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Quick Summary

The best street food in Kolkata is tinged by its colonial past and has a lot to do with the establishment of theatres in North Kolkata with the help of the British. During the colonial era, European fare was popular, so a lot of fruit stalls and sandwiches you might spot around central Kolkata come from the influence of that era. However, despite snacking being loved city-wide, as the colonial powers waned, so did their influence, and people started munching on deep-fried foods like ‘telebhaja’ (fritters and the like), puffed rice snacks, and potato dishes.  

Deep Dive

As the cinemas also shut their shutters and Europe’s influence was but a wispy reminder in the city, the remnants of it settled around Hogg Market, in the New Market Area, which is home to numerous Kolkata street food stalls today. However, the whitewashing gave way to what locals in Kolkata really liked with deep fried flour coated delicacies to the faint reminders of the Mughal era lived on vicariously through the Mughlai paratha. 

There is also a divide today, as theatre culture in the north kept their deep fried potato stuffed telebhaja, onion fritters, and vegetable chops, along with its languid afternoons and slow days. The South, having a more contemporary crowd, is the hub of the good old Kolkata street food classics and also home to upcoming trends like Korean food through some food trucks lining up areas where locals go down for leisure to fusion foods packed with cheese, more potatoes and deep-fried foods. 

North Kolkata

Despite the theatre culture, there are other spots that have fed the city’s busiest office-goers and workers for centuries. In North Kolkata's lanes are the city's oldest cabin restaurants; some even have partitioned eateries, built at a time when families needed curtained privacy to eat out in public. The cabin menu has barely changed, while the streets and numerous tiny shops boast some classics of Kolkata’s street food.

Kabiraji

A breadcrumbed cutlet of minced mutton, chicken, fish or prawn, finished with a delicate net of whipped egg dropped into the hot oil just before it's done, is what kabiraji is. This lacy dish’s name is widely believed to be a local mispronunciation of ‘coverage cutlet’, which refers to that egg coating. Mitra Cafe in Shyambazar has been making it since 1920, when Sushil Roy opened the shop with one cook and a helper. Allen Kitchen on Jatindra Mohan Avenue, run by the same family for four generations, and the century-old Indian Coffee House on College Street are two other places worth the detour. Some famous food places in Kolkata for kabiraji are:

• Mitra Cafe, Shyambazar (since 1920)

• Allen Kitchen, Jatindra Mohan Avenue

• Indian Coffee House, College Street

• Dilkhusha Cabin, MG Road

Prawn Cutlet 

Prawn cutlet is the kabiraji's older cousin, which lacks the intricate egg and breadcrumb network, but has just the latter. A breadcrumbed prawn patty is fried until the coating turns deep gold. Allen Kitchen, which has run out of the same spot on Jatindra Mohan Avenue for more than a century, built its reputation on this dish specifically, known to deep fry this and other cutlets in pure ghee, which has incomparable flavour thanks to the use of the dairy fat. Aside from this OG place, grab this dish at:

• Mitra Cafe, Shyambazar

• Dilkhusha Cabin, MG Road

Mughlai Paratha

Seen as a dying Kolkata street food due to losses faced through generations, rising ingredient costs, and customer preferences shifting towards mass-produced fast food, Mughlai paratha is the quintessential flatbread that is a whole meal in itself. This flatbread is stuffed with spiced minced meat and egg, folded into a parcel and deep-fried, with the outside turning crisp and blistered. It's usually served with a side of aloor torkari (potato curry), cut into squares and served with an onion-cucumber salad and sauces. Golbari, at Shyambazar's five-point crossing, is better known for its mutton kosha but keeps a loyal Mughlai-paratha following too. Basanta Cabin, tucked into College Street since 1890, and Anadi Cabin, over a century old, are the other two names most Kolkata natives will point you to.

Kochuri Aloor Torkari

A pairing of kochuri, which is a deep-fried, urad-dal-stuffed puri, eaten with aloor torkari, a spiced potato curry, and often accompanied by a bowl of hing-laced cholar dal on the side, is a delightful breakfast sold across street food stalls and small and large eateries across the city. It's North Kolkata's default breakfast, best eaten hot off the pan before 10 AM, while the queue is still short. A variation of this is koraishutir kochuri (green peas instead of dal stuffing) is sought after during the winter months. Adi Haridas Modak, a 254-year-old sweet shop near Bagbazar, is one of the oldest addresses for it. Suruchi, right outside Sealdah station, and Shri Hari Mistanna Bhandar on Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road are two more reliable regulars. Some other spots for this Kolkata street food in North Kolkata include sweet shops like Putiram in College Street.

