Aaheli: The Peerless Inn, New Market Area, Kolkata

Restaurant Name: Aaheli: The Peerless Inn, New Market Area, Kolkata
Phone: +919831780403, +919007770841, +919163308730
Address: The Peerless Inn Kolkata, 12, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, 1st Floor, New Market Area, Dharmatala, Taltala, Kolkata 700013 West Bengal India
Time: 12:30 Noon – 08:00 PM
Meals for two: Rs. 4,000
Cuisines: Bengali
Facilities: Wheelchair Accessible, Valet Parking Available, Table booking recommended, Indoor Seating, Romantic Dining, Buffet, No Alcohol Available

Aaheli: The Peerless Inn, New Market Area, Kolkata

We Bengalis truly eat to live up to our legendary culinary heritage. In the ancient agrarian community, the cuisine was aptly divided into four distinctive characteristics of eating, defined as: charbya (act of chewing), choshya (act of sucking), lehya (act of licking) and peya (act of drinking), giving a lucid cultural context to each dish. We even juggled the sequence of eating from the Vishnu Purana of northern India that followed starting with sweet first, followed by savory and ending with spicy and bitter tastes, to Brihaddharma Purana set in Bengal, starting with steamed rice and ghee, then vegetables and ending with milk and boiled rice (paramanna). Aaheli at the Peerless Inn, is actually the first brand restaurant that took a giant leap to represent the purity synonymous with traditional Bengali cuisine in a commercial setting over 25 years ago. Now, their third outlet has opened in the heart of south Kolkata in an easy access, standalone format. The brightly done up interiors proudly showcase Bengal’s craftsmanship — from framed kantha work on the walls, batik printed napkins, sheetalpati or reed table runners to heavy, gold-finish bell metal tableware and a single brass diya symbolic of special celebrations, they have put in efforts to make the experience as close to a Bengali heart as possible.

Aaheli: The Peerless Inn, New Market Area, Kolkata: Food

The menu is an abridged version of the original, featuring their house signatures. The thalis or set meals are iconic and based on differential pricing depending on contents. We order Golap ghol (Rs. 155), Sugandhi Gobindobhog (Rs. 175) to go with Phulkopir dom-e ghonto (Rs. 275), ilil pab-dar jhal (Rs. 455) and Aaheli roj namcha thali, upgraded to a Special thali (Rs. 1,299) to accommodate our request of replacing the chicken dish with mutton.

Plus & Minus:

The smooth rose syrup infused ghol or yoghurt drink, is a royalty-influenced summer cooler, and cleanses the palate with its salty and sweet flavours. The fertile riverine lands of Bengal have cultivated many varieties of rice coveted by Bengalis. For me, the short-grained sweetness of the buttery, aromatic Gobindobhog, famed for being ambrosia of Gods, provides the ideal combination to a Bengali meal. And we choose the everyday thali to savour the simplicity of a typical home-style meal. With Jharna ghee, shukto (the bitters), moonger dal (yellow lentil), Luchi (fried bread), begun bhaja (deep fried eggplant), fish chop, Aloo potol karaishutir dalna (potato, pointed gourd, peas), Rui machher kalia (rohu fish), kosha mangsho (mutton), yellow pulao, Amsatta khejur chutney (sweet and tangy chutney), papal, mishti doi and Raj-bhog, it covers all courses alright. However, the cooking techniques fail to raise hopes; the shuk-to, wee bit thick, the unseasonal potol lacks vigour, the freshness of the fresh-water rohu fish is doused in a thick onion-tomato gravy. It’s the lightness of the nourishing, Kancha moonger dal that touches a rustic chord, the luchi, long slice of fried eggplant and the fish chop add authenticity and the luscious Kosha mangsho and yellow pulao enhance legitimacy to the true Bengali spirit. The Phulkopi dom-e ghonto or steamed phulkopi in ghee infused, ginger-cashew paste gravy, is downright seasonal for tail-end winter, though I shudder to think of it as a ghonto where the florets would be an overcooked mishmash, but the til pabdar jhal seems to be a total figment of imagination, when reality hits with deep fried padba, the delicate Indian cattish losing all flavours in a rich, thick sauce, sprinkled with white sesame on top. Finally it is the pleasant hospitality of the serving ladies and the in-house mishti doi and gigantic Rajbhog that save the day.