Café Unplugged, Saltlake - nice place to unwind yourself

Café Unplugged is one great place to unwind yourself after a tiring day at work with some great hookah, lovely food, cool ambiance, attentive service and fun conversations with your friends. The place is newly opened in the techie alleys of Kolkata and so it is not very well known to many who do not frequent these places that much.

LOCATION ----- Being a Sector-V dweller it is quite easy for me to locate this place but it can be pretty tough for many since the place has got very less publicity or big sign boards, advertising, etc. Here is the detailed direction - You need to reach the white RS Software building in Sector-V (Saltlake) from SDF building, take left from that crossing, walk a while and you will find a CCD, again take left and you will find Hotel Senses on your right hand side, walk a few meters and you will find Café Unplugged on your left hand side almost diagonally opposite Hotel Senses. You can also reach this place from College More crossing. You can park your car near Hotel Senses on the road itself.

AMBIANCE ----- The place has got a enormous area which can actually be utilized in numerous ways by remodeling the interior décor. But anyway I loved the cool interiors the way it is. 

The lighting, the mystically illuminated glass-top Hookah bar, the unique royal seats, huge spread-out sofa sets, etc everything is so good. The walls are mostly adorned with a mix of posters that overall gives an urbane feel to this place. Along with this you get some cool loud music that is really required for such hookah bars and that adds to the mood of this place. Overall the interior has been done with pretty much care, though I felt some finish could have been better, especially for some furnitures, but anyway since the place is so new we can give those a benefit of doubt. I just felt the Air conditioning has to be taken care of, the place is so big it actually requires central AC through vents, such split ACs are not always good enough to cool you down, infact when we stepped in we were feeling pretty hot when we requested to adjust the temperature of the AC accordingly. The place is pretty clean though I spotted one housefly nearby, overall hygiene is good but special care should be taken to maintain the cleanliness since it is one of the key factors to survive in this domain.

FOOD ----- Apart from two hookahs we went in for several varieties of vegetarian food items. One hookah was the mix of Shahi Pan/Royal Pan/Pan Rasna and the other one was a mix of Mint and Gum. I quite liked both of them, but the Pan flavored one was a bit better. The coal changes were done on-time and pretty promptly on our request. Three persons can enjoy one hookah with a coal change. Now here are the food items which were ordered apart from the hookahs –

a) Falafel with Pita Bread: This was one of the best dishes tried at this place. The falafel was put inside the pita bread and served with a small bowl of hummus. The overall taste was wonderful and it was finished in no time. Nice presentation. Must try!

b) Crispy chilli babycorn: One common starter which was ordered just to check out if run on the mills dishes are being prepared properly at this place. The overall taste was really good, baby corn was tossed with capsicum and onion and garnished with with spring onions and sesame seeds, the dish had the right amount of crunch, taste and quantity.

c) Potato Leek Rosti: This was the third starter we had ordered, the potato-leek mixture was not cooked on moderate heat I presume, it could have been cooked a bit more I guess, tasted okayish according to me. Presentation was nice.

d) Hot and Sour veg soup: Again one run on the mills item, prepared keeping all the guidelines in mind, tasted good and was served hot. The quantities served in those bowls are quite good and can be filling for one person.

e) Veg Taliban Soup: Though I did not taste this soup my friend said it was pretty spicy and served hot, overall tasted nice.

f) Paneer Tikka Sandwich: The filling of panner in this sandwiches were quite good and tasted good and fresh, but it was way too much grilled and toasted making the breads a bit too much crunchy than my liking, but overall it tasted good. The quantity was good and nicely presented.

g) Chilly Garlic Noodles: The noodles were well prepared, spicy, tangy to some extent but I felt the quantity was tad too less, specially if you are sharing it with your friends.

h) Sweet lime soda: I was really impressed by the nice little beer pint (clear) bottles in which they were served. The taste was really good and refreshing, but I feel the drink could have been served a bit more chilled.

i) Brownie with Ice Cream: Two brownies served with one big chunk of vanilla ice cream and having chocolate sauce on top, tasted good as it should be. The icecream when served was too hard to cut we had to wait for long when it almost started to melt to start cutting or scooping it down.

SERVICE ----- Only one thing here the food items were served with considerable amount of delays. Soups were served after serving most of the items and along with the main course dish. Other than that service was good and prompt. The persons serving there were polite and well behaved.

OVERALL ----- Here are my granular ratings:

Food quantity: 3.6/5

Food quality: 3.7/5

Food presentation: 3.9/5

Ambiance: 4.2/5

Value for money: 3.8/5

Service: 3.7/5

Overall rating should have been 3.8 out of 5, but here in Zomato it needs to be rounded off to 4 out of 5. A nice place to visit with your friends, everything is almost right, only it remains bit deserted on weekday nights. You can pay a visit for sure and have a lovely time!

