Cabins, Pice Hotels & Telebhaja in Kolkata

Two institutions belong to Kolkata and nowhere else. The cabin is a small eating house with wooden partitions, opened in the early twentieth century, serving Anglo-Bengali fry food — kabiraji cutlet, brain chop, fish fry, mughlai paratha. The pice hotel is the other end: a bench, a banana leaf or a steel plate, rice and dal and fish for a few rupees, originally for students and migrant workers.

Telebhaja is the third: fritters sold from a pan on the pavement, at their best in the rain. Beguni, phuluri, aloor chop, and the mango and soybean fritters that Lakshmi Narayan Shaw has been frying since 1918.

Name	Where	What it is known for
Mitra Cafe1920	Shobhabazar	Kabiraji cutlet, brain chop, fish fry. One of the oldest cabins still running.
Allen Kitchen1880s	Jatindra Mohan Avenue, Shyambazar	The prawn cutlet. A counter with a queue, not a restaurant.
Lakshmi Narayan Shaw & Sons1918	Sovabazar-Sutanuti	Telebhaja — aamer chop, soybean chop, beguni. A meeting point for revolutionaries during the freedom movement.
Golbari1930s	Shyambazar More	Kosha mangsho from a corner counter.
Adi Haridas Modakc.1780	Shyambazar More	Kochuri and chholar dal at breakfast.
Maharani Hotel	Shyambazar	A surviving pice hotel.

Name	Where	What it is known for
Dilkhusha Cabin1918	Mahatma Gandhi Road, College Street	Kabiraji cutlet and mutton chop. Heritage-listed by the city in 2020.
Favourite Cabin1918	Surya Sen Street, College Street	Tea and toast, and a century of student adda.
Anadi Cabin1925	Esplanade	The mughlai paratha address; mutton and egg, folded and fried.
Swadhin Bharat Hindu Hotel1912	College Street	A pice hotel; rice, dal, fish, on a bench, at a fixed low price.
Putiram1920s	College Street	Kochuri, radhaballavi and sweets.
Indian Coffee House1942	Bankim Chatterjee Street, College Street	Not a cabin but the same world: infusion coffee, cutlets, and the adda that made it famous.
Kalika Telebhaja1960s	Surya Sen Street, College Street	Fritters from a pavement pan; the College Street standard.
Dacres Lane stalls	off BBD Bagh	An office-lunch lane of small kitchens, chow and stew.

Name	Where	What it is known for
Maharani	Bhowanipore	Fry food and cabin standards.
Tripti	Lake Market	An old South Kolkata cabin.
Lake Market telebhaja stalls	Lake Market	Evening fritters, at their best in the monsoon.

What to order

• Kabiraji cutlet — a cutlet in a lace of fried egg, and a Kolkata invention
• Mughlai paratha at Anadi Cabin, which is where it is best known
• A pice hotel thali at Swadhin Bharat, eaten on a bench with strangers
• Telebhaja in the rain, which is when it is meant to be eaten
• Prawn cutlet at Allen Kitchen, which sells almost nothing else

Other kinds of eating

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A note on this page. Restaurants, shops and markets open, move and close far more often than industries do. Everything here is a snapshot of Kolkata as of 2026, offered as a starting point rather than a live listing. Check the address and the hours before you travel.

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