Denmark Tavern: Revamped with an impressive ambience

Bengal was a holy grail for European powers in the 17th and 18th century. The Danes established the town of Serampore on Hugli river and the town still reverberates of Danish history. Located on the Hugli riverfront in Serampore, the Danish Tavern Hotel was opened sometime in 1786 by Mr Parr. It provided lodging as well as meals for 'gentlemen passing up and down the river as an advertisement in the Calcutta Gazette said. The restored tavern is presently back in business, run by the Park group of hotels. The place offers some special Danish dishes along with Biryani, Chinese, Italian, sandwiches, Bengali mains, North Indian mains and Tandoori mains.

FIRST IMPRESSION

The Denmark tavern is beautifully revamped with white breezy interiors. The view of the river from the tavern, especially the first floor is breathtaking. One must visit the place, just for this once. The dishes are reasonably priced for the ambience and the setting.

ORDER

Golden Fried Prawns (Rs 320), Chilly Chicken (Rs 270), Penne Pasta (Rs 270), Pizza Chicken Capsicum and Onion (Rs 270)

DANISH SPECIALS: Fish Fry (Rs 200), Danish Style Roast Chicken (Rs 400), Danish Pastry with Ice Cream (Rs 220)

AFTER TASTE

In the Danish offering, I started with the Fish fry. One large fish cutlet marinated in an onion-coriander paste and then deep-fried with egg wash and bread crumbs was served with french fries. With a surely non-European spicy Kachumbar salad on the side, it tasted just like the quintessential Bengali fish fry and I did not find anything Danish about this dish. I must confess that I was disappointed with the first Danish special.

Giving the benefit of doubt, I then decided to have the Danish style Roast Chicken. It consisted of a decent sized one chicken piece served with sautéed chunks of carrot, potatoes, mushrooms and peas and thick brown gravy at the side. The roast chicken was baked well with the condiments and had a drizzle of gravy on top and the chicken was literally falling off the bones. The sautéed vegetables had also been well flavoured with continental spices. However, again I felt that the dish was actually a British preparation, nothing unique to Denmark.

After trying the Danish dishes, I ordered two Italian staples: a pizza and pasta, and two Chinese dishes: chilly chicken and golden fried prawns.

The Penne Chicken was cooked in thick cheesy white gravy with chicken strips and seasoned with oregano. It was served with a generous garnish of shredded cheese. The Pizza Chicken Capsicum and Onion was a medium-sized pizza with a medium-thick base that had been covered with a generous amount of tomato gravy and cheese and baked with a good amount of toppings of chicken, capsicum and chicken stripes. However, I did not like the base of the pizza which seemed to be a bit undercooked.

Golden fried prawns, which were stir fried with juliennes of capsicum and onions and black pepper, was a decent dish. Chilly Chicken here was the usual Tangra

Chinese preparation with strong soy sauce and vinegar essence, with wedges of bell peppers and onions but was a little bland.

I ended the lunch with the Danish pastry with ice cream. Since I am not a very avid fan of ice creams, I requested to be served two pastries instead of the ice cream and I was

very happy that my request was honoured without

any fuss. The Danish pastry was the star of the entire spread. It looks like a puff pastry or croissant and had a custard filling and was served warm so that when you cut into it, the yellow sweet thick custard comes out and it is really heavenly. At last, something Danish was the icon of the day!

WHAT I LOVED

The ambience and the view! Food, not so much except the Pasta and the Danish pastry.

VERDICT

I felt that in order to offer a wide variety of cuisines, they have failed to research and give us authentic Danish dishes which Calcutta truly deserved. Most of the dishes were average continental fare and there was nothing exceptional about the dining experience, however, the ambience and heritage were exceptional. For the love of history and a sublime setting, you must try it at least once.

(The columnist is a food connoisseur who loves experimenting with culinary delights and a career bureaucrat in the IRS Income Tax)