About The Author
Hello! From Chuchura (in Hooghly District) and a foodie, I created this blog with a mission to preserve the food of the land; with a message to encourage and promote clean and real food. I hope you enjoy and gain out of this blog, happy reading!
Looking forward to read and hear your feedback.
Bhubaneswar’s best restaurants serving Bengali cuisine is a story that will give you a handful of options to try your favorite Bengali food in Bhubaneswar.
Bhubaneswar is a city with a large Bengali population. No doubt why many kiosks, eateries and restaurants claim to serve Bengali cuisine. Not all claims are true, and many actually fail to bring out the flavors that is typical in Bengali cuisine.
As a food enthusiast, I would be pretty unhappy seeing someone craving for Bengali food reach an eatery or restaurant that claims to serve Bengali cuisine and get disappointed.
During my long stints of stay at Bhubaneswar when I missed Bengali food, I have been pretty disappointed with many such options. Hence I decided to publish this blog that would help my readers satisfy their craving for Bengali cuisine in Bhubaneswar.
Did You Know?
The iconic Bengali chain ‘Bhojohori Manna’ have an all-Odia crew in its centralized kitchens across Kolkata
I have stayed in the city for close to a decade and have seen it break into a sudden spurt of growth. And with it an increase in the number of restaurants, food trucks and eateries.
Let’s get going.
Shohala Ana Odia, Patia
Perhaps the oldest and longest running restaurant in Bhubaneswar that serves Bengali cuisine. This is a franchise of Sholo Ana Bengali at Kolkata and also serves Odia cuisine.
Like most Bengalis in and around Patia, I have been a regular here. A weekend Bengali lunch would mean a trip to this very restaurant. Although the restaurant has changed its location a few years ago, the food continues to be consistently delicious.
You can start with a Bhetki Fry or Prawn Cutlet. The bhetki fry has a thin fillet with a golden brown crispy crust. Served with kasundhi, this makes for a perfect start to the meal.
If you take your Bhetki Fry seriously, avoid it here and head to Bhuri Bhoj at Unit 4.
Then you proceed to basmati rice and shukto. The shukto is perfect and readies the pallete for the next course of the meal. What’s a royal Bengali meal without a shukto?
Do not miss the mung dal. The dal is cooked with veggies like carrot, cauliflower and peas. Flavorwise it matches the dal served in feasts across Bengal that has a tinge of spice and sweet flavors to it. Order some aloo bhaja too. These are crisp and are also called as ‘jhuri aloo bhaja‘ in Bengal.
Rice mixed with dal and the jhuri aloo bhaja – comfort food at its royal best!
And if you are someone who loves the fish head, you can order in the legendary macher matha diye mung dal. Fish head is fried, mashed and cooked with spices in dal, delivering a multitude of flavors, including the umami flavor. Heaven!
From here, you can either move towards meat or fish. My preference has always been the mutton dak bungalow which comes with a reddish brown gravy and a piece of egg that has been boiled and lightly sautéed. It has a silky gravy with layers of flavors ranging from spicy to sweet as is the norm with many Bengali dishes.
If you do not like the egg with mutton, order in a mutton kosha. Goes excellent with a bowl of luchi.
Of course not everyone loves the mutton for its distinct smell. In such a case, order in some prawns. Chingri malaikari – a spicy and sweet flavored prawn curry cooked in a mélange of spices and coconut milk.
And if you are someone who does not prefer either mutton or prawn, get some Ilish Bhapa. Steamed hilsa fish fillets steamed in a mustard paste. Deliciously pungent!
The desserts are pretty average and you can try the Daber Payesh, if you wish to.
My Order
Bhetki Fry, Rice, Shukto, Machher Matha Diye Mung Dal, Jhuri Aloo Bhaja, Luchi, Mutton Dak Bungalow
Go here for the food. The ambiance is pretty basic and the seating is pretty close. The service staff has been around for pretty sometime and hence you can expect good service and consistently good food.
Bhuri Bhoj, Unit 4
Bhojohori Manna was on my list for sometime. But before I could schedule a visit there, the restaurant shut down its operations in the city.
Bhuri Bhoj came up at the same place, and so I decided to give this place a try. Pleasantly surprised at the awesome flavors that the restaurant had to offer. Built with a larger carpet area, this had a more comfortable seating than Shohala Ana Odia.
The most surprising element was legendary Bengali songs playing all around as you dig into the dishes. Not to forget the wall-art, a part of which portrays the streets of Kolkata – the trams, the yellow taxis and heritage buildings!
It does not have an excellent ambiance, but does a decent job given the options in the city!
You should definitely try the Mochar Chop. Served with kasundhi and some salad, the chop has a thin crust to hold the filling. The filling has lightly spiced banana blossoms with moderate sweetness. The addition of peanuts gives the filling an enjoyable texture and bite.
Bhetki Fry is another starter that I would recommend. A firm, thin crust packs in a solid amount of Bekti filling like no other in the city. It is served with kasundhi and salad.
