Bijoli Grill - Southern Avenue — Restaurant in Kolkata

A flight of 10-15 steps lancing through the walls pasted with hand drawn stickers led us to the cozy interior of a much sought-after restaurant for decades – Bijoli Grill. We were at their Southern Avenue branch overlooking Najrul Mancha on the opposite.

Gliding past the mocktail counter we reclined on a comfortable couch. Large glass panes instead of small windows put us in convo with the greenery of Rabindra Sarovar across the road even staying us put in the convenience of the air conditioner inside. Two wooden racks stuffed with showpieces, dim lights and a designer ceiling completed the simple yet engaging décor.

This outlet serves multiple gastronomies, but this time we preferred dishes for which Bijoli Grill is famous for – Bengali Cuisine. Bhetki fry was an automatic choice as a starter for us, though there are a host of other delicacies like fish orlys, kabirajis, chops, devils, muithyas – all missed their chances to land in our plates by whiskers. We followed our starter with another one – this time Chicken Satay, a kebab, for a change. Do I need to say that both were well cooked and extremely delicious?

Next, we tried Luchi-Cholardal – the dish for which Bengalis are thriving for ages. Again, needless to say our nostalgia rekindled as we poked the belly of the swollen luchi and felt the hot gust from inside caress our face.

Bengali pulao, mutton dakbunglow and golda chingrir malaikari greeted us in succession. Each one seemed to be cooked in heaven and the ever-eager waiters, made sure everyone of us got equal share and allowed us to concentrate only on the ‘task’ for which we had been there.

Caramel custard with a scoop of butterscotch capped our appetite. Getting down the steps through the door opened by one of the waiters, wishing us good night, we vowed to come back again and again and try the overwhelming variety of dishes which we could not even fancied of attempting this time. The pinch on the pocket, we thought, was enough compensated with the excellence of an evening...

This place is located just on the main Southern Avenue road. It offers valet parking which is much needed. The restaurant is on the first floor with adequate seating capacity. The decor is slightly dull however the ambience is decent. Moving on to the food, for starters we had ordered fish finnger with tarter sauce. The fish extremely fresh what I liked about the fish fingers was that it did not have a very thick coating around the fish. We also ordered lime coriander soup. This was probably the best lime coriander soup I have had. It had the right amount of lime. For the main course, we had ordered roasted chicken, grilled chicken and baked fish. All three were served with rice, grilled vegetables and mashed potatoes. Though the chicken preparations were good, but after tasting the fish, we felt the chicken preparations were okkish. The baked fish was simply amazing. It just melted in your mouth. For desserts we had ordered rosagulla piyas. Honestly it was very disappointing. Overall, it is good place to visit. The fish they serve is excellent and although the continental food was great, I am told that the Bengali dishes are even better. Will try...

For the first time visited this restaurant. Initial impression was good. But when foods came it was changed. Firstly the fish fry costing Rs. 250 was dry and hard because of the superhard coating with breadcrumbs and elderly persons have to struggle to cut it. No cutlery only spoons and forks were there. Similar was the fish roll. Miniscule amount of salad was provided. Have to ask for more. The fish kabiraji coverage contained mostly arrowroot/cornflour which was soggy and full of oil. We were fed up with their signature foods and wanted to leave. Asked for the bills and after asking 3-4 waiters it was provided and also wait for 5 min for card swiping and bill generation. We were having great fish rolls and fries from our childhood in the original joint behind Bijoli cinema hall. Such a deterioration we could not imagine. Only pro is the seat and we could see the green...