I Love Paramount - The Sarbet House of Old Calcutta

These days, I am quite busy, so blog posting is not that frequent. But today I came across an article on Chakhori Corner on College Street's Paramount - the Sarbet House of North Calcutta. I intentionally put Calcutta as the shop still holds the heritage as well as the glamor of old Calcutta.

I came to know about this blog - Chakhori Corner via Kolkata Curry. The blog is run by 3 girls and posts Kolkata restaurant reviews. Just then I jumped to check the blog, not totally disappointing, but I did not like the idea of the rating system which includes Decor and Cleanliness. I mean that's unique and says that it is a girl-run review!


We guys don't much bother about these decor or cleanliness stuffs - for eg I like Asma (Baruipur) for the beef items but it is not good at decor or cleanliness. There are many examples of such small eateries! Even I would choose Asma beef dishes (Biriyani or curry) to Beef Steak at Olypub. That probably mostly due to my tongue's love for Mughlai cuisines.

Coming to Chakhori Corner's review of Paramount, they say:

When we entered, the first thing that hit us was the strong smell of stale curd and cream which was quite uninviting for a first timer. All the tables were damp from the sweating glasses ... 

They are terrific at the conclusion!! 

Even though the place has a nostalgic appeal, cleanliness is a major issue. If the maintenance of the place could be improved, the appeal could increase further. Nevertheless, Paramount is thriving and will continue to thrive. This place is worth at least one visit. There are better places, no doubt but as a heritage place it should be visited. 

What I can say is their reviews may be good companion for শুচিবাই পিসিমা (maniac aunties). Also probably they don't know the Kolkata talk - ফুচকার জলে যত জীবাণু তত বেশি taste!

However with the review, only positive finding for me is that Paramount has introduced some new items!

At the end as they are talking about the cleanliness thing, I just got the news via The Telegraph that a group of researchers at North Bengal University discovered a new species of bacteria, and named it after Siliguri - Brevibacterium siligurinese. 

At the end of 2021, I revisited this post, and found my initial writing on Paramount. I checked the links shared on the post. Chakhori Corner is no longer there, it redirects to kolkatarestaurants.net and shows me a blank page. Kolkata Curry had its last post in 2019 and then we were hit by CoVID-19 pandemic!