Related: Food Crawl in Darjeeling – A rare treasure of the North Bengal Tourism

Foodies’ heaven – Darjeeling Restaurants

Sipping hot Darjeeling tea with the view of Kanchenjunga is something to live for. And when these two are accompanied by different restaurants serving authentic Continental, Chinese and Nepalese food, what more to ask from life?

Breakfast Options

Chillout Restaurant & Bar

Address: Dudhia, Plot No 114, Rl, Khatian 152, O, 276, District Darjeeling, Kurseong, Darjeeling District, West Bengal, 734217

You can start with this small restaurant, which is more famous for lunch and dinner, but we had our breakfast here on our way to Darjeeling from NJP. They serve tasty momos. And the quantity is perfect. The noodles and pork preparations are worth tasting.

Sonam’s Kitchen

Address: Dr Zakir Hussain Rd, Chaurasta, Darjeeling, West Bengal 734101

A tiny breakfast joint serving delicious, healthy and sumptuous breakfast options. There are a few sitting options, and you might have to share your table with other tourists. Because of the rush, the service is sometimes slow, but the behaviour of the staff is homely, and the food is worth tasting. Try out their choice of eggs & freshly brewed coffee. And if you eat their hash brown potatoes, fried eggs, roasted tomatoes and bread toast, you are sure not to feel hungry for at least 4 hours.

Himalayan Coffee

Address: 5/1, Nehru Rd, Bellevue, Darjeeling, West Bengal – 734101

Located on the 1st floor, the restaurant is quite a contrast to the entrance. While climbing up the fleet of stairs, you might ask yourself why you came here, but keep walking because you’ll get a cosy and warm vibe once you enter the cafe. With wooden chairs and the aroma of the bakery & coffee, it’s a place where you would like to start your day. Their pancakes are good, and so are the omelettes. In addition, they serve a wide range of tea and coffee.

Arcadia Resort

Address: West Point, Darjeeling, West Bengal 734101

We stayed here for one night. A bit in the premium range, but the resort offers a grand view of Kanchenjunga from the balconies. Since it’s very close to the Darjeeling station, the toy train and the birds chirping add to this place’s charm. Coming to their breakfast – unlike the other two places, where we had Continental food, we were served poori, sabji, halwa & chicken sandwiches. That halwa was simply yummy. If you ever plan to stay there, try out their breakfast. They also serve a variety of paranthas.

Darjeeling restaurant serving lunch and dinner

Ara by Bellevue

Address: Nehru Rd, Chauk Bazaar, Darjeeling, West Bengal 734101

It’s better to visit this Darjeeling restaurant for dinner. With dim lights and live music, it helps to complete the day. Along with good food, they also have a full bar serving well-crafted cocktails. You can choose North Indian, Asian, Continental or Mexican food. Though a bit pricy, overall, the food is good & staff is cordial.

Penang

Address; 27Q8+V5F, Unnamed Road, Limbugaon, Darjeeling, West Bengal 734101

Penang is a must-visit if you want to taste authentic Nepalese food. But do not go by the exterior of this restaurant – it’s very deceptive. After all, the path to heaven is narrow! They have a full bar and serve a wide range of Asian food like noodles, soups, thukpa, yakishoba (spelling check please) etc. But, the major attraction of this place is their pork/chicken Nepalese thali. The thali comes with saag, sabji, daal, 3-4 types of chatni (dips), rice, a bowl of clear soup, 1 fry, dalle (Darjeeling chillies) and pork or chicken, whichever you opt for. All these are authentic Nepali dishes.

North Bengal: DOOARS: The ultimate getaway to the wonderland of the North Bengal Tourism

Yeh Dil Mange More

Neha had often heard from her friends that once you visit Darjeeling, your heart craves to go there again. But she didn’t believe it. Reason – when she visited Darjeeling with her parents after her Class X exams, after staying in Gangtok & Pelling, she found this queen of hills dingy & congested. But, on hearing about it from different people, they decided to give it a shot last year. The fundamental objective of this trip was to try out different restaurants, loiter in the Mall and help the kid to have loads of fun. And even before their trip ended, she and her 7-year-old started planning the next visit! That’s the charm of this place! So, if you have yet to visit one of the major destinations of North Bengal tourism, you’re indeed missing out on something. For a budget-friendly hotel – you can opt for Classic Guest House. And for a high range, Arcadia Resort is good. But, while Classic is very close to Mall, Arcadia is a bit secluded.

