Vibe along yesteryear rock music at HODOL’s in Salt Lake

Although business partners Saurav Das, Sabyasachi Chowdhury and Dibya Prakash Roy disagreed over a lot of things while designing this café, one thing they agreed upon unanimously was its name: HODOL’S. In Bengali, hodol kutkut is someone who is a foodie — highly sluggish and innocent. The owners, foodies themselves, wanted that easy vibe in their café besides some quality delicious.

Actors-turned-entrepreneurs Saurav and Sabyasachi say, “We wanted to do something different from acting. We are not friends from the industry, but rather got acquainted while spending hours playing PUBG.” Located in Salt Lake, this café has rock music from the ’80s and ’90s as its theme — the stuff that the owners grew up listening to. A life-size portrait of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain graces the patio, while the Beatles’ painting inside along with a lot of other posters is inviting enough for rock music worshippers. 

The food is not just lip-smacking but made with lots of love which you can realise from the very first bite. There is a whole spread of flavoursome pizzas, pasta and other continental delicacies like grilled chicken and fish. “We have dishes on our menu that are exclusively ours. Right now, we are experimenting with the liquor sauces for the grilled chicken… and there is a whiskey caper sauce, which is our bestseller. Then we also have a white wine and garlic sauce, a red wine demi-glace and a spicy rum sauce and the response is good,” explains Sabyasachi.

Apart from their delicious Grilled Chicken in Whiskey Caper Sauce, we also tried their BBQ Chicken Wings. We also tried their Jalapenos Cheese Bowl, stuffed with stringy mozzarella and spiced to perfection and Fried Chicken with Loaded Cheese, which contains flavourful bite-sized, crumbed, chicken balls loaded with cheese. We ended our meal with a Blueberry Cheesecake for dessert and it was super creamy, just as we wanted it to be.

Meal for two: Rs 600

Pictures by Anindya Saha