Luchi Mangsho

There's whole rash of Bengali restaurants in Andheri Lokhandwala, where I stay, so I teamed up with a newly tattooed friend to test their mettle.

The restaurants we chose were Hooghli, Hangla's and Calcutta Club. Of these, two (Hoogli and Calcutta Club) are within shouting distance of each other at the end of Oshiwara's restaurant row, while Hanglas is some distance away near Lokhandwala market. (view map)

Now the question was how to test. Kosha Manghso, the seminal non-veg dish on a bong menu seemed like ideal to try the taste test. We decided to order a plate of Kosha Mangsho from each of the restaurants, and pair it with homemade luchis.

The three deliveries were very interesting in their differences. All looked distinctly different from each other, had different prices and came in different packages. Hangla's medium brown version came in a big foil box and cost Rs 99. Calcutta Club delivered an orange version for Rs 80 while Hooghli was the most expensive - a dark, rich gravy at Rs 130.

How did they stack up? The tastiest and the best was also the most expensive - Hooghli. It was the only truly kosha (braised) mutton of the lot. Second was Calcutta Club, though neither the colour nor the consistency of the gravy was what we expected. Hangla's had the softest and largest mutton pieces, but a complete lack of chillies left it tasting bland and funny. All three were quite reasonable, but none made it anywhere close to the hallowed levels of (say) Shyambazaar's Golbari.

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