Amoli — Restaurant in Bolpur

If you are at the Amoli restaurant, the primary or let’s say the fundamental reason for you being at Amoli would be for the food and you would expect great cuisine. Ambience & decoration are important but for sure does not trump the primary need of enjoying great food that want’s you to come back for more. This is where Amoli falls short drastically and defeats the purpose of ‘having great food’ altogether.

In about the hour and a half that I spent in Amoli, there were 4 tables that were being served:

Table A: Had 6 members, ordered for a mix of Cold Coffee with & without ice cream, Hot Coffee and that was it. Took a zillion pics and goes without saying would find their place in various social media accounts. Table B: A Couple, 2 cups of coffee Table C: All girl power comprising 3 members, ordered for some cake and a Cold Coffee, that would be it Table: D: A 4-member family, ordered for Waffle and Pizza. We ordered for Spicy Wedges, Pizza with additional topping as Bacon, Chicken Quiche, Blueberry Cheesecake and Waffle with ice cream. So, for me except for the Blueberry Cheesecake the rest of all that we did have was lousy and an utter disappointment.

Disappointment because I was swayed by the reviews, and then it did dawn upon me, a good number of the mass would be floored by the curated décor and the spread of cuisine with exotic ingredients, it seems obvious for Bolpur wherein fine dining experience continue to remain largely a myth. In addition, if I do correlate to the choice of menu for my fellow dining partners (Tables A to D as above), close to 90% of the overall choice was variations of coffee. With reviews majorly based on coffee / cake and combinations of it the reviews get skewed and will continue to get skewed.

To the last bit as to why did I consider the food was “LOUSY” except for the Blueberry cheesecake which thankfully did shine through with a glimmer of hope - Here is why? The prices are close to a top notch, fine dining restaurant in a major metropolitan city (not the Michelin Star ones!!), you would expect exceptional food with great sense of satisfaction and an undesirable desire to come back for more.

Amoli is nowhere close.

Ultimately your...

I've been to Amoli not very many times, but each time I've been there, I've been struck by the overall wholesomeness of the place as an ideal restaurant should be. To begin with the seating is extremely ergonomically designed to not give one a back ache, and a fidgetiness after sitting with friends for half an hour, at least. Add to that the open feeling due to the floor length windows all around to not give me claustrobhobia, with green all around. Then comes the food. Well, I have tasted only a few dishes so far, like, the mutton tagine, a Moroccan savoury yum-yum dish, replete with perfectly fried finger chips, a lovely creamy-not-over-the-top-wannabe-tasty sauce, (should have asked the chef what's it called) and the meltethinthemouth, soft pita bread, with of course, the perfectly marinated to soft chewyness, and delectably cooked mutton (wish there was some more of the meat though, 'cause it was sooo good... But the French wouldn't complain I guess. Oh, not to forget the watermelon, litchee, ginger juice - mmm - ought to try this at least once, if you visit Amoli a few times; it's divine..was wondering what a dash of vodka or white rum would do for it..! Minku and Alok da our hosts, finish off the wholesomeness of it all with their warm company once in a while. We always have a lovely filter café au latte with oodles of creamy foam to finish off the meal(s). On other days, their orange upside-down cake or blueberry cheesecake (heavenly), vanilla custard profiteroles, (and pizzas, et al) have filled me with dreams of sinful sweet creamy indulgences in a place, where I literally grew up since I was 18 on roshogolla's and lombu's as my only go to sweets! I must not forget to mention our other very special host Srijeet, who not only does an excellent job of stewarding, but also taught us how to send large files via...

I would like to share a slice of our horrendous experience at the oh so “award-winning Amoli” and our confrontation with a few supercilious fools.

Location is a ZERO on ten. The lane is so narrow and is placed in a residential neighbourhood which made it inconvenient for the residents and the guests. No signboard or lights along the streets which made it even worse.

Now regarding the food. One word would be TRASH. The food is disgustingly tasteless and bland. The portion sizes are horrible. We ordered four dishes apart from our beverages and it couldn’t fill the farthest corner of our tummies. And on top of that, the dishes are overpriced with directionless recipes. Received burnt bread and ridiculously hot chillies for our cheese toast, the chicken roulade was not palatable. The khao suey was below average and the shepherd’s pie tasted too ‘meaty’. The perfect destination for such food would be a dustbin.

Now, the cherry on the cake was the treatment that we received at the cafe. All the waiters and the chef especially were extremely arrogant and condescending. The contemptuous attitude of the staff disappointed us further. On the complaining about the frustrating dining experience, we only received haughty and cold responses with absolutely no regard for the customers. They were so shameless and impervious to the feedback that didn’t feel the need to apologise. The owner and the staff have mastered the art of nonchalance; none of them are bothered about a guest’s experience. The overall experience was atrocious, I, at any given point of time, would choose a roadside eatery.

Anyone reading this, your only takeaway from this review would be, please DO NOT BELIEVE ANY FOOD AWARDS that have been bestowed upon such Cafes. Unfortunately, everything in this world comes with a price tag and so do...