Do you love hanging out? Visit Kolkata restaurants often? Why don’t you write reviews for these lovely places? It’s simple and you can earn a link to your favourite web sites along with an exposure for your writing.
Here’s how to do it:
You have to write about your experience when you last visited the restaurant. How did you like the ambience and the service? What types of cuisine do they serve? Make it your personal note. Write in the first person.
Which dishes did you like? Mention specific incidents like some special gesture by a waiter. Highlight any specific thing you liked about the decor. Anything you feel like telling to a friend about this place.
You should also include a photo of you and relatives or friends at the restaurant (not compulsory but preferred).
Also send a 2-3 line writeup about youyself with a link to your favourite site so that we can give you a credit and a link.
Here are some things you should NOT do:
- Copy a review from another site and make minor edits.
- Put up a dull description by taking information from the official site.
Some basic rules:
- We reserve the right to reject any submission.
- We cannot link to sites that relate to porn, gambling, hatred, racism etc.
- Affiliates links are discouraged.
Interested? Send your submissions to ebizindia AT gmail.com. Thanks!
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Yesterday we went to dine at the 5 rivers of Punjab, a lovely restaurant at the Mani Square Mall on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass. I had been there with some friends earlier but the experience this time was even nicer.
The first thing that drew our attention was that the waiter brought some tid-bits to nibble while we ordered our things. The starters were quite tasty though we missed our favourite Veg platter (not available here). We ordered several vegetarian dishes in the main course and these were well cooked and had nice aroma. This joint offers several dishes from Punjab and Kashmir.
A word of caution: the waiter will bring 2 menus one for Punjabi dishes and one for Kashmiri. Don’t just read one thinking that the other is just another copy.
They have a nice collection of mocktails and we ordered the chilled Kashmiri Kahva with peach (don’t recall the name, sorry). It was quite nice though the Kahva part was subdued under the peach.
The paan shot at the end is a pleasant surprise and works as a nice mouth freshner (it is on the house). Overall, it was a nice evening out with my family. Check it out.
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Your favorite blog on Calcutta (ok, Kolkata) has gone mobile. With the help of Webile, the mobile blog people, this blog is now visible on a mobile phone in an easy to read format.
You do not need to remember a new URL – just visit www.CalcuttaRocks.com on your mobile handset (iPhone, Blackberry, Treo, Android phones or even LG, Samsung, Nokia handsets)and you can see all the recent posts. Click (or touch) and read any posts that suits your fancy or read them all, one by one.
Your comments are welcome and don’t forget to contact Webile people if you want your blog to be available on a mobile phone too. Their fee is so low, you might actually fall off your chair.
Filed under Blog, Business, Food Park, Hangouts, Hotels, Marketing Centres, Religious places, Restaurants, Tourist Spots by
A new international school is opening in Kolkata – the Akademia International School. While strictly not a hangout, you should still explore this because every new school coming up in Kolkata will help to reduce the huge tension that the parents go through when looking for a good school to get their kids into.
The promoters claim to be setting up the school with a rigorous academic curriculum, well-defined co-curricular programme, experienced faculty members, and state-of-the-art infrastructure. The education a child receives at Akademia will be truly international with support for several different boards and education systems.
The School will commence its first academic session in March 2011. Located only 15 kms away from the National Library in Alipore, it is a day boarding school with widespread Academic, Athletic, Activity and Anciliary zones. The admissions open in October 2010.
Bhikharam Chandmal has opened a new outlet at Salt Lake near the City Centre. They are selling sweets and salted snacks as well as North Indian dinner on self-service basis. They have the classic Bikaneri bhujia, chana-chur, namkeens and what not – almost everything you can expect from a North Indian, specially Rajasthani sweet shop.
I love their Kesaria Rabri, Jodhpuri mirch pakoda, mini gulab jamun, almond laddoo with chocolate sauce on top – well the list goes on and on. They even have a hot dishes counter near the front-gate. However I do wish they also carried the Kesaria ice-cream as they do in the Kankurgachi outlet.
In my humble opinion, Bhikharam’s bhujia snacks are better and fresher compared to Haldiram’s and you are well advised to try them the next time you are shopping at the City Centre.
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We are soon going to introduce business listings for Kolkata companies on this web site. Each registered business will get a one page listing with logo, company name and list of products and services that they offer along with contact information. There will a direct link to the company’s web site if they have one.
This is going to be a very attractive and economical medium to get additional exposure to your business and company. The first 5 companies will be offered a free listing. Rush your request to info AT ebizindia DOT com. The next 5 companies will be able to order this package at very nominal Rs 1000 per year. You cannot get a link at this price, let alone a dedicated page.
