| Three restaurants promoted by cricketing superstars go under the scanner |
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IT IS possibly Kolkatas only celebrity restaurant. And Sourav Ganguly is omnipresent at Souravs-The Food Pavilion. Cricket is also ubiquitous. The multi-cuisine restaurant on the second floor is called Over Boundary, the coffee shop on the first is One Da and the fourth floor lounge bar is Prince of Cal. Cricket references find obvious presence on the menu and the stairways are filled (in Hard Rock Cafe style) with cricket. memorabilia.
However, the selling point here is food. The most popular has to be Over Boundary on the second floor, where they have oriental, Indian and continental on the menu. The USP is the seafood-they have large lobsters and crabs flown in from the Andamans, and in Kolkata thats not common with regular Park Street restaurants. So theres plenty of seafood stir-fried oriental style, Bengali favourites like daab chingri and pabda maacher jhol. While Sourav Ganguly does not have anything to do with the daily running and operation of the restaurant, he does drop in often enough to keep the buzz going. In a city starved of celebrities, this gives Souravs a good enough chance to find its spot on Kolkatas foodie trail.
Souravs : The Food Pavilion, 20 G Park Street, Kolkata
Tendulkars : Narang House, Apollo Bunder, Mumbai
Like its owner, the facade of Tendulkars does not have a huge presence. Its squeezed between establishments on the perpendicular towards Gateway of India. "Its near empty inside, even on a Sunday afternoon. The novelty of the restaurant seems to have worn off. Sachin Tendulkar memorabilia, among the factors sustaining the eatery, is wide-ranging and accessible. A souvenir that is especially good to see, in these times of dressing room dissonance, is a stump split into halves and signed by players after Tendulkars 34th Test century. The starters, mocktails and desserts have their moments (recommended in these categories are Fried Bombay Duck, Lees Punch and Apple Crisp, respectively). But it is the main course with which the restaurant scores. Mutton lovers, especially, will be happy that this is one place where they will get quality meat. Besides, as the dishes are in the range of Rs 300 and can be shared among two, they dont need that much Visa power.
ZKs : Lullanagar, Pune
Like most couch-potato crick-et addicts, I went to ZKs because I wanted to experience the aura (even if second hand) which surrounds cricket stars. My son tagged along because he wanted to meet Zaheer Khan. But, we were both disappointed. The only thing ZKs has to do with cricket is the fact that it is owned by a player. Otherwise, it could be Zubaid Kareems friendly, neighbourhood Indian-Chinese-Continental eatery. On the plus side-it is lit up like the Wankhede stadium, so you get a clear view of what youre eating. And it has a bar, though the glass of Grover red came at the kitchens room temperature, and had been breathing for so long, it needed artificial respiration. On the minus side, it is definitely not a place for an intimate tete-a-tete. The interiors look like movie set out of the 70s. The crockery is Shoppers Stop modern with pink paper napkins. But the foods cheap-well, relatively. The garlic bread is cold, greasy and limp. The chicken corn soup is the usual cornstarch glop. The pasta is overcooked and the mushrooms are in chunky halves. The desi stuff is better. Somewhat. My chicken khurchan is quite good and the veg handi is tolerable. The Chefs special dessert turns out to be rabri with a few shavings of pista. As a general eatery, ZKs is like its owners current form-high on promise, low on delivery.
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