Cheers!

 

Top10 List - Tax-Free Dine-in joints in Kolkata

We are always worried these days when we step out to dine in at some restaurant, infact when we go for take-away or home-delivery the charges go up due to additional delivery or packaging charges. But anyway the tax component in the bill keeps bothering us. When you place the order from the menu card you won’t find this component in the proce you see there since the prices on menu card are mostly tax-exclusive. But there are exceptions here and there and this post is related to those exceptional dine-in joints which still do not charge any tax (as of March 2016). I might have to update this list later when they start charging taxes :)

As of today here is the list of top 10 dine-in joints in Kolkata according to me which do not charge extra taxes (like VAT, service tax, service charge, etc). Most of these places do not possess the suave, classy ambiance, but they are good enough to dine-in with your friends and family, though I am leaving out some of the biriyani houses which do not charge taxes. So here is the list –

10). FAIRLAWNS --- Located at Sudder Street this place is absolutely cut out from all the din and bustle of the infuriating crowd of the urban city, the madness that you'll find a few steps away at New Market is non-existent at this piece of lush green heaven! This is an open air beer bar and offers some good munching options from its quite varied menu. This place was established in 1783 and has loads of history and tales to tell. You can find my review of this place at - https://www.zomato.com/review/BXnGLD

9). THE DARJEELING --- It is located just beside Saltlake City Centre Mall, at the ground floor of Gorkha Bhawan. The place is not that big, but still it is not cramped up either. The tables are bit spread out, and with less crowd around you feel a lot relaxed here. It is a neat little place serving great Tibetan and Chinese cuisine. There you will find wooden plank ceiling with red Chinese lamps hanging all over the place. The music deserves a special mention since they play very chosen Western soft rock numbers which are always pleasing to the ears. The food is really good, especially the pork items and this place deserves a visit. You can find my review of this place at - https://www.zomato.com/review/GXXAkl

8). ECSTASEA --- This place serves coastal cuisine, try out their squid and octopus preparations. It is located on the Lake Road, but do not confuse that with Lake Terrace Road! The place is small though, it is sort of a ground floor garage turned to restaurant. As a result, it has a ceiling with low height and very few seating arrangements. There are total 6 tables which can accommodate maximum 17-18 guests at a time. But it serves some great seafood, so you can drop in if you wanna try those. You can find my review of this place at - https://www.zomato.com/review/PgnEbx

7). TUNG NAM --- If you love the spirit of old Kolkata and the old-school Chinese cuisine, you will surely love Tung Nam at Territi bazaar. 

You need to get down at Central Metro Station and take the lane alongside the dark Shivaji statue. You have to walk for a minute or two and then you will find the place on your left. It's best if you turn on your GPS when you are coming out of the Central Metro station. The food is awesome though if you love old-school Chinese. Both in terms of food quality and quantity I will rate this place 5 out of 5, no doubt about that. Most of their dishes can be shared by two. You can find my review of this place at - https://www.zomato.com/review/zBMXMk

6). RAJ SPANISH CAFÉ --- Located at Sudder street this place has got its inimitable charm and an extremely relaxed ambiance with amazing food at extremely reasonable price and mostly foreign tourists around. This place has the charm of old Calcutta embedded somewhere deep inside it. It teleports you back couple of decades and leaves you there with some great food and people around. If you are at Sudder Street please do visit this place for some great Spanish and Mexican cuisine. You can find my review of this place at - https://www.zomato.com/review/PaMaDo

5). BANANA LEAF --- One of the best joints in the city serving South Indian Cuisine. I have been to both their joints, one near Rashbehari and the other at Saltlake Sector-5 area. The food is really authentic and amazing. Go for their Cheese masala dosa or the thalis with some filter coffee. You can find my review of this place at - https://www.zomato.com/review/QeNdXd

4). TAK HENG --- This place is located on Southern Avenue, near the Thyagaraj Hall and the Blue Door Restaurant. You can expect some nice old-school Chinese cuisine here like at Tung Nam. Go for their gravy noodles, wanton soup and Roast chilli pork, bliss! You can find my review of this place at - https://www.zomato.com/review/QewkeQ

3). THE BLUE POPPY --- It has got joints at Russel street and at Saltlake Sector-3, few of their branches have closed down in past one year or so. Hopefully these joints will keep going strong. They serve some of the best Tibetan and Chinese food in town at nominal rates. Try out their pork dishes like pork hot garlic, pork momos, etc. You can find my review of this place at - https://www.zomato.com/review/AKOwDz

