Smoke Shack is an open air restaurant located on the rooftop of Park Plaza hotel in the heart of Kolkata. I was very surprised to find such a good hotel and amazing food joint located mere minutes from my residence. They have a gorgeous infinity pool and a lovely view! I can go and sit there for hours just for the view alone…it is very soothing to look over the city line sitting beside the pool. They have special aqua exercise classes scheduled for summers in case any one is interested 🙂 We were called in for lunch and coz it was very hot we had to shift to another restaurant of the hotel so couldn’t enjoy the beautiful Smoke Shack in its full splendor. But it would be great spot for a dinner date as towards evening a lovely breeze is blowing and it becomes very pleasant…

Source: zomato.com. View of the restaurant

Chef Jayanta Banerjee

     Some of us were invited to sample the new additions to the menu. We got to meet Chef Jayanta Banerjee who spoke to us about the inspiration behind the latest additions. he talked about how they keep taking regular feedback from their customers and based on that they realized the need for adding some filling items to the menu apart from their usually offerings. I was the only usui (Japanese for rabbit aka vegetarian) among a pack of carnivores 😀 We started off our meal with some mocktails while we waited for the appetizers. I ordered a Zenack which is a blend of coconut water, lemongrass, kafir lime and cranberry juice. The lemongrass and kafir lime added a nice twist to an otherwise sweet drink.

Zenack Mocktail

Smoke Shack Kabab Platter (Veg)

     I tried the Smoke Shack Kabab Platter (Veg), which lets you sample all 6 different varieties of vegetarian kababs, was quite generous and could be shared by 2 people easily. The Rajmah Galouti was to die for as it had an amazing smoked rajmah favor to it (I’m a complete sucker for the smokey taste!). I really liked the Bhune Paneer ki Boti and Aloo Dholokiya too. As the meal was progressing and I was done with my drink already I wanted to try something from their cocktail menu this time around so I ordered the Mediterranean Mojito which was a blend of orange, kiwi, pineapple, rum and mint. This was really yum and a very refreshing mix.

Mediterranean Mojito

Grilled Cottage Cheese and American Corn Steak

     For the mains I ordered the Grilled Cottage Cheese and American Corn Steak. This was served sizzler style and was again quite generous for me and I had to share it with the others. There were these huge green peppers filled with herb cheese. Overall it was decent and quite filling. The chef joined us again and we chatted with him some more and gave him our feedback. My carnivore friends were quite happy with what they ordered as it was cooked just right and the portions were huge! To finish off the meal we tried both the desserts on the menu. I think this was the only point of disappointment that there weren’t as many options to go by as the rest of the menu. The chef made a note of it and said that he will add in more items to the desserts especially some chocolate based ones.

Basbousa

New York Cheesecake

     We tried the Basbousa first which was an authentic Turkish dessert. It tasted like soft home made cake to me which personally I like. We followed it with the New York Cheesecake which was decent. Between the two I would recommend the Basbousa. By the end of the meal we were all stuffed to the brim! Since the weather had turned we decided to head back to the rooftop location and check out the pool and surroundings. We relaxed by the calm blue waters and took some pictures of the group. Smoke Shack is a really nice place to hang out! Though the prices may seem steep when you glance through the menu their generous portions more than makeup for it. Park plaza has some other interesting restaurants which I will be checking out soon with my gang of girls. Quite excited to see what I will discover next! With that I bid you adieu…see you guys soon!