[Gautam Misra]

The present thread is inspired by Rocky and Mayur of Highway On My Plate who had a whale of a time eating out in an around Bhubaneshwar, Puri and Cuttack.
Ideally there could have been one independent thread for each of the three cities. However all the three cities being in a radius of around 80 Km I thought that one common thread would be more useful.

CUTTACK
The millennium city has few places, but they are kind of exclusive.
1. Royal Biryani at Buxi Bazar
2. Dahi Bara at Raghu's (Ring Road)
3. "Chops" at Professorpara
4. Nana's Hotel at NH 5
5. Akbari Continental
6. Hotel Bishal

I must add a caveat here. Some of the above places (1 to 4) are kind of street food joints.

BHUBANESHWAR
In the past decade Bhubaneshwar has seen a sea of change. The same can also be said about the places to eat out. Here are my top picks:
1. Mainland China (Chinese)
2. The Marrion - Shanghai (Chinese)
3. The Great Kabab Factory
4. Pizza Hut
5. Mayfair (Has Naqli Dhaba for Indian and two other restaurants)
6. Venus Inn (South Indian)
7. Swarna (South Indian)
8. HHI (Kababs)
9. Dalema (Oriya cuisine)
10. Kababs near Venus Inn

PURI
Puri is more popular as a temple city. However it does have a few great eateries:
1. Hans Coco Palms
2. Holiday Resorts
3. Wild Grass
4. Chung Wah (Chinese)
5. Sea food at Bidesh Ghar
6. Honey Bee
7. The Peace Restaurant
8. The Pink House (Sea Food)
9. The Chanakya BNR
10. Mayfair

[vnabhi]

Nice to see this thread---feeling real nostalgic about my school days in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.

Venus Inn existed in the early 80s too, and it was the place where one could get decent south Indian dishes. I wonder what happened to Central Cafe in Cuttack, adjacent to Howrah Motors. It started sometime in the early 70s and was the only joint in Cuttack for idly and dosa.

Dahi bara and aloo dum used to be damn good at roadside vendors at Quila Maidan.

It's good to know that BBSR now has Pizza Hut, Great Kabab factory and Mainland China.

A year ago, there was a good joint at Sahidnagar (opp ESI office) that was selling Hyderabad biryani, but someone told me it is now closed.

[Gautam Misra]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Venus Inn existed in the early 80s too, and it was the place where one could get decent south Indian dishes. I wonder what happened to Central Cafe in Cuttack, adjacent to Howrah Motors. It started sometime in the early 70s and was the only joint in Cuttack for idly and dosa.

Central cafe is no longer there. However you have dosas of similar quality available at a South Indian Hotel near the High Court.

Dahi bara and aloo dum used to be damn good at roadside vendors at Quila Maidan.

There was a dispute amongst them and now they are scattered at different places and it is still one of "specialties" of Cuttack.

[anujmishra]

Had horrid time finding good restaurant in Bhubneshwar. Roamed around many roads could not find good restaurants (We were new to this city) when we returned back from Puri. At last we went to Hotel Swosti near railway station. It was extremely expensive.

We were also staying in Swosti Premium hotel. I can justify their buffet charges of Rs. 541.00 per plate. But why Swosti Hotel near Railway station is so expensive?

For 5 people we had 3 chicken biryani, one daal, one white rice couple of more normal stuffs. Bill came to 3000 Rupees +.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by Gautam Misra

There was a dispute amongst them and now they are scattered at different places and it is still one of "specialties" of Cuttack.

Feel sorry for those guys---they were really very good at preparing that stuff (my mouth is watering now).

Where is the new joint? I guess Ring Road is the road laid in the 90s around Cuttack on the banks of Mahanadi and Kathjodi rivers.

I did see Highway on my Plate and got tempted at seeing those joints. Unfortunately, I was a vegetarian in school days and might not have even visited those joints.

I wonder what happened to Hong Kong and Waldorf restaruants?

[Gautam Misra]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Feel sorry for those guys---they were really very good at preparing that stuff (my mouth is watering now)

They are still doing an excellent job. It is just that they are scattered and are selling at different places. The famous ones are near the Indoor Stadium and "Raghu" sells at the Ring Road near Tulsipur. His stuff still gets sold away within 30 minutes.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by Gautam Misra

They are still doing an excellent job. It is just that they are scattered and are selling at different places. The famous ones are near the Indoor Stadium and "Raghu" sells at the Ring Road near Tulsipur. His stuff still gets sold away within 30 minutes.

Hmm, Ring Road near Tulasipur---I guess that is near the Deer Park and Justice Ranganath Mishra's house?

Pity I did not know of it, as generally I stay with a friend quilte close to that spot.

[vnabhi]

Reviving this thread after a hiatus of a few years.