2). WOODSTOCK 1969 --- One newly opened music café opened based on the theme of the historic Woodstock festival held near New York in 1969. This place is located in an alley just beside the Greek Orthodox church near Kalighat Tram Depot and plays some awesome western rock music. Also you can buy framed rock posters at this place. Try out their pasta, burgers, chicken wings, butterbeer and Gondhoraj gelato. You can find my review of this place at - https://www.zomato.com/review/bXRxZE

1). SANTA’S FANTASEA --- Coming to the number 1 spot! Coastal and Tribal cuisine at real affordable price these days isn't a myth, thanks to food joints like Santa's Fantasea. Kolkata foodies always love experimenting and when it came to sea-food items like squid, octopus or lobster it was no exception. This small place has got huge popularity these days and is a must-visit for all seafood lovers. You will find their outlets at Golpark and Saltlake Sector-1. Try out their Bansa Pora Mutton with Soru Chakli, Smoked Octopus, Seafood Malaysian Rice… and many more. You can find my review of this place at - https://www.zomato.com/review/YdOZYa

If you like this post, please do share and give it a thumbs up!

Cheers! 

Meal at Kalapata restaurant - Pocket-friendly Bengali food

The warmth and the feel of having homemade Bengali food surely attract many to Kalapata. Though I have heard about it several times in the past but this was my first visit to this place along with one of my foodie friends. There are several pros and cons about this place and in the end they somehow cancel out each other to attain a close to average rating. Here is my analysis based on my dining experience –

LOCATION - - - - - This is surely one of the positives of this place, it has got a prime location for sure. It is located at Lake market in the gully just opposite Lake mall, close to the Prema Vilas.

AMBIANCE - - - - - This is surely one of the negatives. The place looks very ordinary and clumsy. Moreover, the hygiene takes a backseat which is the most concerning aspect according to me. The tables have got unclean plastic covers on them which have dried up stains of dal and curry, pretty repulsive according to me. The tables are shared between parties which again I do not appreciate. The place is not so big, but that is okay. The table arrangements are made to accommodate maximum seats in that little place, so it is highly cramped up. Also you won’t get any printed menu card on your table, there is a white board with the menu scribbled on it at one end of the eatery, you need to go there and decide your order, come back to your table and tell the names of the dishes to your server, pretty inconvenient! No positives about the ambiance though the place is air-conditioned which is a saving grace.

 

FOOD - - - - - Food is kinda average to be very true. Couple of dishes were pretty good whereas few were depressing. The place has got huge range of Thalis or meals, like veg meal, egg meal, prawn meal, pabda meal, chicken meal, etc. You can also anyday order a separate side dish along with your thali. 

We opted for Rohu meals and a separate plate of Chitol Muitha to go with it. Our Rohu meal comprised of Steamed rice, Dal, Rohu fish curry, aloo bhaja, aloo sheddo makha, green coriander chutney, Tomato chutney, machher matha-r ghonto. Loads of typical Bengali dish in there which is very niche to homely Bengali cuisine. Out of these, the Rohu fish curry was well prepared with potato slice in it and the fish was fresh as well. Rest of the dishes were all good, nothing out of the world since they tasted very much like your homemade preparations. But the tomato chutney was a disaster, it tasted bit weird and had no tanginess or punch in it, we could not have it more than twice. The Chitol Muitha was good though the gravy was very thick and rich with four pieces of Muitha in it. The Muitha were nice to taste but the outer skin was bit hard since it was heavily fried. All the veg items and rice was repeated which was appreciated. Also the prices are very reasonable and on the lower side, lunch for two costs about INR 300-350. There is no bill produced here, not even hand-written bills, much like the old-world Benagli hotels where people had that trust and faith in each other!

SERVICE - - - - - The servers are pretty friendly I must say. Their warmth is pretty vital for running a place like this. The veg items and rice is repeated several times and the servers proactively ask you for the food refills every now and then.

SUMMARY - - - - - Here are my granular ratings:

Food quantity: 3.7/5

Food quality: 3.4/5

Food presentation: 3.2/5

Value for money: 4/5

Ambiance: 2.5/5

Service: 3.8/5

Surely a nice and safe place to fill in your tummy if you want to keep the food expenses down. The old world charm of a Bengali hotel is still left here in this place with few signs of modernization creeping in. The meal system is very typical to this old world culture and not found in many eateries nowadays. If I want to have close to some homemade Bengali food without pinching my pocket then I’ll surely go for this place, though I would urge the management to look into the cleanliness of the tables and the hygiene factor which is pretty crucial these days.

Cheers!

