The words ‘Continental’ and ‘Behala’ seemed light years away even couple of years back; I can say so with this much conviction since I was born and brought up in Behala, and I know this part of city so well, its pulse and its traits. To be very true, the place had a sorry culinary scenario, which is best if not discussed. I won’t say the present state has improved drastically but atleast it wont drive you antsy these days when you are dying to have some oriental or continental food sitting right there in Behala. The young local brigade is surely making their best efforts to improve the situation and offer more varieties of cafes and casual dining joints. Maybe it will take some time to clear this mess and to develop the taste buds of the localites; but still, there should be a starting point, some pioneer to get the ball rolling. And surely ‘Goin West’ is the pioneer when it comes to serving authentic continental food right there in Behala. Still this is a young venture and is basically a family run business. The owner, Sayantan, employee of an IT firm loves his job as well as his restaurant and so you can only get to meet him during the weekends. What I loved best about the place is its service and hospitality, and the point that really concerned me is its setup and the alley and stairs that gets you to this eatery. Since it’s basically 1st floor of a home turned into a restaurant, so obviously it lacks that glittery, classy, elegant and professional feel of a restaurant to it, and since I was not aware of this setup, so that was quite a setback as well as turn-off for me. But I must appreciate the effort and hard work that has been put to transform the interiors of that 1st floor room where people can sit and dine. The red and yellow neatly framed photographs and quotes will surely catch your eyeballs. The furnitures are nicely picked though I feel the seating arrangements should be improved, they should be more comfortable to enable people to spend more time there! And yes, I really loved the tracks which were being played, tried to Shazam them all but maybe our gang was tad too noisy that night 🙂
By the way, I was there at Goin West on an invitation from the owner along with other Panchphoron food bloggers. The place is located right after the Janakalyan crossing on James long sarani if you are coming from Sakherbazar. As a landmark, you can refer to Samar Roy Chowdhury park which is right there opposite Goin West. You can surely park your car on the main road in front of Goin West, and that won’t be an issue.
Now let’s quickly check out the food and beverages which were served. Surely the food was prepared and served with loads of love, simplicity and honesty. The place doesn’t have a liquor license, so you can’t pair your steak with beer here, so that might be a turn-off for some. This place also doesn’t serve many fancy mocktails, but when we were there they prepared some lovely welcome drinks to greet us. Okay, so let’s get started:
a) Early Sunrise – This was the mocktail I was talking about. It had a sparkling orangey glow to it, with ice and grenadine. It was not at all pulpy, pretty sweet and tad too watery, bit too syrupy for my taste buds, but there is no denying that it was very refreshing and a bit fizzy. Perfect way to kick off your meal.
b) BBQ Chicken Wings – This was probably the best dish I tried here at this place. It’s the classic fried chicken wings drenched in homemade BBQ sauce that is tangy, tad sweet and sticky. The sauce was amazing to be honest, the chicken was juicy and flavorful, this one is a ‘must try’ dish.
c) Cheese and mushroom croquettes with salsa – This dish looked very promising and the presentation on that wooden board was appealing as well, but somehow it failed to impress me. These were potato croquettes filled with minced mushroom and mozzarella, then they were crumb fried and served with some lovely spicy salsa. The stuffing somehow did not do well; it was tad dry and lacked proper ingredients.
d) Poached fish quenelles – These were the Basa dumplings poached in mildly flavored stock and then pan seared and served with some chili mayo dip. The fish used being Basa did not exude much flavor or aroma, and overall the stuff was overtly dry and lacking that punch to carry on. And as it went cold, it lost whatever flavor it had got. So if you are having it, please consume them when hot.
e) Farmhouse Moussaka – This was a vegetarian main course dish which was baked with layers of freshly diced veggies and drenched in cream cheese sauce, it was a nice option to try out if you want to restrict yourself to veg dishes.
f) Chicken casserole – Oh I loved this preparation! It had handsome chicken thighs and drumsticks and was cooked in slow heat. It had a stew made of rosemary sauce with carrots, mushroom and pearl onions. The chicken and veggies were all then placed on a bed of mashed potatoes which tasted nice as well. The chicken was really succulent and well cooked. The gravy had a subtle flavor and was insanely good to taste! If you are here, you can surely try this out!
g) Pork schnitzels – Though I didn’t taste much of this dish that night but I am in general an ardent pork lover. This dish had lean pork, breads crumbled and fried and served with French fries and mayo dip. This tasted nice and did the trick with that pork meat in there.
h) Lasagna – I really loved the lasagna which were served here, both the veg and the on-veg ones. But I would have loved them if they were tad thicker. But the flavor and aroma were just perfect. The lasagna sheets were layered between cheesy sauce and minced mutton and were topped with grated cheese and the entire stuff was perfectly baked in the oven. It is surely worth a try!
i) Crepe Suzette – This dessert is again worth a try! It had vanilla flavored pancakes flambéed and drizzled with tangy orange sauce which was bit too tangy, and then it was topped with vanilla ice-cream.
That concluded our tasting session at Goin West, which surely is extremely promising and provides an entirely new option for the residents of Behala which was rather badly needed. People these days like to try various cuisines and so people will surely some and try the continental food delicacies here at this place and give this place the required boost. But I would suggest the management, maybe couple of years down the line, you can try and get a proper restaurant area to shift your operations there. Otherwise the food, service, music and ambiance was good enough to attract more foodies to this hidden gem serving lip smacking amazing dishes. I wish Sayantan and his team all the best, hope they do well!
Cheers!
foodiedada 