Café Drifter — Restaurant in Kolkata

NOT SUITABLE ESPECIALLY FOR REMOTE WORKERS! p-547 Lake road cafe review

visited 3 days in a row.. sharing my honest experience here for future remote workers

day 1 (only evening) - nice food & nice staff, sat for 2-3 hrs, enjoyed meal and left

day 2 (morning till evening) - since they promote "work from cafe".... i decided to actually work from cafe whole day and ordered in the second half multiple times (3 times to be exact), still good food and good staff experience so far

day 3 (morning, then asked to leave in afternoon) - occupied with work, didnt order anything for the first 3 hrs after entering and lost track of time as well. owner some bald guy who said his name was Raj (not sure) came accusing me of disrespectful behaviour because i have not ordered anything yet..assuming i am a freeloader even after i explicitly said that i do plan to order in a while and have been coming and ordering last 2 days as well, just not placed an order yet and not keeping track of time. 100% My fault - i should've ordered something in the first half itself after sitting for a while..

Owners fault - assuming i am a freeloader and denying service for the day immediately (basically asked to leave)

NOTE: cafe was mostly empty during first half and afternoon till 5 pm approx on both day 2 and day 3, (only 1 or 2 more customers were there for less than hour) other than me so i was not occupying space or services during busy hours. Maybe owner would prefer empty cafe rather than sitting customers inside.. The waiter and all are good even the owner who asked me to leave had a decent conversation with me but the accusation and denying of service under pretense of freeloading is absurd and rude. I could have wrote this review very harshly going into details of the things actually said by owner (the actual coversation was almost 5-10 mins long) but its already lengthy enough. People who buy one Rs.100 coffee and sit are allowed by cafe BUT people like me who actually sit whole day in an empty cafe, work, plan to become a regular customer and order for Rs. 500+ previously are not welcomed if they don't order or forget to order within 2-3 hrs. of entering the cafe as per my personal experience.

I mean come on.., u can even go to a better coworking space and book one seat for 500 for whole day...and next day they would still welcome you unlike this almost empty cafe and then accusing customers of not supporting their small business..

I understand i should have ordered something but if owner was actually curious why i have not ordered yet he could have just asked me within first 1 hour politely and told me of their cafe policy or something instead of asking to leave directly. No intimation was given by staff or owner, just straight after 3 hours, came with an angry face and started accusing random assumptions...that says a lot why the cafe is mostly empty...

the likes on this post will show the relatability with other past customers if there are any such more incidents...

This place is situated at Lake Road, near Vivekananda Road. You can go through Southern Avenue to reach easily. Nearby metro station is Kalighat, but have to walk around 13-15 mins. The interior of the cafe is pretty and the overall ambience is cosy! The price range of the items is also very affordable.

Coming to food, it's not that good. You'll get different items from the menu, but overall the food is so-so. We ordered Salt and Pepper Chicken from the starters, which was more or less good. In the main course, we had Chicken Fried Rice, Pork Noodles, Oyster Chicken and Chilli Chicken Dry. The noodles was not upto the mark to be honest, it did not have good portion and the quality of the pork was not good either. But the Chicken items were better with respect to the other ones.

Apart from that, the service was very poor. No spoons or forks were provided at first, which was strange! Even, if we needed anything we had to call out to them and we got it after some time!

Overall not so recommended place. You'll find a whole bunch of cafes and eateries around that place, so try...

There’s something quietly magical about finding comfort in a bowl, and Cafe Drifter’s white cheese sauce pasta did exactly that for me. The moment it arrived, I knew I was in for a treat. Steam curled up from a generous plate of pasta, drenched in a creamy white cheese sauce that looked like silk. One bite in, and I was sold. The sauce was rich, perfectly seasoned—not overpowering, just deeply satisfying. You could taste the layers: the butter, the garlic, the blend of cheeses melting into each other like they were always meant to. But what really won me over was the medley of veggies—broccoli with just the right bite, sweet capsicum, baby corn, and zucchini, all tucked into the pasta like little surprises. Then came my favorite part. A warm slice of bread on the side. I didn’t think much of it at first, but when the pasta was gone and only that golden cream remained, I knew what had to be done. I saucered the plate clean, slowly, almost ceremoniously. It wasn’t just a good meal—it felt like a hug I didn’t know I needed. I’ll be back. Probably sooner...