 

Lovely Food Tasting session - at CookMyWish.com

Let me introduce you to Cook My Wish! This is not just another regular restaurant or a café, this is an inimitable culinary meet-up concept and frankly speaking I am in love with this concept! Few weeks back I was contacted by the owner of this place and I was introduced to this NEWLY OPENED food-ordering portal through a food tasting session. CookMyWish is actually an initiative with loads of positive social implications and it is basically a website named “cookmywish.com”. This is a women-only home-chef portal focused on Kolkata (as of now), dedicated to serving the needs of home-makers and enabling them to benefit form the power of internet. Using a Technology-plus-Services model, they are running an ‘Assisted Marketplace’ - where women, including those who are not very familiar with the web technologies, can get a store up and running with CookMyWish’s help. This is really an innovative concept and many homemakers can make good use of their free time and can earn in this process, which will in turn improve their emotional, social and financial health. CookMyWish was started couple of months back with 3 chefs but now they have 15+ chefs and bakers enrolled with them - serving a variety of cuisines – starting from North Indian, Bengali, Chinese, South Indian to Thai, Japanese and Continental. Their USP is HOME-COOKED; HOME DELIVERED which is really crucial these days with not-too-healthy street-food invading our meals every now and then! Also it is a boon for those who are staying away from home. You need to just log on to their portal and let them know your ‘wish’, they will ‘cook’ as per your wish and deliver the food right at your door-steps – that is Cook My Wish for you :)

USER INTERFACE OF THE PORTAL - - - - - I would like to start with my experience of their portal which is the basic platform here. The portal tells you that you get free home delivery and you can also opt for Cash on Delivery which is really encouraging. Let’s discuss about the UI or the User Interface. When you are at the home page of the website you can start your navigation either by going to the dropdown named ‘Browse Chef’s kitchen’ or by going to the dropdown ‘Menu’. It is best to browse by their Chefs, like I did. After a couple of orders you can be certain of the kind of food you wanna order from here. The UI is quite user friendly, though I believe there can be more options added here like ‘chef chat’ or ‘saving preferences’, etc. They also have a ‘Featured Dishes’ section which displays the popular dishes across all the kitchens with their pictures. Similarly they have a section called ‘featured chefs’ where you can go to the kitchen of your favorite chef directly by clicking on the picture of the chef, here it will be good if the pictures of all the chefs are in sync, i.e. with some similar background that gives an uniform feel. While you are placing the order, i.e. when you are in your Cart, they give you an option to mention your preferences/instruction for the chef like ‘cook with less oil’ or ‘make it less spicy’, etc. I really like this part and it is quite necessary as well. You can also pick your desired delivery date and time slot for convenience. Overall the website has all the ingredients to keeps the lights ON, but it can further be improved by more brain storming sessions and more user testings, also an Introduction (depicting the concept of CookMyWish) built with flash is required in the homepage which the user can choose to skip and proceed to the food ordering section.

FOOD DELIVERY and PACKAGING - - - - - The food delivery part is really impressive. Though my food reached a bit late than the promised time but the delivery person never called me up for directions, he was right at my door-steps with the food. The person was very courteous and soft-spoken. The packaging was good and quite usual, though there were no spillovers. The list of the item names was clearly written on a container in a piece of paper which was very helpful. CookMyWish offers complete logistics service covering the entire Kolkata city; the delivery boys pick up food from the chefs and deliver it to the customers.

FOOD TASTING - - - - - For this food tasting session I opted for Continental food from a particular Chef’s Kitchen. The below food items were delivered to me and I must say I have never tasted such amazing fusion-continental food in last couple of years. Here are the items:

a) Carrot Tomato Soup with toast – This soup gave the perfect start to the meal. It was as expected reddish orange in color and thick in overall density. It tasted and looked great garnished with some minced leaves; the taste was soothing and tad garlicky. The toast was perfect, brown, crispy and crunchy. Overall the soup with the toast was quite filling.

b) Shrimp stuffed pumpkin flower fritters – This dish was very innovative according to me and I was amazed by the overall taste it had to offer. The pumpkin flower had a moderately thin skin and was generously stuffed with shrimps and minced coriander leaves mixture. It was then deep fried but it was not too oily which was really nice. The overall aroma and flavor was overwhelming. An awesome starter. Must try!

c) Mutton Keema Sugarcane stick – I guess this dish again redefined innovation in the food domain. I have never tasted anything close to this before! The idea is really out of the box that sets you apart and creates a positive impression in an instance. This dish comprised of fresh mutton keema dough wrapped around a thin sliced sugarcane stick. The mutton keema was very flavorful and you can bite into the sugarcane stick to get the sweet juice with every bite of the keema jacket. The keema jacket had minced onion and coriander leaves in it and was very tasty and aromatic. The chemistry between mutton keema and sugarcane juice has been well explored! Kudos for that. The keema jacket was so fresh and soft that it was falling apart with every bite. An awesome dish. Must try! 

