With it’s 4 outlets providing impeccable restaurant service in four prime areas of Kolkata and it’s delivery service covering all nooks and corners of the city, as well as, a couple of nearby suburbs, Sanjha Chulha is a 15.5 years old Kolkata based food brand that one associates with hot and piping dhaba style tandoori food items, served in the current style comfort setting.
Opened around 1.5 years back, the ground floor based Southern Avenue outlet of Sanjha Chulha is located in a quaint by lane, situated quite near to ace designer Sabyasachi’s showroom.
The approximately 40 seater outlet offers three kinds of seating arrangements –
1) The usual seating is on the ground floor. It comprises of long and beautifully carved sturdy wooden sofas and tables. Seatings are not upholstered but quite comfortable. Beautiful rural wall murals and lighting fixtures adorn the walls.
2) Also located on the ground floor, is a small and mostly enclosed space with a circular wooden table and 8 high back upholstered wooden chairs is apt for kitty parties. One of it’s walls has a beautiful wall mural of a village woman extracting butter.
3) Located on the mezzanine floor, is a small and cosy lounge area that can seat around 10-12 people. It’s hued in shades of brown. Seating arrangements are in the form of upholstered wooden stools. Wooden table tops are attached to the walls and are sans any legs. The room is dimly lit and apt for relaxed small gatherings or parties.
Near the entrance, a beautiful life sized colored sculpture of a village woman can be found, sitting on a window sil,l along with her metallic ‘gagri’ i.e. water pot. This area is popular for clicking selfies.
The food menu is divided into the following categories – Appetizers, Starters, Main Course, Dal, Rice & Pulao, Accompaniments and Dessert.
My food tasting comprised of the following items –
– Appetizers –
– Masala Cola (Rs. 60/-): It was a nice and fizzy welcome drink served with the right blend of spices. It tasted soothing.
– Starters –
– Makai Seekh Kabab, Chutney Paneer Tikka, Tandoori Aloo Shashlik and Mushroom Moti Tikka (Rs. 210/- to Rs. 250/-): Served on long black ceramic plates with uneven surface, each Kebab plate oozed out the unmistakable rustic tandoor flavor. The Kebabs came accompanied with a bowl of Green Chutney.
All the Kebabs were well marinated, fully cooked sans any extra charring and tasted excellent. By far these were the best tandoori vegetarian Kebabs that I have had till date. Each of them had a distinct taste!
This can only be achieved when an eatery uses specific marinations with their own blend of spices, that also complement the particular Kebab for which they are used.
– Main Course –
– Methi Malai Paneer, Chana Masala, Kadhai Vegetable (Rs. 220/- to 250/-): The aforementioned sabzis or curries were served in shining miniature steel kadhais or woks and serving bowls. They came garnished with fresh cream, onion ringlets with lime and grated cottage cheese respectively.
Apart from the potato preparations, these are the sabjis which form the majority of vegetarian orders in any dhaba style eatery. Showcasing them all during the tasting session was an intelligent move on the part of the management.
Each of the aforementioned sabji was – well cooked, aptly seasoned, sans any extra oil and prepared in altogether separate gravies and/or ‘baghar’. Their composition was thankfully dense and not runny. They tasted quite good.
– Dal Makhani (Rs. 185/-): Served in a miniature steel ‘balti’ or tumbler and garnished with a beautiful ‘baghar’ of dry red chilli and red chilli powder on top, the Dal seemed to have been cooked over low gas for a long period of time. Resultantly, it was homogenous in textur, smelled nice and tasted real good.
– Breads –
– Garlic Naan, Pudina Paratha, Butter Naan (Rs. 65/- each): All the breads were expectantly fresh, soft, well made and tasted nice.
Apparently, their Cheese Naan is quite popular. But I was too full to taste any further.
– Dessert –
– Firni (Rs. 75/-): Placed on a white ceramic quarter plate, the earthenware bowl of chilled Firni was served with a shining steel dessert spoon.
Concocted with some condensed form of milk, this Firni was an amalgamation of Rabri and Firni, homogenous in texture, relatively thicker in consistency and excellent in taste.
Even if your tummy happens to be full with the preceeding meal, you won’t be able to stop at just 2-3 spoonfuls!
They make it in-house from scratch and don’t use any preservative or added nuts or flavors.
Sanjha Chulha delivers all over Kolkata from it’s 4 outlets and also provides live tandoor catering service at events. They also prepare customized food packets for bulk orders.
All in all, I had a mind blowing tasting session of comfort food, well cordoned by the warm hospitality and courtesy bestowed upon by the management.
Last but not the least, that day I happened to be suffering from sore throat, so post the lunch, I was offered an additional serving of piping hot Lemon Tea, so as to ease my discomfort and facilitate free flow of conversation. I must say that, even that humble tea was very nice.
Timing: 12 noon to 11 pm
Vegetarian Food And Reviews 