I visited Bhubaneswar for a wedding last month and was put up in Venus Inn. I must confess that their dosas and dahi vadas are still one of the best one can get.They tasted as good as they were in the 80s.

My all-time favourite was the Onion Rava Dosa. Having lived in AP for 3 decades, I must confess that I enjoyed the one in Venus Inn more.

On my return, I packed a large quantity of rasgullas from Pahala, apart from Chenna Pudo. But I was disheartened when I was asked to throw away the liquid at the airport, even though it was in the checked-in baggage. What a way to discourage customers from Odisha's premium product !!

[manolin]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

On my return, I packed a large quantity of rasgullas from Pahala, apart from Chenna Pudo. But I was disheartened when I was asked to throw away the liquid at the airport, even though it was in the checked-in baggage. What a way to discourage customers from Odisha's premium product !!

Packing chena podo is an art, which my family members have perfected. Get it one day earlier, and start sqeezing out all the liquids from it. Ideally get the Calcutta Sweets Stall style chena podo from Cuttack as they have more chena than the slightly watered down Pahala version. Pack it as square slabs, and refrigerate. Fly and refrigerate immediately.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by manolin

Packing chena podo is an art, which my family members have perfected. Get it one day earlier, and start sqeezing out all the liquids from it. Ideally get the Calcutta Sweets Stall style chena podo from Cuttack as they have more chena than the slightly watered down Pahala version. Pack it as square slabs, and refrigerate. Fly and refrigerate immediately.

Thanks for the tips. As such, I had no problems with packing the chenna pudo. It was the rasgullas that posed a problem to the security staff at the airport.

[manolin]

Originally Posted by vnabhi

Thanks for the tips. As such, I had no problems with packing the chenna pudo. It was the rasgullas that posed a problem to the security staff at the airport.

For Rasgullas I have no answers. I just had a litre of desi ghee confisticated at BBSR airport. It was completely solidified, not in liquid form. The security guard told me that it will melt in the plane; I explained how the luggage compartment is much colder than the seating area, to no avail. They must have had some nice ghee fried pakhodas that night.

I have given up eating rasgullas outside of orissa, as the quality and the taste will just spoil my memories of Rasagullas (especially the ones from Govindpur, near Dhenkanal).

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by manolin

For Rasgullas I have no answers. I just had a litre of desi ghee confisticated at BBSR airport. It was completely solidified, not in liquid form. The security guard told me that it will melt in the plane; I explained how the luggage compartment is much colder than the seating area, to no avail. They must have had some nice ghee fried pakhodas that night.

I have given up eating rasgullas outside of orissa, as the quality and the taste will just spoil my memories of Rasagullas (especially the ones from Govindpur, near Dhenkanal).

Tough luck mate. But you are eligible to carry any liquid / solidified liquid as Check-In luggage. I have carried Ghee from BBSR to B'lore and no one has stopped this.
The only thing is you cannot carry any liquid, or solidified liquid in the Cabin baggage.
Seems like those cops had a good dinner setup in mind.

I had been to BBSR in Feb this year. Had dinner at Chung-Wah at Puri. Nothing Chinese about it.
It was flat cooked food. The taste wasn't anywhere close to Chinese. It tasted more like our regular road side fast food stalls. Price - Ohh, it was not that expensive too. So I guess we ate what we paid for.

On the other had, I had visited Mainland China in June last year and yes, that was Authentic Chinese. Price - Fiery, burnt a hole in our pocket.

[DerAlte]

Originally Posted by manolin

For Rasgullas I have no answers. I just had a litre of desi ghee confisticated at BBSR airport. ...

That's really funny. These items are not in any banned list anywhere in India - must be Orissa-specific for some reason. Someone should pull them up for talking nonsense - they are going beyond call of duty and making nuisance for passengers. One can understand objections in cabin baggage, but checked-in luggage? Next time maybe you should ask them to show you the list of items in a banned list, or get their superior officer come and explain. All check-in counters display what is allowable and what is not - they can't go beyond that unless Govt. bans it.

[vnabhi]

Originally Posted by DerAlte

That's really funny. These items are not in any banned list anywhere in India - must be Orissa-specific for some reason. Someone should pull them up for talking nonsense - they are going beyond call of duty and making nuisance for passengers. One can understand objections in cabin baggage, but checked-in luggage? Next time maybe you should ask them to show you the list of items in a banned list, or get their superior officer come and explain. All check-in counters display what is allowable and what is not - they can't go beyond that unless Govt. bans it.

Point noted. I did not have time, else I'd have done that. But what I did is post a nasty review of Bhubaneswar airport on their website.

While on the topic of chenna pudo, I would say the best I've ever had is at a place named Pudamari in southern Odisha, close to Taptapani, about 45 kms away from Berhampur. In that area, it is called pudo pitha instead of chenna pudo.