e) Bekti in Orange Sauce – Though this shouldn’t have been packed but still the final product which I received was very tasty, aromatic and fresh. The dish had lovely fried and semi-fried chopped onions all over it. The orange sauce was sweet and flavorful. The Bekti fish was well-prepared and fresh, but it was a tad too fried causing slight chewiness. Though I liked that texture as well, it can be made like melt-in-your-mouth texture but this variant was also well accepted. Also I was provided with sautéed veggies like broccoli and beans which were well prepared like they should be.

f) Drunken Bundi –  It was again a nice sweet dish, with bundi (which is a water droplet sized deep fried crispy snack prepared from gram flour and few spices) dipped in a milky liquid soaking it all up.

g) Daaber Payesh –  This was again one hell of an innovative sweet dish! I was thoroughly impressed with this one. It was filled with coconut crumbs in sweet thickened milk. It had the unadulterated aroma of tender coconut and tasted just like tender coconut, it’s one flavor I absolutely love in sweet dishes. Awesome sweet dish! Must try!   

SUMMARY - - - - - Here are my granular ratings:

Food quantity: 4/5

Food quality: 4.5/5

Food Innovation: 5/5

Business Concept: 4.8/5

Value for money: 4/5

Website rating: 3.7/5

Delivery: 4/5

My OVERALL RATING comes to 4.3 out of 5 which is just awesome according to my evaluation standards and history!  

CONCLUSION - - - - - Since all the chefs at CookMyWish are primarily housewives or rather homemakers with families they do need a day's advance order. Food is never pre-cooked here; only after the order is received through their website, the chef buys the ingredients and starts cooking, that assures you the best quality and freshness in the ingredients used.

They not only provide a platform for homemakers but also conduct regular checks of the kitchens and they know all their chefs personally which assures you that nothing can go wrong and there is end-to-end support available, if needed. CookMyWish also has regular tiffin service which is surely a good news for students and professionals staying away from home.

I guess we should all step forward to support this humble women-centric venture that has immense potential and can give any renowned restaurant a run for their money in terms of taste, aroma and innovation of dishes in this food domain. So I urge you to go ahead and place an order with them, I am sure you will end up with a pleasant experience! :)

Cheers!


 

Blogger's meet at Woodstock 1969, Kolkata

Woodstock 1969 came into being inspired by Hard Rock Café, but then it should never be compared with Hard Rock Café. This place is now very young and it will take it loads of distance to traverse to reach somewhere close to HRC. That is one accepted fact and this is the vision and story of inspiration which Soumya (co-owner of WS1969) was narrating to us on our last visit to this place. We were a group of four food bloggers visiting this highly rated (in Zomato) eatery for some evening snacks and coolers.

This place surely stresses on peace, good music and great food. The name of this little music themed café is of course based on the 3-day long Woodstock festival which was arranged during August 1969 at a dairy farm in New York. The rock festival was attended by almost 4 lac audiences and was studded with performances by Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Santana, Pandit Ravishankar, etc. The festival had total 32 acts performed. This Woodstock festival is considered as a crucial moment in the history of music and one of the most remarkable events defining the history of Rock and Roll.

LOCATION - - - - - This place is located in an alley just beside the Greek Orthodox church near Kalighat Tram Depot. The eatery is an old garage converted to café, so it is not so prominent and one can easily miss the entrance. But you can trust your GPS since that’s how we located this place.

AMBIANCE - - - - - As already said, this place used to be an old garage and dated back to some 1921. So it was tough to convert that uninhabited place to a cool café. There is no doubt it is now a small piece of heaven for any Western music lover, be it classic rock or country songs. The walls are adorned with neatly framed posters of Western rock bands and solo artists like Pink Floyd, Bee Gees, Doors, Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eagles, Bob Marley, Queen, Johnny cash, Dire Straits, Elvis, The Who, and many more. The best part is – all these framed exclusive posters are for sale and they are priced very reasonably. Even you can buy the copy of the ticket of Woodstock festival of 1969 which is also on display! The walls also have got several hand painted portraits and symbols, like the peace sign, or the Dark side of moon logo from Pink Floyd, etc. The framed posters and these hand drawn structures and motifs pretty much occupies the wall space. And the space overall exudes an uncanny homely warmth which is very dear to someone born and brought up in South Kolkata, maybe because of the old structure of the building where this café has been built, or the high ceiling, or the hand paintings on the walls, or the old black chests kept inside the café, or maybe something else!

The place has a seating capacity of 14 persons at max and they have got low height stools which might be uncomfortable for some. Overall the seating arrangement could have been made more comfortable but then the space constraint is there. Apart from this the place has got a narrow iron stair case going up to the mezzanine floor where there is a small room with one pool table. You can pay INR 150 and enjoy a game of pool at this place which is definitely a part of this café. But going up and down that narrow stairs is really the daring part standing in between your desire to play pool and the physical location of that pool table :) There is no dining arrangement in that mezzanine floor room and all the 14 seating arrangements are there at the ground floor.

