For someone who doesn’t enjoy waking up early or stuffing her face as soon as she wakes up, I put in a lot of (according to me) effort to do exactly that in Kolkata.
Because we landed in Kolkata at 7:30 in the morning, the first thing on our agenda was to find a place to breakfast. A little Google search the night before led us to discover that Kolkata is littered with eateries known for breakfast.
Here are five places that will help you start your day off on a full, and happy, stomach in Kolkata:
1. Balwant Singh’s Eating House
Balwant’s is a small, old time-y restaurant located on Harish Chatterjee Road. We reached there a little after breakfast time, 9:30 AM, so they were all out of the traditional breakfast that they serve. However, there was still plenty of good food to choose from.
What we ate: Club kachori (club because they’re smaller than the regular size), which comes with a potato gravy on the side, aloo paratha, Gulab Jamun, doodh Cola, which is milk and Coca-Cola with ice cubes. This is not exactly – okay – not even remotely good for the body. It’s a ridiculous combination that I, naturally, thought it was delicious.
The pocket effect: INR 280
They also serve south Indian dishes like idli and pongal, which a lot of customers seemed to be ordering.
2. Chinese Breakfast at Tiretta Bazaar
If you read last week’s Snapshot Sunday post, you already know what I’m talking about. The Tiretta Bazaar in Kolkata is referred to the city’s Chinatown. Every morning, and I mean early morning, like 5 AM, a few food stalls line up to form the Chinese breakfast market. Fresh, hot, steaming buns, dumplings and soup. Yes please!
What we ate: Pork buns, which had a red, sticky and sweet filling, fish siu mai and fish ball soup, a clear broth with a generous serving of spring onions.
The pocket effect: INR 160
The good thing about waking up this early and eating breakfast at the market, even if you’re standing, is that for once, you’re not in the midst of Kolkata’s omnipresent crowds. The cool morning weather is a plus too. It is said that the food sells out by 7 AM. I can’t vouch for this but why take the risk.
3. Putiram
Again, if you’ve read the main post on the Chinese breakfast, you know that my travel buddy wasn’t quite happy to eat in the market surroundings. So after the Chinese breakfast, we headed over to another place that showed up on our earlier Google search. Putiram is located on Surya Sen Street, which is perpendicular to College Street. It is a small sweet shop that is over 150 years old and the food is fresh
What we ate: Travel buddy had a plate of puri aloo that had a nice home-made taste to it. She also had a serving of rasgulla and I treated myself to a piece of jalebi – a perfect end to our breakfast that morning.
The pocket effect: INR 50
We visited Putiram the evening before too, after our stroll through Boi Para (the world’s largest second-hand books market) and they were out of rasgullas and settled for the rasmalai. So I guess the best time to pay Putiram a visit for a fresh dose of sweets is in the morning.
4. Sabir’s
What caught our attention when we read about Sabir’s was that they serve mutton zuban aka goat tongue. And they serve it for breakfast. I’ve never had tongue – goat or cow – so I thought this would be a good opportunity to try some. On our last day in Kolkata, we walked up to Sabir’s which is located on _. This modest looking restaurant with its green walls was fairly quiet when we reached it around 8 AM. Unfortunately, when I asked for some zuban, the old waiter uncle said there was none. He said, banta nahi hai, which translates to, it’s not made. I’m not sure it wasn’t made that day or it isn’t made at all. Anyway, we went ahead and ordered as per waiter uncle’s suggestions.
What we ate: Mutton stew with lachha paratha, both of which were really rich but really good and really filling! One portion of the stew and one paratha each was more than enough for the two of us. We also had a cup of tea after because waiter uncle looked at us like, you obviously need tea.
The pocket effect: INR 140
5. Flurry’s
An upmarket patisserie in Kolkata’s high-end locality, Park Street, Flurry’s is one of Kolkata’s oldest establishments. My father who visited Kolkata first in 1989 visited Flurry’s then. And he still recommends it, especially for its pastries. Flurry’s was also recommended to me by Bidisha over at Resferber 18, for the English breakfast. However, we didn’t eat breakfast at Flurry’s but with all the nostalgia and talk around it, I thought it deserved to be added to the list.
We didn’t try Flurry’s for breakfast simply because Bangalore has no dearth for English breakfast at all. Instead, we visited Flurry’s (twice) to try their baked goods. Also, travel buddy went nuts about the Flurry’s Special English tea that comes with two scones, butter, jam and whipped cream. It’s why we revisited the patisserie on our last day in Kolkata.
With its classy, marble floors and warm lighting, the ambiance at Flurry’s makes it a great place to sit back and enjoy a cup of tea with your girlfriends while a soft afternoon drizzle slowly drenches the world outside.
Have you been to Kolkata? What are your favourite places to eat breakfast there? Talk to me in the comments.
Later Alligator 
Looove the pictures! And of course, your post! 😍
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Thank you, thank you! :*
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EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
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Wow! A delicious post 🙂
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Thank you, thank you!
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