The First Kolkata Food Bloggers' Meet at Haka, City Center I, Kolkata

The Confident and Talented Kolkata Food Bloggers. Picture Courtesy: Sarani Tarafder

The day at last came when our long waited dream came true.  On 28th April'13 (Sunday), at Haka ( City Center I, Kolkata), a group of 7 out of 13 (now 15) Food Bloggers in Kolkata were able to gather in one place and spent happy 4 hours extending the discussions on knowing each other, Food talks and sharing chitchat laughs with glee. We were all attached and knew each other virtually through our Blogs and Facebook. But when we met face to face we didn't feel that we never met before in reality. All girls were too sweet and confident enough to continue any discussion at any extend. Our new family made us too proud to introduce ourselves as the Food Bloggers in Kolkata.

We shared beautifully packed tasty gifts from our food blogger friends. Mainly we enjoyed the taste of Godiva gifted by Archita and the homemade stunning cake with a heart shape inserted in it by Amrita. Gifts from anybody are always very special. But when it comes from somebody very special the gifts become a more than a gift, a relic of the special moment. We wanted to keep it forever, but the edible part of it created a different story. So we chose to better gobble it up, savour it and treasure the taste forever with us. 

Now we are also happy to announce that Kolkata has also a good number of Food Bloggers like the other cities and these talented bon vivants now will be seen often with the updates of meets in various eateries with some food updates too. So without wasting a single moment, let me introduce the Kolkata Food Bloggers:

1. Arundhuti Rama blogs at My Saffron Kitchen
2. Amrita Gill blogs at Sweet 'n' Savoury 
3. Archita Chanda Ray blogs at My food My life
4. Poorna Banerjee blogs at Presented by P 
5. Sarani Tarafdar blogs at Cocoawind 
6. Sanoli Ghosh blogs at  Sanoli's Kitchen     
7. Kamalika C blogs at Silence Sings

And those who were not able to turn up on the first meet are:

1. Sayantani Mahapatra blogs at A Homemaker's Diary
2. Indrani Dhar blogs at Recipe Junction 
3. Mugdha Mohanti blogs at Cooking Fundas 
4. Radhika Harlakar blogs at The Flavor Carousel
5. Antra Ray blogs at Antypasti 

                 6.. Chandrani Banerjee writes for Cuisine Delights (Presently out of town for a long term project)
 I would now like to give a short review on the restaurant where our meet took place:

Restaurant Review on Haka, City Center I, Kolkata:

Cuisine: Chinese

Ambiance: 3/5

Food: 2.5/5

Service: 3/5

Price: 345/- + Tax (weekend buffet price)

Our Meet took place on Sunday and the restaurant opens at 12.30pm on weekends. We, few of the early birds reached before 12.30 pm and waited till the gate got opened. The ambiance was OK. Like other Chinese restaurants it's been decorated with the  Feng Shui stuffs and red dominated chairs and tables.  We chose the option to go for buffet. The Starter options were limited in to two veg and one non-veg dish. The taste of the starters were not up to the mark. The red chili fried chicken was mostly found with bones and tendons rather than flesh but the taste was good. The main course spread was also welcomed with limited options. Again the taste was not very good but nice. And the dessert I preferred not to go for any as they didn't enrich my taste buds much. When we ordered for Sweet lime we were served the cooler in room temperature and had to add ice separately to chill it.  The waiters were quite strange too. We kept on calling them in thought that they didn't get us. But they prompted their services without any fail what we asked for without a single gesture of letting us know of their acknowledgement. But what we noticed that as the hours increased the restaurant got too crowded and yes couples, families, groups, everyone was enjoying the place. Even we were informed by friends who had tasted Haka earlier that the taste of a-la-carte was much better than the buffet one. But yes Haka is the cheapest Chinese buffet till now in my visiting list. The overall experience was satisfactory, but couldn't mark it good.

Picture Courtesy: Sarani Tarafdar.