Also I loved the Glass top tables with LED lining embedded inside. That surely increases the cool-quotient, helps you see the food even in the dimly lit ambiance and surely helps your face to glow in all the snaps :)

Now coming to the music which is being played, that’s the best part! I felt absolutely at home with all my favorite numbers playing on in the background. More or less the spectrum of music matches with those posters of the rock bands which are there on the walls staring at you. I felt more at home when the original version of ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ started playing :) Insanely heavenly!

FOOD - - - - - Food is definitely one of the strong points of this joint apart from the cool, laid back ambiance. Co-owner Soumya prepares several items and all the items served are monitored closely by the owners, so that reduces the chance of anything going wrong. Now coming to our order, we mainly ordered few drinks and an evening snacks to go with, here they are –

a) Strawberry Coke – An awesome cooler to start with which was recommended by Soumya. It has an awesome blend of coke and Hershey’s syrup, I haven’t tasted anything like this before; it was refreshing and had a nice flavorful kick to it! Really liked this one!

b) Butterbeer – This was the STAR item and like I had already said Soumya, I will be back definitely for this Butterbeer :) I haven’t tasted this anywhere else in India, so I was excited when Soumya recommended me this drink. Though I am not a Harry Potter fan but I have definitely heard of Butterbeer and here I surely did love my foaming mug of this popular wizarding beverage. Like we know, Butterbeer is described as tasting a little bit like less-sickly butterscotch with very slight alcoholic content. I absolutely loved the flavors of the butterscotch topping, condensed milk, whipped butter, and maybe vanilla ice cream soda in there with very little beer for the taste. This is gem of a beverage at such reasonable rate. It will be a crime if you don’t try this out! Highly RECOMMENDED!

c) Vanilla Shake – The taste of butterbeer totally eclipsed the taste of this drink which my friend had ordered. Well you can’t expect wonders from a glass of vanilla shake, but at INR 69 this is again a nice drink if you love the simple soothing vanilla flavor.

d) Kentucky Chicken Wings with BBQ sauce – This was again recommended by the owners and we chose our Chicken wings with the BBQ dip. The dish had six pieces of chicken wings with crunchy covering. Though I personally do not prefer fried chicken with a crunchy cover but I liked this dish since the chicken inside was pretty succulent and fresh. And the BBQ dip was awesome. Lovely evening snacks for sure.

SERVICE - - - - - No doubt, this place has got a homely feel with extremely warm and quick service to go with. The owners are friendly and they took out their time to share their experiences with this venture and they even clicked some pictures with us. Service is surely a key part of this industry and since here the owners are only interacting with the customers, so that part can never go wrong.

SUMMARY - - - - - Here are my granular ratings:

Food quantity: 3.8/5

Food quality: 4.1/5

Food presentation: 3.8/5

Value for money: 4.3/5

Ambiance: 4/5

Service: 4/5

The overall rating comes to 4 out of 5, which is very good according to me. I will be paying few more visits to this place since I want to taste some more food items from that menu and definitely the Butterbeer. Also few of my friends are already eager to visit this place when they heard about it from me, so I might just accompany them next time. Though I would have loved this place to be a little more spacious but I can understand and I am sure the owners will work towards expansion in near future, otherwise this is one gem of a café that gives give you one gem of an experience. Must visit for every rock music lover, it will be a landmark destination for you like the Woodstock festival of 1969 was a landmark event in the history of rock and roll music. Do visit them if you already haven’t.

Cheers to Peace & Music!

 

Amazing Spanish Cuisine - at Sudder Street - Raj Spanish Cafe

Located at Sudder street this place has got its inimitable charm and an extremely relaxed ambiance with amazing food at extremely reasonable price and mostly foreign tourists around. This place has the charm of old Calcutta embedded somewhere deep inside it. It teleports you back couple of decades and leaves you there with some great food and people around.

I went in there a week back with couple of Maharashtrian friends of mine. They were absolutely impressed with everything out there, starting from the setting, ambiance, people, menu card, food, pricing, service... everything! To start with, here you will find Mexican, Italian and Spanish food. In the menu card the Spanish dishes have got their actual Spanish names, so it is better you know beforehand what do they actually mean or how are they supposed to taste. We went in for mostly Spanish dishes leaving out a few. You need to write your order on paper slips and hand it over to the waiter, finally you will get back that slip with prices written alongside each of the dishes and summed up showing your total payable amount. So the initial order slip itself transforms into your final bill. The prices written on menu card are tax inclusive, so it's really easy to calculate your final bill amount. Let's discuss about the food, we had ordered for:

a) Huevo Rellenos - It is one great starter, it is Tuna and tomato sauce mixed with egg yolks and topped with mayo. Served in half egg cups, really a great no-frill starter which will vanish in just no time. Must try.

