A review of the newly opened Oh Calcutta
Being a fish (and food) lover, it doesn’t take much to entice me for a meal. Especially a Bengali meal, since it’s the closest I can get to an Assamese meal. I am on a sort of cooking sabbatical, so finding new restaurants to try out also helps a lot.
So a week or so ago, when I heard that the famous Bengali restaurant chain, Oh Calcutta, was opening its doors in Bangalore, I immediately called my fellow fish lover, Aqua and we were hatching plans for a first visit. Oh Calcutta has branches in Calcutta, Mumbai and Delhi and has now made an entry into Bangalore.
There was hardly anyone when I walked in : obviously the news has not spread far and wide yet. A rarity : to walk in and find a place immediately : and have the staff really attentive to you! I had several helpful staff guiding me to a table as soon as I entered.
I had heard a lot about the mangsho (lamb), so that was definitely on my agenda (and my plate). And fish, of course. Going to a Bengali restaurant and not eating fish is like walking into a bar and ordering a diet pepsi.
The décor is rather understated. No experimentation here : they have stuck to a sober cream and dark wood finish to give it a warm feel. One of the walls has some nice photographs of Calcutta on it and so do the coasters and plates : all with illustrated line drawings of signature monuments like the Howrah Railway station and Victoria Memorial.
Aqua joined in a while later, while I took some time to soak in my surroundings. Once she joined in, we settled into our comfortable seats and studied our rather voluminous menus starting with an aam porar shorbot : made of raw mango : it’s a tangy and sweet drink : nice to start off the meal.
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| From Restaurants — Bangalore |
For the first course, we had the kashor mangsho, luchis and aloo dum. I must say that the mangsho was super — the masala was delicious and made for the perfect combination along with the fluffy luchi. My only complaint : we got mostly bones and so I complained. They then brought us some nice meaty pieces. The aloo dum was okay, nothing very special.
Sufficiently stuffed (but we still had to order fish!) we went on to our main course : steamed mustard illish (boneless), a fried moong dal and rice. The fish was soft and flavourful and the dal was quite nicely done with a rather nice (fried) taste. We finished off the meal with some kheer : if you have a sweet tooth, you’ll enjoy this one.
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| From Restaurants — Bangalore |
There a lot more on offer : for starters : Chana koraoishutir chop (185), badami aloo (185, baby potatoes marinated in mustard, chillies and 5 spices, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed), smoked hilsa (420), crumb fried prawn (425), fish fry (265), murg aam kashundi paturi (260, chicken marinated in mustard, chillies, tangy mango and mustard and grilled in banana leaves).
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| From Restaurants — Bangalore |
From the entrees section, there is the koraishutir dhoka dalna (195, green pea cakes simmered in sharp ginger flavoured curry), cholar dal (110), Calcutta bekti (410), bhapa ilish boneless (495, what we had), daab chingri (425), rui macher dum jhol (145), murgi malai curry (225)
For the accompaniments you can choose luchis, rice, pulao or parathas (35–150). The desserts : malpua, mishti doi, kheer, Oh Calcutta sundae etc. are between 40–90.e
While it compared well to the other Bengali place I frequent, 6 Ballygunge Place, I would stick to the latter for more regular Bengali fare because of the cost factor. But if you’re a food and fish lover, it’s a must try at least once!
Bottom line: Great food, nice ambience
Price: Expensive, we paid around 700 per person for what we ate (might be lesser if you leave out the starters)
Downside: No alcohol
Location: St Marks Road
Valet parking: Yes
Onita…I can’t believe we went to the same restaurant and you came away with so much information while my take-away was just the pleasant after-taste of payesh. You certainly have an eye for detail.
Lovely review! Anjan Chatterjee should pay you for this review (considering there hardly are any reviews of Oh Calcutta online).
which reminds me, we have yet to ‘do’ the double road avatar of Ballygunge.
Posted by Aqua | November 18, 2008, 10:34 am@ aqua: hehe! i think that’s because i really enjoy my food ;-)
thank you and i hope mr chatterjee is reading this! but it’s early days yet.
yes, yes! always game, you know :-)
Posted by Anita | November 18, 2008, 1:07 pmHow different is assamese food from bengali?
Posted by Which main? What cross? | November 18, 2008, 5:15 pmHi Anita,
Hope you remember me.Well, very nice review on resturant. I wanted to know is it calcutta bekti as according to me it should be calcutta betki…isn’t it?
Posted by Pamela | November 20, 2008, 12:21 amOh Calcutta have set up shop in Pune as well. The bhetki is divine. very subtle. they dont slather it with an array of masala like they do in other restaurants. Loved it. Burnt a hole in pocket though. The bhetki, steamed rice and an aam porar shorbot came to 700 bucks. They are starting a lunch buffet here in pune. That probably will be more value for money
Posted by Pawan | November 21, 2008, 9:50 amI just love the O Calcutta here in Mumbai.As you rightly pointed out,whenever I miss Assamese food, I make a trip there.I had the buffet there during puja time and my bf swears he never saw me hog like that..btw have u seen this site?www.assamesecuisine.com
Posted by lostonthestreet | November 23, 2008, 3:10 pmDont you thinks 700 rs is expensive.With a lot of people in india still starving you spend 700 rs of luxurious food.
Posted by S.C.Chand | November 23, 2008, 5:28 pmhey anita a very nice review..will go and try it out.…though i do not have a very high opinion about the place because of my experince in going to the one in Delhi.
I thought their serving also was less…
but just the way you described it makes me to go and visit it again.…and yes I think the owners should give u a share in their earning as you are getting unhappy customers like me going to visit them becasue of having read yr review.
Posted by shalini | November 26, 2008, 4:21 pm@ Which main? What cross?:
let me put it this way. there are similarities. the foremost being the use of mustard oil in preparations. we also eat a lot of fish.
@ Pamela: hope you are well! we must do bengali food sometime soon! actually, in bengali it’s called betki but in english its called bekti — not sure why!
@ Pawan: the buffet might be for VFN! but i’ve also noticed when these places do buffets, they aren’t very good!
@ lostonthestreet: they have a buffet there? hope they start it here too and hope it’s good! i will check it out! thanks for the link :-)
@ S.C.Chand: it is expensive. and i mentioned it. i don’t really buy that logic. if we did, we would all be walking to work and eating raagi for breakfast. what i do with my personal preferences, time and money is totally my business, not anyone else’s.
@ shalini: you eat less! you should be complaining :-) next time, go with the 2 experts!
i think i should ask them for a commission when they visit their restaurant via me!
Posted by Anita | December 1, 2008, 11:02 amindeed a very nice review on resturant.
kashor mangsho??? that endangered species turtle????
Posted by kamalesh deka | December 8, 2008, 5:53 pm