India Guide
West Bengal
Eating
1 Aaheli Peerless Inn, 12 Chowringhee Rd 
033/2288 0301 Excellent Bengali restaurant, where waiters dressed in traditional dhotis serve everything from home cooking to festive food; try the rich maha thali (grand thali). No bar. Price: Around Rs600 per head
2 Arsalan 119-A Ripon St 033/6569 9579 Large, new restaurant that serves a selection of Chinese and other food; you're best off sticking to its Mughlai cuisine – such as the kebabs and excellent biriyanis – for which it is famous. Price: Around Rs250
3 Baan Thai Oberoi Grand hotel, 15 Chowringhee Rd 033/2249 2323 Although expensive, this in-hotel restaurant offers by far the best Thai cooking in town, with dishes like poo krapaw (stuffed crab) as well as standards such as red curry. Price: Rs1600 per head and up
4 Blue and Beyond 9th floor, Hotel Lindsay, 8-A Lindsay St This rooftop bar and restaurant provides an excellent vantage point over New Market and the surrounding city, best seen at dusk; there's good Indian and reasonable Chinese food, plus good-value breakfasts and buffets.
5 Blue Sky Café Sudder St Budget travellers' haunt halfway down the strip on a corner, providing all the old favourites. Clean, well run and a popular meeting place.
6 Fresh & Juicy 2/7 Sudder St Despite its fruity theme, this small café has a good and varied travellers' menu from breakfasts and "snakes" (snacks) to Chinese haka.
7 Nahoum & Sons F-20, New Market Legendary Jewish bakery and confectioner selling delicious fruitcake, cashew macaroons, chala (Jewish braided bread), cheese straws, chicken patties and bagels with cream cheese.
8 Nizam's 22–25 Hogg Market The original restaurant here gave birth to the legendary kathi roll – a tasty sheesh kebab, rolled into a paratha of white flour. Now with new owners and a garish facelift, its myth has all but died, but it's still worth a visit for a snacky meal.
9 Zurich 3 Sudder St Near the Blue Sky Café and similarly pitched at travellers; more comfortable and restaurant-like, with good food and a relaxed atmosphere.
10 Bar-B-Q 43 Park St An old and reliable favourite, offering Chinese and much-lauded tandoori cuisine in pleasant air-conditioned surroundings with a bar downstairs; the special lunch menu includes Persian delicacies such as chelo kebabs on rice. Price: Mains around Rs300
11 Barista 12D Park St The Kolkata branch of this trendy and popular nationwide chain serves up a range of snacks and good coffee, and has a tiny bookshop upstairs.
12 The Blue Potato Outram St, 27 Shakespeare Sarani 033/3259 7833 Chic, elegant ambience and a celebrity chef from Britain make this the talk of the town, with an international menu including New Zealand lamb, tenderloin, salmon and a mixed grill for Rs1100; there's a good vegetarian selection, too.
13 
Fire and Ice Kanak Building, 41 Chowringhee Rd 033/2288 4073 
www.fireandicepizzeria.com A trendy bistro and bar with free wireless Internet that serves an excellent and authentic range of Italian cuisine including pizzas and al fiumé (fresh river prawns in olive oil). Can get packed in the evenings. Price: Full meals around Rs600
14 Flury's 18 Park St, on the corner of Middleton Row A Kolkata landmark, this legendary Swiss teashop and patisserie has been completely revamped, swapping its flaky, laid-back atmosphere for a more modern but nouveau-riche style. Still worth visiting for its cakes, patties and Swiss pastries – try the rum balls – and its breakfast. They also make their own chocolates.
15 Gupta Brothers 42-A Park Mansions, Mirza Ghalib St Excellent, clean and cheap vegetarian snack bar and sweet counter with a good Rajasthani restaurant upstairs. Try the tandoori bharwan aloo.
16 Ivory Block D, 5th Floor, Pantaloons Department Store, 22 Camac St Chic dining on the top floor of this monument to consumerism; the mixed menu (from Rs600) is strong on Indian, but there's also Chinese and a "world" selection including the likes of Creole prawns and ratatouille.
17 Marco Polo in China 24 Park St Plush restaurant serving good Cantonese and Szechuan food, including dim sum and seafood specialities including lobster and steamed fish; they also offer a good-value lunch buffet for Rs500.
18 Mocambo 25-B Park St, around the corner on Mirza Ghalib St A long-standing restaurant that has grown from strength to strength and is now a firm favourite for its smart but relaxed ambience, good cooking and varied menu that runs from chicken Kiev to pizzas.