b) Cafe Bombon - The description explains the drink quite well, it is Espresso and condensed milk topped with whipped cream. Worth a try.

c) Arroz A la Cubana - It is one of the mains having rice in it. It has got fine quality rice in tangy tomato sauce gravy, topped with double yolk fried egg. Really one refreshing dish. The runny egg yolks with tangy tomato and rice has got a great chemistry together. Worth a try.

d) Burrito - The only Mexican dish we tried at this joint. It is tortilla wrapped into a roll having fillings of chicken and beans inside, served with tomato slices and guacamole. Worth a try.

e) Spaghetti al frutti di mare - Only Italian dish that we had tried. It is basically a seafood spaghetti having veggies, squid, octopus, shrimp in it. It looks amazing and tastes great. Though I found it a bit bland which can be adjusted/fine-tuned by adding some sauce, pepper and salt to it. Though the dish is quite filling, so it is worth a try.

f) Tortilla de Patatas - This was one hell of an amazing dish! (picture below) It is very much Spanish by nature. It is a cake kinda slice prepared with egg having fried potatos inside (you need to refer the picture I have attached to understabd this!) It tastes great (add some tomato sauce and pepper to it if required) and gives some great cooking ideas. It is served with two pieces of bread and the whole dish costs just INR 40. Incredible! Must try.

g) Albondigas en salsa espanola - Another insanely delicious dish. It has got four medium sized chicken meat balls in an amazing spanish gravy (having finely diced veggies in it) served with french fries and bread. Must try.

Only one great dish, the Gambas al Ajillo was not available, maybe because we had reached the place very late, at around 4pm. Overall, the service is very quick, waiters are polite and billing process is pretty simple. Only I guess the hygiene can be marginally improved, but definitely the place is delivering much more than it is expected to do at this ultra reasonable rates! The dishes are prepared to perfection and in almost no time. Frankly speaking it just left us dumbfounded. I would recommend this place to each and everyone. Go try it out! It's a gastronomical wonderland! :)

Cheers!

 

Terreti Bazar's old-school Chinese - Tung Nam!

If you love the spirit of old Kolkata and the old-school Chinese cuisine, you will surely love Tung Nam! You will love the place the way it is today. The place wears a wrinkled look but you need to see through her eyes and read her mind, in terms of serving best-in-class old-school Chinese food she is still the best in town. If you are here at this place you will feel as if you are in a time warp!



Many people of my age or younger are unaware of the existance of this place but once you try them out you will surely spread the word, and this word-of-mouth advertising is very much required for this age old eatery. Now let's get down to the review:


Location ---- Couple of weeks back I was here at this place with one of my foodie friends, both of us had little clue about the location. Actually it is a bit tricky for the ones who are not regular at this place near Terreti Bazar. You need to get down at Central Metro Station and take the lane alongside the dark Shivaji statue. You have to walk for a minute or two and then you will find the place on your left. It's best if you turn on your GPS when you are coming out of the Central Metro station. Parking your car in front of the eatery can again be a bit tricky. You might need to park it somewhere near Poddar Court, which is very close though.

Ambiance ---- As I said earlier the place literally is worn out, it is bit dilapidated with decaying walls and not-so-cool sitting arrangements, simple wooden tables and plastic chairs, and ofcourse no AC. But hey, who cares! Atleast for a foodie like me this is a piece of heaven, one hidden gem! You will find some ancient chandeliers and lamps which are screaming out the tales of bygone era and making things even more enigmatic. On the tables you will find small and cute Coke and Thumpsup bottles as Salt and pepper shakers. Apart from that the cutleries are not that impressive, chopsticks are provided on request. The place is frequented by local Chinese people and Bengali foodies who are surely the loyalists, to say the least.

Food ---- Both in terms of quality and quantity I will rate this place 5 out of 5, no doubt about that. Most of their dishes can be shared by two. We had ordered for:


a) CHICKEN WANTON SOUP: It was heaven for me. On my next visit to this place I have promised only to have this soup for my meal, nothing else. One bowl of soup is sufficient for two. The clear broth is extremely flavourful, aromatic, soothing and healthy. It has got nearly ten steamed chicken wantons in it, clear soup with lovely meat chunks, mustard green and silky wanton skins...bliss! Add a bit of chilli vinegar, soya sauce, red pasted chillies and you are sure to fall into a state of euphoric evarlasting joy! It'll be a crime if you don't try this item out.

b) PORK HAMEI SAUCES: A dream dish for pork lovers. Tug Nam has been always a heaven for them. Pork in Hamei Sauce is good and goes well with Yaam Mein. It has got one typical smell from the oil of that Hamei sauce which might not suit everyone. The pork pieces were soft and well cooked with right proportion of fat in it. Quantity was good as well. Will try out their chilli pork next time.

c) VEG YAAM MEIN: I absolutely loved this preparation and maybe I'm going to try them out everytime I am at this place. It is one better tasty tossed noodles that I have tried in past few years, definitely at this pocket friendly price. It had the right amount of finely chopped tossed veggies and mustard greens in it, add some green chillies in vinegar, red chilli paste and there you go. Must try.


d) CHICKEN GRAVY NOODLES: And here is the dish most bengalis would feel safe to try out :) As usual one awesome preparation. The chunky chicken pieces and diced veggies, the aromatic gravy everything was just perfect, goes very well with some spicy porky sides.