The post Darjeeling Restaurants – The Hidden Gems appeared first on KolkataFusion.

The next afternoon we headed towards Darjeeling which was only about a 2 hours’ drive. The owner Asenla Pradhan welcomed us in on reaching the hotel. We were quite awestruck since the time we entered the premises. There was “Beatles” all over. In fact, the name of the hotel was given from the most famous album “Revolver” of the “Beatles” band of the yore. We kept our luggage in the rooms “George” and “Brian” respectively and walked out towards Mall.

After an evening walk around Mall road accompanied with an extra sweet tea from a local seller, our tummies alarmed that they were attacked by hungry monsters. We walked up to “Boney’s Snack Bar”, our favourite local stop for momos, pizzas, sandwiches and Chinese food. My daughter had the delectable stuffing of a few vegetarian momos as she wasn’t eating any non-vegetarian food at that point of time. After the stuffing, she had a few spoons of vegetarian soup and rice. Her face glowed in containment after finishing her first birthday dinner. We had chicken momos, farmer fresh pizzas and packed club sandwiches for late night hunger cravings.

The friend about whom I mentioned at the introduction had ordered a birthday cake from the marvellous bakery of the “Boney’s”. We went back to the hotel and cut the chocolate cake with our daughter. She lapped up a morsel and slept while we enjoyed our packed food. I had to pack the left-over rice (my daughter’s prasad after her dinner) from the restaurant and took an accompaniment in the form of “Chilly Prawn” for my dinner. Before people start questioning my unusual choice, I would like to say I can eat rice with any food item and “Chilly Prawn” being one of my favourites, how could I choose something else?

We retired to our respective rooms for the night after ordering our next morning breakfast. While drifting off to sleep, a part of my heart was excited that my daughter would be tasting her first cow milk porridge in Darjeeling itself.

Next day, my daughter had a hearty breakfast with oats porridge. We tried out pancakes and sampled English breakfast platters available in the hotel restaurant. Our next stop was the Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Himalayan Zoological Park in Darjeeling.

The upslope walk past the animal enclosures was an indescribable experience, especially when one was carrying his or her child on the shoulders acquainting the two little eyes with the furry and feathered friends. Indescribable because it is impossible to translate the wonder in the eyes of the little humans into comprehensive words. I lost count how the hour in the zoo went by. We took a cab to the famous Glenary’s to complete our Darjeeling ritual of having a meal there while watching people and a peeping Kanchenjunga from the balcony.

The lunch was a simple affair with stews and rice for the kids, Fish and Chips and Meat sizzler for us. We packed a few cupcakes and chocolates from the Glenary’s confectionary section for our journey back to Kolkata, the day after.

After the Glenary’s ritual, we bade adieu with the promise to visit again next year to treat ourselves on the ambience and the gastronomic delicacies offered by the Himalayan Queen – Darjeeling.

                                _________________________________

Hotel Details:

Hotel Revolver (A Beatles-themed hotel)

Owner: Asenla and Vikash Pradhan

Address: 110 Gandhi Road, Behind Union Chapel, Darjeeling, West Bengal 734101

Phone Number: 083719 19527

Charges: Rooms – John & George (Double +1): Rs.1700/- (+GST)
               Rooms – Paul, Ringo & Brian (Double): Rs. 1400/- (+GST)

Image Courtesy: World Wide Web

Recommended Read: In the forests of Palmajua

The post An Accidental Sojourn In Darjeeling appeared first on KolkataFusion.

As our daughter was turning a year old, we wanted to spend her birth-week amidst nature, at any destination which is not crowded with season’s tourists. We were joined by our friends and their 1.5-year-old kid. Fortunately, we found not one but two places – Palmajua and Chatakpur, located in the Darjeeling district, about 50 and 26 km from Darjeeling, respectively. These places, comfortably shying away from the mainstream travellers, offer wonderful rendezvous with pines, rapids, birds and the wilderness replete with serenity and silence all around them.

The Journey to Palmajua:

We boarded the Darjeeling Mail and upon reaching Siliguri (the train offered an occasional halt there, normally it stops at New Jalpaiguri) we took a hired cab till Sukhiapokhri, which is situated about 69 km from Siliguri. Enroute Sukhiapokhri, we stopped at an eatery near the Rohini Highway for a heavy breakfast with Puri-Sabzi-Tea while our kids had instantly made Cerelac. We reached Sukhiapokhri around 1 PM and headed straight to Bhansa Hotel for lunch. They offered us ‘Thakali Thali’, Nepalese equivalent of Indian ‘Dhaba’ food and for the kids, they served rice and boiled daal. The food was awesome as well as toddler-friendly with no hint of chilli tempering at all. After the hearty lunch, we booked another cab to our destination, Palmajua. The 34 km road was a bit of a bumpy ride via Maneybhanjan and Dhotrey. As we neared our homestay, the Himalayan greenery threw off a wonderful guard of honour welcoming us into its fold.

