Coffee House drops age-old 'onion pakora' from menu

Shaheryar Hossain

Kolkata: Indian Coffee House, one of the city's oldest eateries, has stopped selling their famous 'onion pakora' after the price of the vegetable recently touched the Rs 150 mark.

"We have stopped serving onion pakora due to the skyrocketing price. Earlier, we used to sell more than 100 plates of the dish every day," said Zahid Hussain of Indian Coffee House, located opposite Presidency University in College Street.

It is a renowned meeting place for intellectuals and students of Presidency University, University of Calcutta and other institutes in College Street.

Apart from onion pakora, the eatery also serves chicken cutlet, mutton cutlet, fish fry, chilly chicken and other food items.

"It is not possible to increase the price of onion pakora at present. We increase the price of different dishes in April every year accordingly," pointed out an official of the coffee house that also has its outlets in Jadavpur and near Chandni Chowk.

"It seems like onion pakora, an age-old delicacy of the city which adds colour to winter evenings along with a cup of tea at Indian Coffee House, has fallen victim to the alarming rise in the price of onions in recent times. The famous song sung by Manna Dey titled

Coffee House er shei adda ta aaj aar nei (That Coffee House adda is long gone now) has come true with the removal of onion pakora from the menu," said Mihir Bhonsale, a PhD student and a regular visitor at the eatery.

"I would like to say that black marketing of onion should be monitored.

Then only it will reach normal price," said Kumar Shantanu, an advocate at Calcutta High Court Circuit Bench in Jalpaiguri.