Bengali Food at Bengali Prices
Ambience ★★★★
Service ★★★
Presentation ★★★★
Taste ★★★★
Victoria Memorial, Vidyasagar Setu, Uttam Kumar, Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak - all the living and inanimate icons of Bengali culture can be found on the walls of The Calcutta Club, giving it a distinctly Bengali feel as you take you seat here. Add to that the smell of fish cooking, nauseating to a vegetarian but mouth-watering to an inveterate Bong. Food over here is reminiscent of a regular Bengali lunch, heavy in quantity but light when it comes to spices and thus light on the system. The masoor dal along with basmati rice and fried potato strips (known colloquially as jhuri bhaja in Bengal) makes for an excellent vegetarian meal by itself. For those veering into non-vegetarian territory, the Mangshor jhol (mutton curry) is a good bet, with the trademark hemispherical slice of potato (the shape is different from a potato slice in a fish curry, for instance) included in the curry. The Chicken Curry too is light on the system despite being quite palatable. The meat dishes are best enjoyed with Luchi, a softer version of the Poori that is light enough for you to have 4-5 of comfortably. Unfortunately, the Doi maachh (fish in curd-based gravy), arguably the most eagerly awaited dish on this particular spread, disappoints with the fish having a putrid aftertaste that is just about compensated for by the splendid gravy. The other letdown at The Calcutta Club is the absence of traditional Bengali sweetmeats like Rosogolla (though Rosogollar payesh, a rather nicely whipped up Bengali version of the Rasmalai, does exist) and Pantua on the menu; and the unavailability of Mishti doi (sweet curd) most of the time. And so, for the Bengali dejected by the fish and the sweets not being up to the mark, The Calcutta Club offers a price that will remind him or her fondly of Kolkata. A 3-course meal for 2 is comfortably done within INR 700, something that the Oh! Calcuttas of the world may sit up and take a look at. For the novelty-seeking foodie from any other part of India, The Calcutta Club is a good initiation into Bengali cuisine at prices that allow you to experiment.
Ambience ★★★★
Service ★★★
Presentation ★★★★
Taste ★★★★
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