19 One Step Up 18-A Park St Bright bistro offering a range of options, from sandwiches and light meals to tandoori and pastries. Especially popular at lunch, but also good for an early evening drink.
20 Sourav's 20-G Park St, Middleton Row 033/2249 4646 Owned by the illustrious cricketer and a place of pilgrimage for Ganguly's fans, this modern complex of restaurants on four floors is topped with a swanky bar and nightclub. One-Day serves light meals including sandwiches, dosas and pizzas; Over-Boundary is a plush and pricey multi-cuisine restaurant, and there's also the vegetarian Maharaj.
21 Tangerine 2/1 Outram St 033/2281 5450 The first-floor windows take full advantage of its position opposite a park and give the restaurant a unique ambience, while the mixed menu is full of surprises, from Singapore noodles to meen moilly (Keralan fish curry), and grilled lobster for Rs635.
22 Eau Chew P32 Mission Row Extension, Ganesh Chandra Ave 09830 141857 A legendary family-run restaurant and a remnant from the heydays of Chinatown, this unassuming place above a petrol station produces authentic Chinese food. The chimney stew, cooked slowly around a metal coal-burning container, is especially good, though you need to order in advance.
23 Amber 11 Waterloo St 033/2248 6520. A Kolkata landmark that refuses to fade away, serving celebrated Mughlai and tandoori cuisine. Plush and dimly lit, it covers three floors, with a bar downstairs.
24 India Coffee House 15 Bankim Chatterjee St (just off College St) Atmospheric, historic landmark café in the heart of the university area where students and intellectuals continue to meet.
25 Kewpie's Kitchen 2 Elgin Lane 033/2475 9880 Private home with a restaurant annexe, offering rich Bengali feasts fit for a jamai babu (son-in-law) first entering his wife's home – try their lucci (puris) and the fish and prawn preparations including malai chingri (prawns in cream) and dab-er-chingri (prawns in a green coconut). Opening time: Closed Mon
26 Suruchi 89 Elliot Rd Run by the All Bengal Women's Union www.abwu.org , a charity for rehabilitated prostitutes and their children, and a good place to taste Bengali home-cooking. Unpretentious atmosphere and reasonable prices; highly recommended for lunch. Opening time: Closed Sat and Sun evenings
27 6 Ballygunge Place Ballygunge Place, South Kolkata 033/2460 3922 One of a new breed of popular Bengali restaurants, with tasteful surroundings and a traditional homely ambience. Start with rice and shuktoni (bitter vegetables), follow with doi bhekti (fish in yoghurt) and end with mishti doi (sweet yoghurt).
28 Banana Leaf 73 Rashbehari Ave, Lake Market, South Kolkata Plain decor and a fast turnaround for this extremely popular restaurant that cooks up some of the best south Indian food in town.
29 Bay of Bengal 6 Dr Satyananda Roy Rd, near Menoka Cinema, South Kolkata A good place to taste Bengali home-cooking, with an à la carte menu as well as set platters including the luxurious Mahabhoj menu; specialities include ilish (a particularly delicate fish, best eaten in spring), posto (vegetables cooked with poppy seeds) and mangsho jhol (mutton curry).
30 Bhojohori Manna 18/1A Hindustan Rd, South Kolkata 033/2466 3941. Popular chain serving Bengali food, with an emphasis on local cuisine but with a sprinkling of eclectic influences from other parts of the country, including tandoori – try the barbecued masala bhekti or stick to more traditional tastes. Expect to queue; there's another (smaller) branch on nearby Ekdalia Rd.
31 Comesum South Station, Howrah Station A spotless food-hall in Howrah's relatively placid annexe, offering sandwiches and pizzas as well as south Indian and Chinese food; the Haldiram counter offers hot kachori and great sweets.
32 Haldiram Bhujiwala 58 Chowringhee Rd A snack bar, sweet shop and café all rolled into one, this self-service vegetarian chain offers good if predictable food, with everything from samosas, thalis (from Rs56) and dosas to ice cream.
33 Kim Fa 47 South Tangra Rd 033/2329 2895 One of Tangra's best Chinese restaurants – try the Thai soup, garlic prawns and chilli king prawns, which can be quite potent.
34 Mainland China 3-A Gurusaday Rd 033/2287 2206 Chic Chinese restaurant with elegant service and excellent seafood; widely considered the city's finest, but perhaps a bit overdone, and for some, overcooked.
35 Royal Near Nakhoda Masjid, Rabindra Sarani No trip to this area is complete without a visit to this legendary Muslim restaurant for a biriyani or a chicken or mutton champ (chop) cooked in aromatic spices and accompanied by rumali roti (thin "handkerchief" bread).