For both the Mochar Chop and Bhetki Fry, the filling is a no-nonsense affair at Bhuri Bhoj and they take it seriously; unlike most outlets/restaurants in the city who claim to serve Bengali cuisine and mess up with the filling.
You might be tempted to try their bhatore-size Koriashutir Kochuri, but it’s a disappointment. The peas and spice stuffing in it is too less for the dish.
The Luchi is fluffy and soft and goes very well with either a Chicken Kosha or Mutton Dak Bungalow. The Chicken Kosha stands true to its name. This has a semi-thick, consistent, creamish gravy with the spices having penetrated every corner of the meat.
The spicy, sweet flavors have a tang and I must say that the restaurant does a good job in balancing the flavors.
The Mutton Dak Bungalow packs a punch of flavors with a delicious, spicy semi-thick gravy with a hint of sweetness. Served with an egg that has been boiled and lightly pan-fried, the dish creates magic on the plate.
End the meal with a Mishti Doi (sweet curd) served in a maatir bhar (clay pot). It isn’t the freshest and creamiest of curd you would get in Kolkata and Bengal. You will love it if you are missing your hometown.
Just a couple of months ago, a new sweet shop opened up near Big Bazaar, Patia. Situated just beside the Petrol Pump, the shop has a multitude of Bengali sweets and the misthi doi is fresh. It beats the sweet curd at Bhuri Bhoj.
My Order
Mochar Chop, Bhetki Fry, Koraishutir Kochuri, Luchi, Mutton Dak Bungalow, Chicken Kosha, Mishti Doi
Bengali Fast Food, KIIT Road
Street food and Bengalis are inseparable. Sadly, the city lags a dedicated option till you reach KIIT Road where Bengali Fast Food draws a lot of customers from KIIT and around.
They have a food truck on the main KIIT Road, 100-200 meters before KIMS when you travel from KIIT Square. This is a new location and may change in the future, in addition to the one marked on the map.
You get rolls, chowmein and moglai (mughlai paratha) cooked just like they do in Bengal.
For the Rolls, the egg is applied to one side of the paratha (instead of both sides, which is the norm in Bhubaneswar), and sliced raw onions are added to the roll as a stuffing. They also squeeze in some lemon juice and you may ask for some chopped green chilies, which they will happily oblige.
Bonus: If you are a huge fan of roll, I have two other options for you. One is Appetite at Shaheed Nagar and the other is Rolls On Wheels at Niladri Vihar, Chandrasekharpur
I however missed the slices of the cucumber as I reached there during the lockdown, when most of their regular customers (students from Bengal studying in KIIT) had already left. I hope the students return soon, and so does my slices of cucumber.
The Chowmein is kept simple without a lot of sauces being poured over it. It tastes fresh, simple, and delicious! The Moglai prepared is the best in this part of the city. They should however improve on the aloo kosha that accompanies the dish.
Since they cater to the local crowd as well, you may well mention that you want your rolls and chowmein prepared the ‘Kolkata way’.
Seahawk Fast Food Center, Sailashree Vihar – Kolkata
This has existed for more than a decade now. One of the earliest eateries in Patia-Chandrasekharpur area and perhaps the oldest in Sailashree Vihar serving Bengali food to the customers.
While there are many many items you can choose for, go here for the Kolkata-style chicken biryani.
There are dozens of eateries in the city that claim to serve Kolkata style chicken biryani. And all they do is drop in potatoes from the chicken curry or even worse boiled potatoes smeared in color in a tawa-tossed biryani. The result is a bad mix of chicken and rice dish with a confused potato not knowing its role in the dish.
Seahawk stays true to the name of the dish. The dish sports a light yellowish rice (from the use of food color) with a piece of tangdi (chicken leg) and potato to grace the meal. The aroma from the use of essence makes you feel at Kolkata and on a normal day, the biryani gets over pretty soon.
I find the rice dry often which is another feature of the Kolkata biryani.
They serve it in two portions – the half is priced around a hundred bucks and comes with a single piece of tangdi, and the full portion containing two pieces of tangdi is priced at one hundred thirty bucks.
A must try if you are craving for Kolkata-style chicken biryani. Ironically, the flavors even beats the flavors of Shiraz Golden Restaurant present in the city.
They also have a veg biryani which I have never tried. I have tried and loved the roomali roti and egg tadka that they do. So you may very well give it a try. One plate of the egg tadka is more than enough to feed two people, and they do not have a half plate option.
I have also tried their dry chilly chicken which is promising and takes you back to Kolkata for a momemt.
The Last Words on Bhubaneswar’s Best Bengali Restaurants
As a Bengali, I would love to see few more options when it comes to Bengali cuisine – hopefully entrepreneurs figure out that the city has a large Bengali population and even the Odia crowd loves a good Bengali food.
If you are someone who is new to the city, I am sure these options would surely help you.
Do you know of a roadside eatery, a cart, a food truck, or a restaurant serving excellent Bengali food. Please drop in a comment or let me know and I shall be happy to visit once the current lockdowns are over.