South Kolkata

If leisure and ‘tarry a little’ energy is what North Kolkata street food serves, South Kolkata’s street food is different and more mobile. There are rolls, fried snacks and stalls that focus on tapping into customers who might be on the move, shopping or running errands. However, the line between these is frequently blurred, and what you get in the North is also present in the South.

Kathi Roll

The kathi roll started life at Nizam's, a kebab restaurant in New Market, around 1932. Owner Raza Hassan Saheb began wrapping his grilled mutton kebabs in paratha so customers, especially the British ones, in a hurry could eat them without cutlery. The name itself came later, once the restaurant switched from heavy iron skewers to lighter bamboo ones, with kathi referring to sticks or skewers in Bengali. Kusum Rolls on Park Street, open since 1971, is credited with popularising cheese as a filling; both spots remain among the busiest names on any Kolkata street food list.

• Nizam's, New Market

• Kusum Rolls, Park Street

• Badshah, multiple outlets

• Zeeshan, multiple outlets

• Campari, Gariahat

Dal Pakora

Locally known as daler bora, this is a lentil fritter made from ground masoor dal, sometimes stuffed with chunks of green chillies, deep-fried and piled on a large plate, while a new batch fries in a big black kadhai, just beside the finished lot. The dal pakoras are put into paper packets, with a side of green chutney and a sprinkling of black salt, and handed over to customers, sold via mobile thela gaaris. 

Unlike the potato and vegetable pakoras, like aloor chop, beguni and peyaji, sold across the rest of the city, this one is made almost entirely with lentils, which makes it a denser and savoury snack. You will find a smattering of these carts over the city, close to busy areas, and outside train and metro stations with high footfall. They usually set up shop in the evening.

Fish Fry

Can a Kolkata street food list be complete without a fish item in it? The city boasts a wide variety of fried fish items like fish fingers, macher chop (fish cutlet of sorts), and fish fry. Just not any kind of fish fry, but the breadcrumbed, deep-fried fillet of bhetki, which is marinated first in herbs, garlic and spices, and served with kasundi, raw onion and a wedge of lime. It's a colonial-era hybrid, believed to have developed out of British fish and chips, reworked with a fish and a marinade that suited Bengali kitchens. South Kolkata has some of the city's most-recommended addresses for it, like the Naba Malancha on Southern Avenue, Bijoli Grill near Golpark, and Apanjan in Kalighat, alongside Mitra Cafe's original Shyambazar branch further north.

Puchka 

Going by different names across the country, from pani puri, golgappa, to gupchup and phuchka or fuchka in Bengal, it is touted to be the best street food in Kolkata. The puris tend to be made with whole wheat or semolina and deep fried for them to be all puffed and crunchy. The potato mash is where the magic lies, and Bengal’s version has a ‘bhaja moshla’, which is a ground mix of roasted masalas. The potato filling also uses kabuli chana, or the white version (matar), along with other ground spices, sometimes fresh coriander. The tamarind water remains a staple with gondhoraj lebu, a kind of local fragrant lemon that goes into the water and sometimes the filling. The entire flavour profile leans towards sour and spicy. Ask locals, and you will get multiple answers for puchka. But the best spots in the south are:

• Neighbourhood phuchkawalas (every para has one)

• Stalls around Vivekananda Park

• Gariahat market stalls

The Best Street Food In Kolkata Are Made Of These

Whether you find yourself in the north or south of Kolkata, during the most awaited festive season of Durga Puja, for work or visiting the city for friends or family, there are too many street foods that go beyond this list. But when in Kolkata, one must try as many of them, from kochuri for breakfast, a side of fish fry with your rice, sabzi and dal for lunch, an evening of prawn cutlet, to ending with mughlai paratha for dinner. There is at least one dish for every occasion at prices that remain unbeatable.