We all love hanging out and eating at a food park. The main attraction is the wide variety of fare served from the different counters. A big group of guys and gals with diverse taste can all be happy and satisfied eating at a food park. Recently I visited a new food park and hang out at Infinity Benchmark in Salt Lake, Sector V – Bytes.
Located nicely, bang opposite the RDB Boulevard, at the ground floor, it has opened very recently and therefore some of the stalls were not even open. But lots of choices were still available. The pasta and pizza stall, the south Indian fare, chats of Kolkata were all there. There is a special counter for shakes and drinks (no hard drinks naturally).
I must specially mention the Biryani and Rolls counter which are the biggest pull for a Calcuttan. Don’t we just love the rolls and mutton biryani.
If you hurry, you can still catch the introductory 20% discount on all items. Check out the place – you should enjoy there.
Always crazy to try out new hangouts and restaurants? Visit Afraa and get enchanted with the white beauty.
I recently saw in a newspaper that Ambuja Realty has unveiled their new, all-white (Afraa means white) restaurant and got excited to try it out. I was sceptic of getting a quick seat on a Sunday evening, but took a chance anyway hoping that not-too many people have heard about it. I was surprised to see a fairly large number of people already dining out. You can’t keep a good thing hidden for long.
2 things struck me immediately upon entry. The layout is well spread out and there are multiple pockets of a few tables each. You don’t get to see a large number of tables lined up and this gives you a much better sense of privacy. The interiors are simple and elegant and mostly in white to justify the name. I cannot but mention the wall decoration with glass jars which looks quite striking. If you can, try to get a seat with a view of the Kund area of the City Centre – it looks great from up there.
The menu spread was a little sparse and on asking about it, the manager advised that they will be adding several more items once the lounge bar opens by end-March. The choice is varied with Continental items ruling the list. There are a few Indian and Chinese items also. This being a new place for us and because of our strict vegetarian preferences, we asked the floor manager to suggest some good dishes and I must say, we were delighted by the items he got for us.
There was a surprise waiting for us after the dessert – they offered us some really cool chocolate dipped paan. I do not know if this is just an introductory offer or they intend to continue offering these but you should really like them.
At the end, we took a prevew tour of the fabulous lounge below and I will be talking about that in a future post. Meanwhile if you are thinking of visiting Afraa, it is on the 7th floor of the G-block (the block with Fern and Petals near the car entry gate). Enjoy and do post a comment here after you come back.
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As you know, we discuss Calcutta Hotspots on this blog. Well, we just got 1000s of hotspots. Any guess?
Ok, let me tell you the open secret 
I am talking about the thousands of Durga Puja pandals that have sprung up on the roads, in the parks, in the various complexes and even private houses. These are heavily decorated, themed and house the Goddess supreme, Ma Durga who is always reminding us the good always wins over evil.
Almost everyone who lives in Calcutta or is here on a vacation, is out on the streets, hopping from one pandal to the next, appreciating the themed decoration and the blessings that Mother is showering on the devotees. Children are busy buying toys and street hawkers and roadside stalls are serving fast food for the hungry souls who have walked miles and miles forgetting the tiredness in the excitement.
The TV channels are vying with each other to cover the largest number of Pujas, and conferring a variety of awards to the deserving and the smart alecs are cashing in by running in SMS contests.
Do you miss the Puja fun and frolic? The community food, dressing up and roaming the streets all night, the adda and sneaking a look at that flame? Share your feelings with us and lighten up. We will pass these on to Ma Durga.
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Calcutta does not miss a chance to celebrate. We are all preparing (read shopping) for the upcoming Durga Puja festival and bang! At midnight, Sony TV crowns Prashant Tamang, our Calcutta Police constable as the Indian Idol. Yes, yes – I remember that he is from Darjeeling but he has become ours now 
. Personally I prefer Amit Paul’s singing to Prashant’s but probably Prashant’s fans did the SMS management better. The whole city stayed up till late to celebrate his surprise win.
And then came the rains – first drizzle, then steady rains and then smart showers. Ok, they were heavy showers and gave us a perfect excuse to stay indoors to watch India battle it out with Pakistan, our arch-rivals, in the inaugural Twenty 20 cricket world cup. A match with any other country is a match; a match with Pakistan is war.
So we had to cheer the young Indian team! And what a match it turned out to be. Ups and downs. And more ups and downs. And our hearts missed a beat when Misbah struck a six and a four to make it "need just six runs off 4 balls". Gone again?
But he lost nerves and scooped the ball high up for Sreesanth to catch the ball and the cup. Wow! What a release of tension! Hope you were able to watch the senational moments and share the joy!
All the while India and Pakistan teams were locked in a tense battle to score runs, the rain Gods were letting loose massive buckets of water. It rained cats and dogs, and tigers and lions. Even the streets of Salt Lake were waterlogged. What a day! Hope we can reach office on Tuesday and try to recover some of the lost work!
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