Destination Features

A few kilometres away is Park Street and the Central Business District. Park Street is one of the few areas in the city where restaurants and hotels are given liquor licenses - so you know where to go for your poison! Apart from its busy drinking holes, Park Street has some great restaurants that offer sumptuous food and decent service at a steal. The Trincas pub in this area has live music. Among the restaurants, Peter Cat, Bar-B-Q and Mocambo serve simply irresistible fare. If you want to relax over a cup of coffee, there's the newly opened Barista, though I am still hung up on the age-old Flury's for its cosy ambience and window seats that afford a great view of the hustle and bustle of Park Street. To cut a long story short, no gourmet should even dream of leaving Kolkata without a walk down Park Street.

While Park Street offers a range of up-market restaurants, Kolkata has no dearth of cheaper eateries that serve great food from all over the world. Check out Aminia and Shiraz for their Biriyani, Moulin Rouge and Mandarin for their Chinese fare and Kurry Klub for its Mexican and continental offerings. Shopping enthusiasts should not miss out on New Market situated very close to Park Street. The Indian Museum and the Oberoi Grand Hotel is also in the vicinity. Another popular shopping destination is the Gariahat Market in South Kolkata. Very close to Gariahat is the historic Kalighat temple.

As you move further north from Park Street, you will bump into Statesman House, the heritage building from where The Statesman, India's oldest English-language daily, is published and printed. Further north is the Calcutta University and College Street. College Street has a phenomenal variety of bookshops - you could pick up old and rare books from these shops at bargain prices.