Hanglaatherium Lake Gardens — Restaurant in Kolkata

This review is specific to the branch near South City Mall, I didn't visit their other locations. So this was my first time, I have heard a lot about this place from the Gen Z Kolkata Ghotis! I went alone at around 5 PM for a late lunch. I am never a big critic of ambiance as long as it's neat and clean, so won't comment on the ambiance. The service boys are pure "Bangali Babus" every single one has a little belly bump and walks and talks inhumanely slow. Not complaining at all about their behaviour, it's just that their attitude is so damn laid back. "Hochhe Hobe" types. Overall service was slow and I was literally the only customer for dine in! Coming to the food, I ordered a Biriyani Platter (mutton), it comes with a complementary cold drink and gulab jamun which I requested them not to serve (I avoid sugar). Each and every single item in that platter tasted like absolute garbage and I had to throw away half of the food. Surprisingly when I was halfway through my food, 2 college dudes came in and ordered Biriyani, they seemed to have loved it and ate the last bit of rice on the plate (kothar kotha)!! Long story short if you come from a place where the quality of life and food is good it's best to avoid this outlet, if you are someone who has siddho bhat and aloo posto for lunch and ruti and aloo bhaja for dinner throughout your life and eat outside occasionally and love wearing T-shirts with Bengali dialogues in it, I am sure you will love it! There is something really wrong with the quality of life in West Bengal, I don't recall the name of the place, there is a cha er dokan in Eastern Bypass, owned by the veteran "Chapri" singer Nachiketa and people flock in it like crazy, last year an acquaintance of mine took me there mentioning they serve amazing tea, they use bloody CTC tea and some local Haringatha milk! Just for a comparison the roadside chai tapri in Ludhiana use Amul Red and proper leaf tea for making their tea and you will still find people there complaining about quality! This is not a hate comment, in case someone sitting in Nandan premises reading this finds it demeaning!!

Edit: Apologies I am not much of a techqie, not quite sure how to reply to the owner's questions / reply to my initial review hence this edit.

Nachiketa Shop (pathetic quality of tea and milk), Bengali T Shirts (substandard quality of fabric), Pot Belly (just a way of appreciating the Bangali Babus!). My intention was just to highlight how people of Bengal focus more on the feel of things rather than quality!

As you correctly mentioned the food order took approx 20 mins to be served, which I personally found a little strange specially with me being the only customer in the restaurant and biriyani being a ready to serve food item. Coming to the appreciation part, the food was not at all satisfactory. I try not to waste food, that is the reason I specifically asked the service person not to provide me with the drinks and gulab jamun even though it comes with the platter. You can also check on your camera footage how I asked the service person to reduce the amount of rice once the platter was served so there is no wastage. So me eating the food on my plate was purely with the intent of zero waste and not because I enjoyed the taste of it! Even after that I had to leave out quite a lot as wastage.

Happy to hear you are proud of your Bengali culture and even happier that you love to call Bengal your home, unfortunately during my last visit it appeared a lot more than half of your "home" has been taken over by Marwadis, Gujratis and surprisingly even the Biharis! In my defence this is not a racist or hate comment, just in case someone reading this from the Nandan premises find...

Hanglatherium near City Mall was honestly a letdown. I had a reservation for 2:30 but reached by 2, and to their credit, they were kind enough to let me have a seat. However, the bad experience started from there. I was given a seat meant for four people. After I went to the washroom to freshen up, I came back only to find that they’d moved me to a different seat—they touched my bag, which I’d left on the seat, without my permission and shifted me to a 2-seater table.

No placemat was provided to me, while everyone else—before and after me—got one, Honestly felt a bit uninvited. Small details like this matter. I ordered a masala cold drink twice and was only given a straw once.

Now coming to the food: they didn’t have most of the menu prepared. Every time I asked for something, they’d just deny it and say it wasn’t ready. I wanted to try their Dilli 6, but couldn’t for the same reason. They suggested Nargis Kebab instead, so I ordered that as a starter. For the main course, I went for Mutton Biryani and Mutton Hanglabari, and for dessert, I ordered Firni.

