When I was walking out of Burnt Garlic, I was pretty confused! I had heard so many negative reviews about this place and even found people writing negative comments on my facebook check-in to this place! On the other hand, when I was leaving this restaurant I told my friends that people will be coming back to this place solely for the food and the beverages. Their new menu has surely helped them take a big leap that haters may choose to try out as well. So, I want to start this review by clearing all these doubts and negative notion about Burnt Garlic restaurant. I don’t know, maybe few months back this place started off its journey on a shaky note, but now it is all grown up, settled down and rocking. At least the dishes we tasted were fantastic and the service was prompt and warm. And their ‘New Menu’ is seriously something which you can’t miss.
This place is located inside the Priya Cinemas (near Desapriya Park) at the Ground Floor. This iconic and holy place for movie-goers, especially Bengali movie-goers now has a genuinely good eat-out option, which really makes me happy! I was here at this place on invitation from First Idea PR and Burnt Garlic management to taste their Newly Launched Menu! Really a big thank you for this invitation which introduced me to this wonderful address of ‘adda’ and ‘pet-pujo’ at the nostalgic Priya Cinema premises!
Firstly, you will be impressed by the décor once you step inside this rustic looking café bar. It has been separated into two levels; and the ground floor is more impressive according to me. Ground floor is basically a long stretch with rustic finished wooden furniture and ceramic cutleries on the tables! The place has those typical rolling pins’ curtains which is really unique and adds a dash of pleasant adventure to this place. The grunge looks get elevated by the dramatic wall art done with embroidery rings. The mezzanine level adorns those old school disco lightings and overall an extremely dimly lit setting! The music is peppy and just perfect! The well stocked step-down bar and the associated lightings are again impressive and helps you to unwind fast.
Now, let us come to the food and beverages which I tasted at this place from their New Menu.
To start with, there were two Salads – The Caesar Salad was served with a twist since it had nachos, burnt garlic, olives and cherry tomato with a tasty honey mustard dressing. I know it’s very unorthodox, but don’t judge the book by its cover since this dish had loads of flavors in every bit of it mainly infused by those mildly spicy nachos. Next the salad was called Savour It, and it had jalapenos, iceberg and aragula with an orange dressing and a sprinkle of sugar leaving an overall sweet and mildly tangy aftertaste.
We tried the Soups next. That included Broccoli and Spinach soup with a lovely decorated topping of cream. The soup was thick and dominated by the flavor of spinach which was rich in taste and aroma. Next we were served the Cream if Mushroom soup which is pretty common in restaurants, but here it’s kind of a must-have because of its optimum density and perfect balance of flavors. Next we went on to the starters and here we were served Mushroom Salt and Pepper, Coriander Chicken and Fish in Thai Chilli Sauce. I loved all the three finger food dishes but would surely like to give a special brownie point to the chef for the Coriander Chicken and the Fish in Thai Chilli Sauce. Both had the chicken and fish well marinated with flavors seeping deep inside the meat. The pasta which was served next was just insanely good, it’s called Just Prawns and was green in color. It’s wrapped in lip smacking coriander sauce with a generous dosage of prawns. Next we tried the Lamb Bolognaise Pizza which had huge quantity and having a lovely thin crust. The toppings were generous and loaded with perfect amount of cheese. You can also try out their Oregano Chicken Burger served with French fries which is there in this new menu.
Coming to the mains, the best dish was surely the first one which we tried which was surprisingly a vegetarian dish. The dish was called Mushroom and Artichoke Crepe with thyme cream sauce. The sauce was smooth in texture, forming mild flavored gravy and overall this crepe based dish was amazingly flavorful with a wholesome filling of mushroom. The Porchini Chicken with Roasted Potato and Green came up next. The dish was medium spicy and having a brownish color, the chicken was nicely marinated and was juicy. Then we tried the Burnt Garlic special Pan Seared Lemon Butter Bhetki which looked absolutely stunning with those colorful portions of veggies, mashed potato, Bhetki fish and lemon butter sauce. Taste wise, it was quite as per our expectations and the fish was absolutely fantastic, flaky and fresh, loved it with that smooth and creamy portion of mashed potatoes. Next in the mains, the new menu has oriental options of Kung Pao Chicken and Thai Fried Rice, both of them went really well together with the fried rice having a nice hint of sweet basil and subtle aroma of lemongrass.
The new menu has two options in the dessert. They are Blueberry Cheese Cake and Caramel Cake with Hot Toffee Sauce. The cheesecake was smooth and literally melting in my mouth, a little spoonful of blueberry sauce gave it that perfect tang which was so much required. On the other hand, the caramel cake was stunning as well. It was so spongy and soft that it stole my heart away, and when you try it with that hot toffee sauce you are sure to close your eyes once in appreciation! Often words are not enough to express some feelings! This was surely one of them.
Apart from the food, the new manu has some awesome cocktails which will surely bring you back to this place! I loved the Mango Coconut Daiquiri so much that I asked for a second helping. It was very dense for that fresh mango pulp and a lovely portion of Malibu rum going into it, taking the flavor and kick to another level. By the way, I have some weakness for Malibu and this drink was somewhat tailor made for me. The Sugarcane Mai Tai was nice to taste, quite refreshing, mildly sweet with a hint of mint. The Curry Patta Coconut Vodkatini was really out of the box, since I had never tried a drink with curry patta in it, here also the curry leaves were put on top so that you just get an aroma of it and do not taste it. The prettiest and cutest drink was called Kiwi and strawberry mojito that was served in a small glass container with separated layers of crushed strawberry and kiwi extracts and having a hint of mint, it tasted sweet and beautiful and was somewhat a dream cocktail for any girl. The quirky drink which came in the end was called Posto bata Gondhoraj Ghol, it was white in color and not very dense. It had a lovely aroma of gondhoraj lemon having bits of grated lemon skin in the drink. It had an impeccable flavor of crushed poppy seeds that impressed me a lot! Kudos to that bright brain which created this amazing drink. It is somewhat a ‘Bengali Cocktail’ that the Kolkatans will absolutely love. All the cocktails are absolute ‘Must try’ items. Do not miss them!
The service and hospitality was spot on – very warm, prompt and informative. I would rate this new menu 8.8 out of 10. Maybe I am repeating this, but I am mighty impressed with this new menu, specially the cocktails served. Both the veg and the non-veg dishes are fantastic, with veg dishes being better at places. This is really an amazing point which is surely a plus. The décor is pretty innovative and grunge and the location is also more than perfect. Overall, I loved this place and mesmerized by this new menu makeover. Do try out this new menu i.e. the dishes mentioned in this review, I promise you’ll love them.
Cheers!
foodiedada 