, it looked great like all the other dishes. Must try!

Grilled cottage cheese bruschetta

l) Fish Berger – This is a signature dish here at Crossroad Café. The dish looks majestic and tastes simply amazing! The burger has got an awesome flavorful fish patty, onion rings, poached egg, cheese and veggies. The runny egg yolk drips from the burger looking more appetizing! The stuffed burger is teamed up with French fries and homemade finely chopped salads. Don’t leave this place without trying this, it’ll be a crime. Must try!

Fish burger (signature dish)

m) Montecarlo – This was the only dessert tried at this place. And this was really something we would have missed, if we hadn’t tried. We were extremely filled when this arrived but when we tried a scoop of it we knew this was something we shouldn’t miss either! It was chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and sugar syrup in the base and topped with chocolate sauce and nuts. The overall chocolaty mix was blissful and something you shouldn’t miss. Must try!

Chocolate Montecarlo

That concludes our amazing little meal at this place :) Coming to the service, it was absolutely spot on. The servers were very attentive and very courteous. We were briefed about each of these dishes by the expert chef, Mr.Subroto Chakroborty and we were honored to be hosted by the very humble owner of this place Mr.Vishal Kajaria. I really felt this place, this food and drinks everything had a touch of honesty in there.

with Chef Subroto Chakroborty 

PFB my granular ratings -

Food quantity: 4/5

Food quality: 4.6/5

Food presentation: 4.2/5

Value for money: 4/5

Ambiance: 3.8/5

Service: 4/5

My overall rating comes to 4.1 out of 5 which is really great! It is one lovely place to bring in your family, your loved ones and your date! This café is already doing great and I’m sure if they keep doing it like this they will surely rule this segment in the coming days. I wish them all the very best and I sincerely wish more and more people go and try out this joint for the amazing quality of food that’s available here. In terms of food and beverages, this place won’t ever disappoint you, that’s what I realized!

Cheers!