Tiretta Bazaar Chinese Breakfast
টেরিটি বাজার
Also known as Old Chinatown, Territy Bazar.
Momos, pork buns and fish-ball soup sold on the pavement at dawn.
About Tiretta Bazaar Chinese Breakfast
The Chinese community settled around Tiretta Bazaar from the late eighteenth century, and this was the city’s first Chinatown. Each morning a handful of families set up stalls on the pavement near Poddar Court selling steamed buns, momos, fish-ball soup, sausages and prawn wafers. It is a small market now, much reduced from what it was, but it is the last daily sign of old Chinatown’s street life.
Why visit
A breakfast found in no other Indian city, over within three hours of sunrise.
What to see and do
- Stalls of steamed buns, momos and soup
- Home-made sausages and sauces
- The clan temples in the lanes behind
Plan your visit
- Area
- Bowbazar & Old Chinatown, Central Kolkata
- Nearest landmark
- Poddar Court, off Bentinck Street
- Best time
- Sunrise or morning. October to March is the most comfortable time of year.
- Time needed
- About 45 minutes
- Cost
- Usually under ₹100 a head
- Entry
- Open to everyone: a street, ghat, market or park you can walk into.
- Metro
- Central (Blue Line), about 7 minutes’ walk
- Walking
- Little walking
- Photography
- Good for photography. Ask the stall-holders first.
Tip
Be there by 6 to 7 AM; most food is gone by 8. Sunday has the most stalls.
Nearby and related places
- Sea Ip Church: A Chinese clan temple from 1905, called a church.
- Toong On Church: A red-brick Chinese temple that once housed the city’s first Chinese restaurant.
- Bow Barracks: A lane of red-brick blocks, home to an Anglo-Indian community and its Christmas.
- Bauddha Dharmankur Sabha: The 1892 monastery that gave Buddhist Temple Street its name.
- Firingi Kalibari: The Kali temple linked to a Portuguese-descended poet of Bengali song.
- Bhim Chandra Nag: An 1826 sweet shop, home of the ledikeni.
Walks that include it
- Food Heritage Trail: Chinese breakfast to biryani, by way of ledikeni and rosogolla
- Old Chinatown Exploration: Clan temples, brick barracks and a Kali for a Portuguese poet
More guides
- Places in Bowbazar & Old Chinatown
- Markets and shopping streets
- Hidden gems of Kolkata
- Places to photograph in Kolkata
- Classic food stops and sweet shops
- Places near a metro station
- All places to visit in Kolkata
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.