Neelachal Restaurant Bagbazar — Restaurant in Kolkata

Baghbajar, North Kolkata: Kolkata and its love for Kochuris (Kachoris) is legendary.. be it breakfast, be it a quick work lunch, be it ‘Jolkhabar’ (snacks), be it a North Kolkata lunch platter, be it dinner, the Kochuri, it’s variants and cousins are sure to be there ... apparently there is nothing extraordinary about this dish yet this is one of the most widely loved and eaten food in Kolkata.. be it the ‘Kochuri - Alur Torkari’ or its cousin the ‘Luchi - Cholar Dal’ or the ‘Club Kachori - Alu matar ki sabzi) or the ‘Radbabollobi - Alur Dom’ people eat it just the way they would eat idlis in South... anytime anywhere ..

This dish is usually Niramish (Vegetarian - served with various kinds of potato curry), unless served with Kosha Mangsho or Chicken Kassa... but then the fish loving Bengali, his craving for ‘fish in every dish’ led to the invention of this new variant - the ‘Macher Kochuri’ or the Fish Kachori a few decades ago... Many in Kolkata still do not know that such a dish exists, and the ones who know are it’s addicts 😊...

The owners of this small 30 year old Baghbazar eatery ‘Neelachal’ claim to be the inventors of this ‘wonder’ ... they do serve a lot of other items but this Macher Kochuri is what makes this place special .. situated just off the Baghbajar crossing, in a small lane Neelachal is a must go place for all Kochuri lovers who also like to eat fish ...priced at just Rs. 32/-, a plate of this would consist of two fish kochuris served with a spicy alur torkari and some cucumber onion salad.. this is not a fancy place so if you really like to eat, you would have to sit on a bench on the roadside ... take a bite of this Macher Kochuri and I am sure you would start finding reasons to frequent this place often... Needless to say my visit here with my school pals enhanced the eating experience to a different level... looking forward to my next...

I visited the place on a Friday evening. The place is situated at a quite inner part of a lane, which makes it difficult to come under sight of a passerby, if they are not looking for it. The crowd was fairly low and you can sit on a bench which they have arranged in front of the restaurant, it's a open dining experience.

Coming to the food, we had Steam chicken momo, Fan fired chicken momo, Fish Kochuri, and Fish Pasinda. The momos are not authentic, but they are good in taste, I personally liked the taste, it has a unique taste, with a sweet taste from the onion. The pan fried I felt was a little too rich, although it can go with the soup they provide. I'll rate the steam one 4/5 and the pan fried 3/5.

The fish kochuri wasn't worth the price, I couldn't taste any fish, just a hint of fishy flavour. The Kochuri itself is good, but considering it as a fish kochuri is disappointing. I'll rate it 3/5. The fish pasinda was good, with fairly good amount of fish, but the size is bit small considering the price. I'll rate it 3/5.

Overall considering a roadside restaurant, it's quite good, and has a variety of food, from Indian, to Chinese. It was a good experience, I'll definitely recommend it around...

Do not expect above average watching the 5star rated picture. I went with a recommendation and I took the recommender with me as he visited this shop around 2yrs ago when the shop was not so well known. We tried first 2 plate fish kachuri at ₹50 per plate.... 1plate = 2 pieces fish kachuri with alur dom and kacha Peyaj. Taste was good... But I feel it should be ₹30 per plate. And the unexpected thing was my friend found MACHER KATA inside one kachuri... It might be cause of an accident. Next we tried ckn moglai paratha.... At ₹140...quantity was little... But the ckn stuffing was nice...taste was good. Thn my friend recommended their another famous items... FISH BUTTER FRY...quickly placing the order we were thinking for the nxt item what should we try... Within 3-4mins the fish butter fry ready to serve... We taste the fish butter fry... And quickly decide to make the payment and go to any other restaurant. Fish butter fry was the worst one.... Dont know what the fish was... And we both understood, it was not properly fried.... BTW... FISH BUTTER FRY was cost of ₹100. Our experience not so good...