Bloggers' meet @ Fly Kouzina powered by Dineout & Thinkquisitive

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Have you come across pictures of your friends with delicious dishes inside an aircraft & kept wondering how they managed to gets such great meals. Well that's because they weren't inside a plane at all. Rather they were simply having some good food & clicking some great pictures in Fly Kouzina, an aeroplane themed restaurant in Salt Lake, Kolkata.

Fly Kouzina was on my wish list from the time it opened op. However the prospect of vegetarian food seldom excites me, hence kept postponing the visit every time. However a couple of weeks back got a mail from Thinkquisitive regarding a bloggers meet at Fly Kouzina hosted by Dineout. Now surely this couldn't be, & shouldn't be missed. So it was time to post a status on Facebook & take a flight to good food.

From the outside the restaurant doesn't seem so much as anything very special. Of course the name & the logo do look related to something about flying. In fact we learned from the owner Rishi, that in the beginning some people used to come & actually asked whether they do flight bookings! Well name & logo apart the entrance does have automatic sliding doors which do make you feel like you are in an airport.

The main restaurant is segmented into two dining areas. The one which you arrive in has the usual table arrangements for 4/6/8 persons. This section also houses the mocktails counter. The interesting part however is the other section which is to the right. The whole area is beautifully constructed to resemble the inside of an aircraft complete with arched ceiling & shuttered windows. The ceiling in my opinion is a cross between an air plane hangar & the inside of a passenger aircraft (of course minus the baggage holds). The detailing is such neat, that behind those windows are LCD screens with looped videos of clouds passing by so as to give you that feel of dying in a passenger aircraft! The lighting is also done in a way to mimic the original environment. This area has tables in two rows, each table seating four, with high back comfortable seats (the seat belts were missed). The usher & waiters are dressed in uniforms resembling pilots & stewards, complete with badges & hats. It's not like only this section gets the aircraft treatment. The conventional seating area mentioned earlier has things to make you feel the same. The round analogue clocks on the wall with times of various international capitals, the framed pictures of vintage aircrafts all are part of the décor which add to the unique charm. Even the ceiling is actually modelled after an upside down runway, with model aircrafts taxiing up & down, & the white markers being replaced with white rectangular LEDs. As we made ourselves comfortable in the plush sofas, we were handed our 'boarding passes’ to good food! Wow! I mean seriously this way beyond what I could even imagine! Kudos to Rishi & his team for materialising this unique out of the box concept, or should you prefer, out of the plane dining experience.

We had a brief intro to the other bloggers & Dineout representatives. We had the special meet menu in front of us, & were free to order anything from it. We decided to try each & every items, & thus the flight to good food took off!

Mocktails:

Virgin colada:

The non alcoholic pinacolada, one can't simply go wrong with the smooth blend of coconut cream, pineapple juice, ice cream & a hint of lemon. Though best enjoyed with added alcohol, the virgin one was equally good. The best drink of the evening to be precise!

Strawberry Margarita:

The promising red drink served in a salt rimmed margarita glass contained a mix of strawberry, orange & lemon juice. Although looking spectacular with the garnished orange slice poked with a cherry, the taste was a letdown.

Virgin Mojito:

The classic drink served in the standard fashion. Nothing fancy. Fresh mint leaves, sugar & lemon juice does the trick every time & this time too it was pretty refreshing in every sip.

Lemongrass Mojito:

A variation to the classic Mojito, this mix of mint leaves & diced lemons muddled with lemongrass & topped up with soda was the best cooler among all that were offered. The hint of lemongrass essence with the tanginess from the lemon was just too good. I ended up ordering couple of glasses for myself alone!

Orange Mojito:

Another variation, this time with some orange cubes to go with the mint & sugar mix. A bit better than the virgin Mojito, but not as great as the lemongrass variant.

Barman's pitcher:

Inarguably the best looking drink of the evening, this was served in a tall glass. A mix of apple, cranberry, peach, grenadine syrup topped up with red bull, & garnished on top with mint sprig, apple & kiwi slice, this drink looked amazing top to bottom & from all the sides. However the burst of flavours were too jumbled up to be appreciated. The green apple was dominating, while others much feeble. If you are looking for that particular tinge, go for it, however you'll be disappointed if you are expecting a sweeter note.

Mint Lemonade:

Virgin Mojito with an overdose of crushed mint leaves & equal amount of sugar syrup. Also some extra lemon juice, this one was what I liked even more than the three mojitos served. Some of my friends mind it too minty, but for me it was perfect!

Soups:

Manchow Soup:

Steamy bowl of common oriental soup paired with a bowl of crispy bowl of noodles. The fermented soy & Chilli soup with chopped coriander & veggies was quite tasty. With a light body & optimal use of spices this soup was a good one to start off.

Cream of Mushroom Soup:

A great looking bowl of thick soup with chopped mushrooms in it & intricate design of cream on the top, this one was better in taste compared to the first one. The creamy blend was very light on spices yet had amazing subtle flavours for the taste buds. The go to soup for lovers of mushrooms.

Starters:

Crispy Chilly Baby Corn:

A pretty common starter, to say the least. The crunchy outer coating with the soft slices of baby corn inside, tossed with bell peppers & sesame seeds sprinkled on top, this was nicely done.

Pesto Cheese Sashlik:

Cubes of Paneer marinated with pesto sauce (basil, parmesan cheese, garlic, olive oil mix), grilled to perfection along with slices of bell peppers, pineapples & onions. The soft chunks of cottage cheese had imbibed the flavours well & were a treat to the taste buds.