The kebab was good—it’s basically a boiled egg covered in slow-cooked minced mutton, and it was flavourful and delicious. However, the paratha that came with it had an old oil smell and was really thin.

I ordered the biryani with my starters and gave clear instructions to serve the biryani only after I finished my starter. But they didn’t follow this. I waited 15 minutes like a fool after my starter, and only after I confronted someone did my main course arrive—about 3 minutes after complaining.

The biryani was below average. The mutton was soft and cooked well, but the rice lacked flavour. By flavour, I don’t mean more oil or meetha attar—it was less oily and not overloaded with that sweet fragrance, which is good—but it also lacked any real spice.

As for the Mutton Hanglabari, which is supposed to be one of their special dishes, I was initially told it wasn’t available. Then suddenly, the waiter came back and said, “No, no, we can serve it.” Oh god, I shouldn’t have agreed. The mutton was extremely chewy and smelly—my worst experience of the Day. When they were clearing my plates, they asked if everything was fine since I hadn’t eaten the mutton fully. I just said yeah, it’s fine.

Table was not cleared before serving Dessert: Main course dirty plates was on my table when they served dessert.

Dessert was just okay. The firni was nothing special.

Now for the interesting part: They have their restaurant listed on EazyDiner, and I’d reserved my seat through the platform, planning to pay that way to get a 10% discount. They flat-out refused to accept payment from EazyDiner or any similar platform (like Swiggy Dineout or Zomato), and this wasn’t mentioned when I booked my reservation.

Overall, it was a pathetic experience and a waste of money in my opinion. The only good thing was the ambience and their PR team on social media.

Suggestion: If you want to spend money that’s burning a hole in your pocket and want a pretty average-to-bad experience, visit Hanglatherium near City Mall.

Sunanda, if you’re reading this—maybe work on your food quality and customer experience, instead of just PR.

Prices: Packaged Water 15.0 (500 ml) Nargisi Kabab (2 pcs) 255.0 Masala Cold Drink 85.0 Mutton BIryani 330.0 Mutton Hanglaabari 425.0 (5 PCS (Serves 1- 2)) Firni 65.0 5% GST...

This restaurant is the hidden gem if you are in Lake Gardens area and you want to gorge on some delectable Mughlai food. The Biryani is something you cannot pass up. But apart from Biryani, the place is also famous for its Kababs and few dishes like Mutton Hanglaabari,Chicken Pasanda and Dilli6. This small restaurant is rolling out dishes which are fit for Kings!The limited menu has enough options to please everyone from a vegetarian to a hardcore mutton lover.Right from Kebabs to main-courses to desserts, you ask for it and you can have it all. Myself and my younger sister wanted to co-host a family gathering of 14 members at Kolkata, last Pujo, as both of us were reuniting after almost a decade for Durga Pujo. I was searching for a good cozy place with yummilicious food and a place perfect for a family reunion and adda,during '23s bijaya dashami.Being a permanent resident of Pune for last 15 years,my only resort was local friend's suggestions and google. Tried contacting ample restaurant owners, to book the table for the elderly relatives of my family, but no one gave any assurance! My fanatic google search revealed multiple names - one of it was Haanglaatherium!! Contacted the owner Sunando expecting the same reply that during puja days table booking is impossible!!But He assured me that he will definitely block the date and book a table for us.. and rest is history.. He along with his crew members treated us like royal guests.Even before the food arrived we were clean bowled by their humble gesture. He himself and Boudi looked at every minute details,to make our outing memorable! So,whenever you’re thinking to have a perfect mughlai meal, remember this restaurant’s name.The specially curated menu,perfect adda thek type ambience,reasonable price, courteous staffs and quality of food are top notch! P. S- why am I so late in writing the review? In past 3.5 months 3 more partys in my extended family and friends circle were held there.. and all of them echoed the same thing..Haanglaatherium's hospitality and food quality both are awesome👍 "Thanks Indrani,for the reference!" I finally came out from my hibernation, just to thank Sunando and team!! You guys are superb! Keep this spirit up! Will definitely visit the...