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Kolkata (Calcutta) Restaurants

Indian Coffee House

3 reviews | Write a review

Good for: atmosphere

Not good for: service

  • Address
    • 15 Bankim Chatterjee St 1st fl
  • Price
    • coffee Rs8, snack meals Rs20-35
  • Hours
    • 9am-9pm Mon-Sat, 9am-12.30pm & 5-9pm Sun

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Lonely Planet review for Indian Coffee House

The mythic Indian Coffee House was once a meeting place of freedom fighters, bohemians and revolutionaries. Today its crusty high ceilings and grimy walls ring with deafening student conversation but despite the dishwater coffee, it’s perversely fascinating. One block south of MG Rd, walk 20m east off College St and it’s upstairs on the left.

 

Traveller reviews for Indian Coffee House (3)

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    Do not miss in Kolkata

    oceanstar recommends this,

    This place is a ridiculously well preserved jewel of India. The aged ambience and weathered interiors are to die for and the coffee is not too bad either. Rather well priced for a ride in this time travel machine.

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    Excellent place to hang out with a cup of coffee and pakora

    mainakmandal74 recommends this,

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    Smell the coffee..

    arnabbiswas recommends this,

    There is a place in Calcutta where it’s still circa 1975. Indira Gandhi is still prime minister and the cold war still rages on.
    That place is the old Indian Coffee House on College Street which seems to be stuck in some kind of a socialist time wrap. Black-and-white framed photographs of Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, and Indira Gandhi adorn the walls of the coffee house. The interiors are shabby; the waiters are dressed in uniforms that look like props from an old Indian movie. Their elaborate headdresses are usually a metaphor for the type of service on offer: clean, starched and upright, or limp and ill-fitting. The lemon water still comes with seeds floating in it, and the cold coffee is exactly the same as the hot coffee, except that it is served cold. Nothing has changed in thirty years. Yet, despite the coming of many trendy new coffee joints, the old coffee house holds a unique place in the hearts of the people of Calcutta.
    Here the coffee comes as coffee, no frills, no fancy names. And it’s delicious. For a handful of rupees per cup, you can’t complain. For these and other reasons the coffee house has been a favourite Calcutta hangout. Its cups of coffee have fuelled many a lengthy discussion on politics or cinema or literature…. or simply who the prettiest girl in town is. And even if you order just one cup of coffee and use it as an excuse to sit and idle away an entire afternoon, nobody really minds.
    The coffee house operates as a worker’s co-operative and is unmolested by the cynicism and profiteering of the corporate world. And for better or worse, it shows. Maybe it’s a place trapped in time. But perhaps it’s a place in time that people of Calcutta prefer.

    Good for: atmosphere

    Not good for: service

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