Cheese Balls:

Nothing extraordinary apart from the fact, that they tasted amazingly delicious. One thing that was interesting, the tartar sauce was served in a hollowed out green bell paper which looked really good.

Broccoli Corn Dumplings:

As a hardcore non-veg guy I always give veg dumplings a miss when I can order a chicken or prawn variant. However these were far better than your usual cabbage filled pieces. Finely minced broccoli & corn filling was tasty & juicy to the last bit. Served in a bamboo box the presentation looked great too. The lightly spiced red sauce served along with the dumplings was a perfect match.

Malai Paneer Tikki:

Clay oven toasted paneer Tikka were deceiving in looks. Basically any tikki can be deceiving since you can't guess what's inside unless you take a bite! The thin outer crust hid the gooey smooth blend of cottage cheese which would melt in your mouth perfectly complimented by the orange flavoured creamy dip provided alongside.

Ladakh Subz Seekh Kebab:

Minced veggies rolled around a seekh & cooked in tandoor, served along with zucchini noodles. The kebabs were pretty dry & not quite likeable. May be if they were glazed with some sauce or butter afterwards they would have made a better dish.

Cheese Garlic Bread:

Garlic toasted breads with minced herbs & overdose of grated cheese on top, pretty decent stuff with all the garlic aroma & taste.

Continental Main Course:

La Pizza Verde:

Zucchini, broccoli, sweet corn & loads of cheese on top of medium crust pizza bread, it was a good start to the continental course, a recommended dish if you love pizza with exotic veggies.

Pizza Kouzina:

Fly Kouzina's signature style pizza with Chef's special pesto dip. Long slices of baby corn, zucchini & bell peppers were placed on the pizza as opposed to use of diced veggies. This too tasted great, however didn't quite like the pesto sauce as the condiment. Guess will stick to standard tomato ketchup as far as pizzas are concerned.

Risotto All Verde:

Arborio rice cooked in cheese, mixed with corn & herbs, served along with buttered garlic breads. Though tasting & smelling great, was missing the usual chicken/crab chunks, as a result couldn't enjoy the dish fully.

Lasagne De Verde:

After the disappointing risotto, I was quite sure; I would be disappointed with the lasagne as well. However this layered pasta dish with slices of exotic veggies was a treat. The top layer of cheesy white sauce hid the underlying delectable mix. Complemented again with slices of garlic breads, the dish was licked clean by the end.

Oriental Main Course:

Chilly Garlic Noodles:

A bowl of Hakka noodles with sufficient vegetables, extra garlic & tinge of red chilli flakes. Garnished with chopped spring onion rings the bowl was sufficient for two persons. The noodles were tasty with the added garlic, however a tad bit oily.

Sweet & Sour Cottage Cheese:

Cubes of Paneer tossed in sweet & sour gravy of diced bell peppers, tomato & pineapple. A simple preparation with light tangy gravy, this went well with the hakka noodles.

Indian Main Course:

Subz Dum Biryani with Raita:

To say the truth Biryani to me is the quintessentially flavoured saffron rice with meat, egg & potato. Veg biryanis don't excite me much, though I've had some great tasting biryanis in veg joints, generally they are no match for a proper chicken/mutton dum biryani. Moreover the usage of chunks of paneer in most of the veg biryani preparations is what I despise. However this one was a Sheer surprise! A mix of white, yellow & saffron coloured long grain basmati rice with the mesmerising aroma of ghee, slow cooked with generous amount of veggies in dum pukht style & served in a small metal handi, this was a treat to the eyes, as well as the tastebuds! The best veg biryani I've had till date, this was finished in no time (in spite of the fact that we were quite full from all the dishes we had throughout the eve!) We were so busy devouring the biryani , we actually didn't touch the raita at all!

Desserts:

Gulab Jamun:

Warm & soft gulab jamuns dipped in sweet saffron syrup served in a wine glass. Some flakes of nuts were sprinkled on top as garnishing, a soft mushy gooey, melt in your mouth sweetness, to end the Indian meal.

Sunken Chocolate Pudding with Vanilla Ice Cream:

Hot chocolate soufflé with chocolate syrup all over it, served with a scoop of ice cream by the side, the warm pudding actually melted in the mouth, and paired with the vanilla ice cream it created an out of the world taste. A perfect end note if you are having continental or oriental dishes.

Thus ended our food flight via FLKZN. The in flight food & drinks were great, obviously so much better than those ready to eat snacks served in real flights. Heartiest congratulations to the team at Fly Kouzina for organising such a great event. The polite staffs were quite prompt in spite of the fact that it was a rush hour & they had to serve such a big group of bloggers in addition to the regular customers who were seated in the aircraft section. The dineout table reservation app too played a crucial role as we were checked in to the restaurant via the app. Their representatives too made it a point to look after our orders. Sadly couldn't try all the items on the menu, as we were too full. Would love to pay them a second visit to try out the offerings from the Indian Main Course Menu.

All in all it was evening well spent with fellow bloggers. & Rightly described by the tagline of the eve 'Great food, Great Friends, Great Times'. At the end of the night we were handed out goodie bags which contained a pendrive, a pair of shot glasses, a customised notebook, some coasters & few cookies from Kaos gourmet.

Thanks again Fly Kouzina, Dineout & Thinkquisitive for this excellent event of gastronomic & visual treat.

Happy Eating,

Cheers!