ALCHEMY

A newly opened place which we just discovered and a place which seems to have the potential for becoming a good dating spot among the students of Kozhikode due to its location and ambience. It is located along the Kozhikode beach, opposite again a newly opened restaurant Neerayi and next to Lions Club Park. It was a Christmas night and we had already relished on a heavy dinner and were thinking of treating our sweet tooth. There were no customers as it is very new and is yet to be fully constructed. It has more space outdoors over the space available indoors with lighting most suitable for dates but I am not sure how will it look like during monsoons.  It has the view of Kozhikode beach on one side which I don’t find very exciting. The menu is just that of any regular café in Calicut with burgers, sandwiches, mocktails and faloodas. They have something called ‘Choose what you like!’ falooda which our server could barely explain what that exactly means, but I guess it’s just to choose the flavour of ice-cream you would like to have as a topping. We chose their Special Alchemy Falooda which was nothing but I would still visit this place again to try more stuff once it is fully prepared to accept customers.

HOTSPOT

The name of this restaurant must be changed from ‘Hotspot’ to ‘Everything Loud’. The lights are too flashy; the interiors, the outdoor lounge, the indoor fountains, the uniforms of servers and everything else is too loud. I think they forgot to make only one thing too rakish and that is the menu, it is too limited and is a single laminated page. It is definitely a family restaurant with tables for four or six and the entire restaurant is divided into small rooms consisting of two six seater tables. They also forgot to manage the height of chairs and tables so it’s very difficult to have a comfortable dinner. The washrooms were overused as it was a Christmas night and weren’t clean enough, I suppose even that matters a lot. Regarding the menu, it was a regular one including biryani and mandi with very limited curry options. This is the only restaurant in Kozhikode I have come across where they serve duck. They also serve Ambur Biryani which I wanted to try really badly but unfortunately biryani is served only for lunch in this restaurant. Finally we boiled down to Mandi, though very Indianised and different, it was really great, the fried onion slices made all the difference. The portion size is good and prices are quite reasonable. I would want to visit this place again to try more of their dishes. 

COFFEE TRIBE

The location is an advantage as it is placed at a closer distance for us compared to all other cafes. I could see at least three tables occupied by our students and for a moment I felt like I was attending a combined lecture with both the batches. It serves food that is most suited blend for Indian taste buds and every friend of mine just loves it. The ambience is simple and the staff is very friendly. Not much to say about it, as it is just a regular café with a standard menu. They also had a Christmas menu which included a chicken burger, chicken nuggets, fries and coffee and it was priced very reasonably. They offered us a complimentary sizzler, while we had tough time gulping the first one as it was neither appealing nor as tasty as we expected. We also ordered pasta, one Arabiatta and one Alfredo. Both were again not appealing or tasty, the Arabiatta was as good as Maggi pasta and Alfredo was like “No Idea what it was”. I would just end up saying that this is a small café where you would go and hog without thinking or expecting too much, and definitely not a place for someone who has already tried authentic cuisine.