Singalila Jungle Lodge:

We booked our stay in Singalila Jungle Lodge, a homestay located in Palmajua. The property owned by Mr. Avinash Rai was surrounded amidst a lovely setting with green hills beckoning afar on one side and the other side overlooking a valley with an incessantly chirpy rapid with flowering trees like Rhododendrons, Camelia and Magnolia as well as unknown non-flowering trees dotting the quaint area. Just what one meant by the phrase ‘in the lap of nature’.

There were 4 cottages, two smaller, just sufficient for a stay of 3 people in each, and two bigger to accommodate more members. All the cottages had attached bath with no geysers. The helpful staff provided with hot water on demand. There was an annex building too which had 3 rooms with a common toilet.

There was a big wooden dining table of indigenous make lying under the sky inside the property boundary where you can have your food and a cozy wooden setup specially made for the people who love interesting conversations over lazy strums of guitars, hot tea, and pakoras (the nikhad Bengali adda). 

Food served in the Singalila Jungle Lodge:

The food served here was very basic, Puri/Chapati – Aloo Sabzi in breakfast, Rice-Daal-Egg Curry/Vegetable Curry in lunch and Rice/Chapati – Chicken (country fowl) Curry/ Vegetable Curry/Daal. The staff was very particular about the food they served for the kids – every single meal was served punctually on the time. The quality of cooking was pretty good which enhanced in the last night of our stay when one of the cooks took leave and Mrs. Rai herself cooked our meals. The personal touch one feels while putting up in a homestay was rightly felt by us on that day thanks to the warm hospitability of Mr. and Mrs. Rai.

Our staying experience in the Singalila Jungle Lodge:

We stayed here for 3 and a half days to be precise and the only sounds which broke in the tranquility of the place are the twitters of plenty of local birds and the water of the cascading rapid nearby.

In these 3 days, we simply threw ourselves away in the hands of the mother nature. We went for very short to short hikes with our kids strapped to the carrier bags, went for lazy strolls around the property, and visited a place called Momokhola for spotting more birds. The colourful birds flittered around the naughty stream while we amazed ourselves with the panorama the place offered. The sweet experience of Momokhola came to an end with beautiful home-made momos and sweet teas of a tea house.

On the mornings we basked in the warm sun, appreciated the beauty of the seasonal blooms of the red rhododendrons and other flowers and became children with our kids while showing them the different birds our eyes caught.

The evenings here were spent indoors. The kids played with each other while we played referees when any of them became more mischievous in the course. We had our dinners inside the rooms too, to avoid the chill outside.

On the penultimate day of our stay, Mr. Rai came to meet us. He had some work in the city so he couldn’t make it earlier. In between a friendly conversation, he offered to show us a documentary film on Red Panda which was commonly found in the nearby Singalila forest prior to their decrease in number due to continuous poaching. The film was an emotional tribute. We barely managed to not shed a tear while leaving the room where the projector was arranged.

The warmth of the host is something that makes a mark in our hearts every time we return from any Darjeeling tourism.

We started early on the last day, mechanically finished packing, feeding kids, feeding ourselves and hurried off in our booked cab. The hurry was an induced one because deep inside our minds we did not want to leave the beautiful place.

Contact details of Singalila Jungle Lodge:

Address: Palmajua, P.O Bansbotay, Rimbick, Darjeeling, West Bengal

Phone number: 09635109201

Name of the owner: Mr. Avinash Rai

Website: https://singalila-jungle-lodge.business.site/

Booking process: You need to call the given phone number to book the cottages and pay 50% advance.

P.S: Please reach out in the given phone number to know about the ongoing tariffs (w.r.t your date of travel) The tariff rates are subject to change in rush faced in Darjeeling tourism.

To Be Continued in Serenity Exemplified-Palmajua & Chatakpur (Part 2)

(Keep following our blog for the next part of the travelogue)

The post Serenity Exemplified – Palmajua & Chatakpur (Part 1) appeared first on KolkataFusion.