Service & Billing ---- The orders are collected pretty promptly after you grab some seat. And the food is served at brisk pace, comes to you definitely by 10 minutes. Polite staffs and helpful suggestions, what else can you ask for. No one can match their quality at these cheap rates. Coming to the billing - Printed bill is not provided at this place, you need to pay by cash and yes, there is no additional taxes charged. Our total bill for above dishes came to just INR 430/-. One thing - Try to reach this place before 3PM (for lunch), the doors are closed sharp at 3PM and no new customers are entertained then.


Overall ---- This is the place with dark, old and odd looks serving awesome value-for-money old-school chinese in town. If you haven't yet tried them out please go and have one meal. Try to overlook the shabby interiors and just get lost in the delicacies served right in front of you. Hog as much as you like without thinking about the pocket pinch. Or you may go for take-away as well. After you taste them I bet you will certainly spread the word!

Cheers!
 

Chilling at historic lawn - Fairlawns!

Located at Sudder Street this place is absolutely cut out from all the din and bustle of the infuriating crowd of the urban city, the madness that you'll find a few steps away at New Market is non-existent at this piece of lush green heaven! I was here with one of my fellow foodies to have some laid back conversation sitting amidst the trademark greenery and openness of Fairlawns. The place has a feel of colonial Calcutta in its veins and is still standing strong embracing the new generations and the old loyalists all at the same time. 

When we were here a couple of days back, the present owner was in town back from London for a month-long holiday. She has been kind enough to keep this open-air beer bar running for public for ages now that sits right on the lawn of this heritage building cum hotel. 

The place has got heaps of history behind it, I just came to know a few of them – it was built by some William Ford in the year 1783 (so it is now nearly 232 years old!) and then the possession kept on passing from one person to another. At present it lies with Mrs. Jennifer Ann Fowler and few years back in 1994 the place was converted to a private limited company, so now Mrs. Jennifer is the MD of this place. Many famous personalities have stayed at this place in the recent years like, Sting, Eric Newby, Sir Tom Stoppard, Patrick Swayze, Julie Christie, Ian Hislop, etc. Famous Bollywood star actor Shashi Kapoor married Junnifer Kendal (one of the longest staying guests at Fairlawns) and they had their honeymoon here at this hotel. So the place has got a lot of stories to tell, and when you are here you might get teleported some 200 years back!

There is one private non-smoking dining area indoors at the ground floor where we just stepped in to click some pictures, otherwise we were seated at the outdoor section that is of course non-AC and close to the nature. 

We were here at 4:30 pm when it was not so hot outside, so we had a great experience, would have been much better if it was drizzling outside! You can smoke and have beer here at this place while having some great starters and mains. My friend ordered for Crispy baby corn with Sauce, and since I was more interested in that one-of-a-kind lovely outdoor ambiance (with that old world charm) I did not put forward any food preference of mine. And I am glad I didn't, since the Crispy baby corn was probably the best of its kind that I had in years. It was the full length babycorn sliced length-wise and tossed with bell peppers, onion rings and tangy sauces, it was awesome to taste along with some beer. Only one note - The beers served can be even more chilled, since they come to normal temperature pretty fast because of the outdoor seating. By the way, though the place is basically on the open lawn but it has got a roof on top, so sitting at this place during the rainy season is not an issue. 

The place is green everywhere, so soothing for the eyes and amazingly soul satisfying. Apart from natural plantations, the fences, the ceilings, chairs, other furnitures all are painted in green. Really sensed peace when I was at this place. Paradise on earth! 

Only the service can be improved a bit, it is bit slow and the waiters were less interactive. Though the prices are quite reasonable here, but please keep in mind to carry cash since they do not accept cards. And there is no extra taxes charged.

So here are my granular ratings for this legendary eatery -

Food Quality: 3.8/5

Food Quantity: 3.9/5

Food Presentation: 3.7/5

Ambiance: 5/5

Service: 3.1/5

Value for Money: 4.2/5

The old world charm will surely bring me back several more times at this place for the rest of my life and who knows if this place can give me some greater memories in future, since it has got all that potential!

Cheers!