Classic food stops and sweet shops

Long-standing sweet shops, cabins, cafés and street-food corners that are part of the city’s story, not just places to eat.

Shyambazar

• Golbari: The round-fronted corner shop known for dark, slow-cooked kosha mangsho.

Sovabazar

• Mitra Cafe: A tiny cabin serving cutlets, kabiraji and brain chop since 1920.

Hatibagan

• Girish Chandra Dey & Nakur Chandra Nandy: Sandesh specialists since 1844, sold through a grille in a side lane.

Jorasanko & Chitpur

• Zakaria Street: The kebab-and-haleem street beside Nakhoda Masjid.
• Royal Indian Hotel: A 1905 Mughlai restaurant known for mutton chaap and biryani.

College Street

• Indian Coffee House: The high-ceilinged hall where Bengal’s writers and students argue over coffee.
• Paramount: A sherbet shop from 1918 with marble tables and a famous daab sherbet.
• Favourite Cabin: A 1918 tea cabin where revolutionaries and poets met.

Bowbazar & Old Chinatown

• Tiretta Bazaar Chinese Breakfast: Momos, pork buns and fish-ball soup sold on the pavement at dawn.
• Bhim Chandra Nag: An 1826 sweet shop, home of the ledikeni.

Esplanade & New Market

• Dacres Lane: The office district’s lunch alley.
• Nizam’s: The restaurant credited with inventing the kathi roll.
• Aminia: A 1929 Mughlai house for Kolkata biryani and mutton pasinda.
• K.C. Das: The rosogolla family’s shop at Esplanade.

Park Street

• Park Street: The city’s dining street, and its Christmas street.
• Flurys: The 1927 tea room on Park Street.
• Oxford Bookstore: A Park Street bookshop that has been open since 1920.
• Shiraz Golden Restaurant: A 1941 biryani house at the Mullick Bazar crossing.

Bhawanipur

• Balaram Mullick & Radharaman Mullick: A Bhawanipur sweet shop since 1885, known for baked rosogolla and nolen gur sweets.
• Balwant Singh’s Eating House: A Punjabi dhaba from 1926 that serves tea from before dawn.

Kalighat

• Lake Market: A neighbourhood market with a South Indian flavour.

Jadavpur

• Jadavpur 8B & Coffee House: Student street food and a branch of the Coffee House by the university gate.

Tangra (Chinatown)

• Tangra Chinatown: The Hakka Chinese quarter where Indian Chinese food was shaped.

More ways to explore Kolkata

• Heritage places in Kolkata
• Museums and galleries in Kolkata
• Ghats on the Hooghly
• Markets and shopping streets
• Places of worship to visit
• Hidden gems of Kolkata
• Free places to visit in Kolkata
• Family-friendly places
• Places to photograph in Kolkata
• Parks, lakes and green spaces
• Things to do on a rainy day
• Places for sunset
• Places near a metro station

Last checked on 2026-10-02. Each place was checked to exist and its position confirmed. Timings, closing days and ticket prices are shown only where known and can change: confirm before you travel.