North Kolkata Heritage eateries

Chacha’s Hotel was established in 1875 at the junction of Bidhan Sarani and Vivekananda Road. It started when Gosaidas Patra purchased a tea-stall along with the plot, from a Muslim person, whom the local’s would fondly call ‘chacha’. The iconic items included fish-fries, fowl-cutlet (made without onion, garlic or ginger), mutton sheek kabaab. Some of the notable personalities who frequented the place were Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Chhabi Biswas, Swami Vivekananda, Uttam Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty, Bappi Lahiri. Later the menu was extended to Indian, Mughlai, Chinese, Tandoori and Thai cuisines. Sadly this heritage hotel is no longer operational.

Dilkhusha Cabin on Mahatma Gandhi Road is the one stop destination for the iconic Kabiraji cutlet. Although kabiraji literally means ayurvedic practitioner in Bengali, no connection could be traced to its name. Probably the term originated from the word 'coverage' as it has a thick batter of well beaten eggs. 

The delectable telebhaja (fritters) is a quintessential part of the Bengali adda. One of the iconic telebhaja shops is Lakshmi Narayan Shaw of Hatibagan. In 1918 the shop was established by Mr. Khedu Shaw (originally from Bihar). He set up the shop in a hut along with Fagu Lal Sahu. The shop was later given to Kedu Shaw's son Lakshmi Narayan Shaw. Keshto Kumar Gupta and his younger generation run this shop today. Earlier the shop was located at Abhay Guha Road. Interestingly, this shop played a pivotal role as a meeting place for the freedom fighters. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was a frequent visitor and till today, the shop distributes telebhaja free of cost on 23rd January. This tradition started as Shaw was very fond of young Subhash Chandra and became an open practise only after independence. Locals refer to this shop and its fritters as Netaji r peyaji. Some of their items include the aamer chop, soyabean cutlet, aloo chop, beguni, peyaji, Kashmiri chop, paneer chop, fuluri and fried dhoka. People throng large numbers every evening and rely on this age old shop which never compromises on the quality of its products. 


The original outlet of Mitra Café is near the Sovabazar Metro Station, founded in 1920, with branches all over Kolkata. The signature dishes include Brain Chop gondhoraj lime chicken pakoras, fish kabiraji, chicken Kabiraji and chocolate pudding. The place was given to Sushil Roy by his friend, Ganesh Mitra, as a token of friendship hence this cabin was named Mitra Café. The joints are popular among veteran artists and commoners. Channar pudding is also famous here.


Started in 1890 by brothers Basanta, Sudhir and Sushil Kumar Ray, there were five outlets of Basanta Cabin in Kolkata. Now only three remain at College Street, Moulali and Bhowanipore. New Basanta Cabin is located at Hedua crossing. The Bhowanipore outlet was frequented by Uttam Kumar and Basanta Chowdhury. The signature items include moghlai paratha and aloo dum, chicken cutlet, parathas, chicken kasha, and fish fry. Several accounts credit it as the birthplace of Kabiraji, (a cutlet coated in beaten egg and breadcrumbs) to impress Rabindranath Tagore. 


Located at 56 Ramdulal Street, Girish Chandra Dey and Nokur Chandra Nandy is an iconic sweet shop intricately woven into Bengali culture and cuisine since 1844. Nakur Chandra Nandy hailed from Janai in Hoogly district and came to Calcutta as son-in-law of renowned confectioner of Simla, Girish Chandra Dey. The later had inherited the shop from his father Mahish Dey. The signature items include talsash, jalbhara, parijat, dilkhush, monohara, singara sandesh, blackforest sandesh and other variteies. This shop has catered to the taste buds of Satyajit Ray, Uttam Kumar, Rajib Gandhi, Narendra Modi, the Bachchans and Hillary Clinton among several others.


Punti Ram (College Street), the iconic 150 year old shop keeps tickling the Bengali taste bud with Dalpuri, chholar daal, kochuri and Raj Bhog that in Bengali means royal meal. Other delicacies include sweets such as Abar Khabo and Sonpapri, Rosogolla, Lyangcha, Komolabhog, Kheer Chop, Kaju Barfi and Dorbesh. 

The entrance
Sweet gallery

Niranjan Agar (C.R.Avenue next to Girish Park metro station) was established in 1922 by Niranjan Agar. Deemer (Egg) Devil is the delicacy to try out here. Fish fry, mutton kopta followed by steaming cup of tea also have a huge number of takers here. Thursday has a meatless menu as on that day of the week, meat is not sold in the market.

The Entrance

The Heritage Tag
Kalpataru Bhandar was the first of its kind paan shop set up by Radhabinod Dutta, a migrant from Dhaka in 1946. Located at College Street near Indian Coffee House, this place is favourite with several renowned personalities for the exceptional quality of the betel leaves and the fillings. The shop today is run by Shyamal Dutta. The leaves are procurred from the Raja Khtara market of Burra Bazar. The dilkhush paan and badshahi paan are the favourites here. Previously the badshahi paan included a small portion of kasturi, a strong scented compound sourced from the male musk deer. This practise had to be abandoned with the inception of the Wild Life (Protection) Act of 1972.

Founded by Sir Charles Allen, a Scottish gentleman, Allen Saheb er dokaan, is located at Rabindra Sarani (Upper Chitpore Road).  A branch of the Allen's Kitchen was opened in Jatindra Mohan Avenue in 1958. Juicy prawn cutlet is the signature item here.

Anadi cabin was set up in 1924 on Chowringhee road by Balaram Jana. The dhakai parota was a part of the menu, now various fried savouries including moghlai parota are served.




Other age old eateries of prominence:
  1. India Coffee House (C R Avenue)
  2. Barua and Dey Fast Food Centre (Shyambazar)
  3. Ghosh cabin (Amherst Street)
  4. Indian Coffee House (College Street) https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7479581961566189553/923590961932381617
  5. Paramount (College Street) https://www.blogger.com/u/1/blog/post/edit/7479581961566189553/5615951529148960128

References:

https://moha-mushkil.com/lakshmi-narayan-shaw-best-telebhaja/

https://www.calcuttayellowpages.com/adver/109527.html

https://www.thebetterindia.com/179380/iconic-restaurants-kolkata-cabins-must-try-food-india/

https://blongshong.com/tag/basanta-cabin/

https://www.girishnakur.com/

https://goodfoodmemories.wordpress.com/2018/07/09/niranjan-agar-egg-ing-gracefully/

A Taste of Time by Mohona Kanjilal


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