Aaheli Renaissance

For nearly 30 years, Aaheli at The Peerless Hotel was one of the bastions of fine-dining in Bengali cuisine. There was once a time when premium Bengali cuisine in a fine-dining environment was only possible here. Calcutta's dining scene has come a long way since then and now there is a veritable slew of Bengali restaurants and cloud kitchens serving excellent Bengali fare.

Aaheli now differentiates itself with set unique table d'hote menus which are designed according to various themes – zamindari, aaheliana, thakurbarir bhojon (inspired by Tagore family recipes) and morshumi or seasonal, a wine paired menu and a chef's table. We dropped in for the chef's table and came away impressed with their impeccable French-style presentation of recognisably Bengali dishes and flavours. Whether it was the wee amuse bouche that had a serving of alu kalbi on sabudana crackers or the novel plating of Bilati Lebu Bandha Murgi that had chicken skewers wrapped in lemon grass, the appetisers impressed and how! The humble Dal Puri is reinvented as a taco which we washed down with sips of a refreshing Kagji Tarmujer Sharbat (watermelon juice with a dash of kagji limes). But their most impressive artistry lay in presenting a boneless sliver of the hilsa in traditional mustard sauce with a plate of steamed rice. Notoriously bony, the fish is very hard to debone according to the Western style of butchery but ours arrived gloriously bone-free and tender and flaky and easy to eat with cutlery (look ma, no hands!). A delicious glossy and smooth gondhoraj lime sorbet arrived as a palate cleanser after which came the very dramatic Dal Kota Kofta. Covered with a paper cone it was set alight in front of us and dissolved to ashes around our plate, it revealed a doughnut-shaped lentil cake and rice and glossy onion tomato sauce which we poured on it before partaking. The flavours add up to one of our favourite vegetarian dishes – Dhokar Dalna! Everyone does a Basanti Pulao and Kosha Mangsho but they presented it like a lamb chop. A small-sized NZ lamb chop prepared like a Bengali kosha mangsho but plated like a Continental dish, bone elegantly on top.

For desserts, it's customary to have chutney papad and sandesh but here it is reinvented with a jammy chutney in a chocolate shell with a lavash style papad. The sandesh is moulded into a croissant and stuffed with kheer.

The problem with the classic Bengali thali is often that with two veg dishes, two fish dishes and a meat dish, by the time one gets to dessert one is ready to burst at the table. The chef's table at Aaheli takes all these elements of a Bong thali and presents them in almost bite-sized courses making it easy on the stomach and the calorie budget!

The Peerless Hotel, 12, Jawaharlal Nehru Road, New Market Area, Kolkata 700013
Mob: 0 98317 80403
Meal for two: Approximately Rs 3400 + taxes, without alcohol