It's a place again near Dalhousie. If you move towards Lalbazar, leaving Writer's Building and Cathedral Church behind and take the first right turn on the way, it is R. N. Mukherjee Road. You will find Old Mission Church and Birla Building on the left hand side. Take a look on the other side of the road, just after crossing Birla Building, you may find our destination "Madras Tiffin House".
My first job was in Hindustan Motors Ltd. and with that connection I had to visit Birla Building, our Head Office quite often. I remember it was a winter afternoon and I was just feeling hungry and co-incidentally, with the same feelings my colleague suggested Madras Tiffin House for lunch. He was quite familiar with the place being an employee of our Head Office. He still don't know what he gifted me.
After returning from a South Indian trip most bengali people tends to loose weight and sigh remembering the torturing south indian dishes throughout their trip. The final conclusion says "South Indian Dishes are good in Kolkata only". I really do not know what they find there, because I am yet to visit any South Indian city. But I must say I am really bored of having only Idli, Dosa, Vada and Utthapam (rarely experienced) and the Coconut Chatni and Sambar which come as the part of the course. Madras Tiffin House is a bit different in this respect. You will find dishes like Pongal, Rava Dosa or dessert like Rava Kashori Halwa. There are many but I am yet to taste them all. I found no point having the same Idli, Bada, though the Idli available here is also made of Rava (thickly ground rice). Idli made of rava is more soft and delicious than normally available one and dosa made of rava is little different too. If you like paper dosa then you may not like the rava dosa but don't worry, the same is available too in many variety (once my friend tried Paper Butter Dosa. It was awesome).
The day I had Pongal, my wife was with me. She is fond of new dishes and in fact she ordered the Pongal. The dish amazed us both. It is like Khichdi of rice and Urad Daal with flavor of hole black pepper. It was so simple but an extraordinary item. We really enjoyed it. Then we tasted the Rava Dosa which is smaller in size [does not exceeds the boundary of your dish like the paper dosas :P] and a little thick but definitely crispy and tasty. After all these, Rava Kashori Halwa had it's turn to pleas us and it did well. It is quite similar to Suji Halwa but made of rava instead of suji and the saffron (kashori means made with Kesar or saffron) added a completely different savor. We tried all the new dishes and none of them was disappointing and that too for a quite little money. We could hardly raised the bill over Rs.125/-. Yes it is that cheap.
Another famous item available there is Pulao (or Pulav) which is a favorite item for daily customers. It comes with Dum-Aloo, Raita and Papad. The whole course is very tasty and complete. Last day I had coffee served in traditional South Indian Stainless Steel glass :-) . I will give a 7.5/10 rating for this place. The truth is, there is no so called ambiance and thus keeping the cost and quality in mind I can give that much rating. A little ambiance would have added more points to it but it is not required if you visit Madras Tiffin House for the sake of your tongue!
Masala Dosa
picture courtesy www.ephotosworld.com
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