Where Kolkata is opening restaurants now

Kolkata's restaurant openings have moved south and east over the past few years, and the geography tells you what kind of room to expect.

South Kolkata — Ballygunge, Gariahat, Southern Avenue, Lake Gardens — is where the independent cafés and small kitchens open. Lower rents than Park Street, a residential crowd, and the highest concentration of places doing one thing well. This is where the interesting cooking is happening.

Salt Lake and the Sector V corridor get the volume openings: larger rooms, corporate lunch trade during the week, families at weekends. The quality is inconsistent and the value is often better than the centre.

The themed restaurant is a genuine Kolkata phenomenon and worth noting without endorsement — including an aquarium-themed room billed as India's first, serving seafood and Bengali fusion. These succeed or fail on whether the kitchen is as considered as the interior, and the ratio is not encouraging.

Park Street itself opens less than it used to, which is what happens to a street once its rents reflect its reputation.

The practical advice for anyone chasing new openings here: Kolkata's food conversation still happens largely on local blogs and word of mouth rather than through PR, so the good new places are often six months old before they are written about. Ask the neighbourhood, not the internet.