Drop Everything And Book A Place At Kolkata's Only Bohri Cuisine Restaurant

Bohri cuisine experience has arrived in Kolkata to blow your mind.  Visit Salt with your buddies because there’s nothing more communal than a Bohri eating experience.

Salt is a family run enterprise and started in 2016 by four women — Prerna Waiba, Lamiya Firdausi {Prerna’s sis-in-law}, Talat Kadri and Ushosie Bose. The restaurant offers food made with recipes that have been passed down through generations. This cuisine is impossible to find in restaurants  because Bohris are a tight-knit community. So we were excited when we came across Salt. Actually we were tipped off about it by one of our readers {thank you!}.

Prerna is from an FMCG background and her husband belongs to the Bohri community. She says it is her mother-in-law’s family recipes that reflect in the dishes at Salt. Apart from Bohri, you can also have Mughlai and North Indian here, including nihaari and raan.

If you’ve been wondering about the name Salt, it comes from the community tradition {something Kolkatans will relate to} of having a pinch of salt at the start and end of a meal to enhance flavours, energise the palate and aid digestion.

First off the bat, Bohri food is a revelation. It’s flavoursome and sits lightly on your tummy. Start your meal with their signature Chicken Malai Salli {minced chicken kebabs batter fried with cream and spices and served with chutneys and a fiery lemon pickle}. Another popular snack is crispy samosas stuffed with dal or mutton. The servings are generous, you get five to a plate. Follow this up with a nuanced and textured Mutton Masoor Pulao {layers of rice, whole masoor and mutton with spring onions and fried onions}. You get a side of sarki with this – a refreshing soup of besan,  mixed herbs and dal ka paani.

The Kabuli Naan comes with sesame seeds, cherries and cashews. And the Masala Kulcha, can be eaten by itself. You can of course order a Coriander Masala Green Chicken gravy with the breads. Vegetarians can order the Dal Chawal Paleedu {or the DCP as Bohris call it}, a signature community dish of lentil rice served with a curry. They also do an amazing Bohri khichra, a version of haleem, a golden dabba gosht, and a chicken stuffed with rice and dry fruits {on special order}. Do end your meal with their crumble-like dry dates halwa studded with almonds and raisins. They also make a mean sitaphal souffle {seasonal}.

You can read more about Bohri food here and here.

If you are coming in a large group, do order the Bohri Thaal {the star of this community’s food}. It consists of four flavours – kharaas {savoury}, meethaas {sweet}, jaman {main course} and a salad. The tradition involves a Bohri Muslim family gathering around and eating together from a thaal. You can customise the thaal at Salt with the dishes you want but do order in advance {at least five hours}. It will set you back by INR 700 per head and you have to be a minimum group of five to order it. You can tuck into the thaal, at a cosy little section towards the end with a transparent green net and fairly lights. And you get to wash your hands in their chillamchi lota, an enamelled beauty that has come all the way from Gujarat!

The restaurant’s open from noon to 10pm on weekdays and till 10.30pm on weekends. Check out their Facebook page for more.

Price: Under INR 600 for two. They also have special set meals for INR 299 for one and INR 560 for two.