Et Set Mix is the newest edition to the restaurants in Kolkata, presented by the Hanglaatherium brand. Where, in today’s Kolkata, the strive for authenticity has overthrown the strive for good food, this restaurant surprisingly has a tagline “nothing authentic about it”. So, this story is about Et Set Mix by Hanglaatherium. For the brief, they have one cloud kitchen operating by the same name from Kamalgazi (near Garia) and this small dine-in restaurant near Deshapriya Park. The dine-in restaurant was inaugurated on 16th December 2020 by team Foodka.
Please check the location here on Google Map for the Deshapriya sit-down outlet
About the place
Certain places in Kolkata are not really built to be a fancy fine-dining restaurant. But the aim is to provide food at pocket-friendly pricing and Et Set Mix is just that. The pricing is very very reasonable. And with the small casual 12-seater sit-in arrangement, one can’t really expect anything more from the establishment, apart from good food. Well, rather than me talking about the interior, please check it yourself.
Soup and Starters
Now here is a catch at Et Set Mix. Not many of these small restaurants (if I may call it so, rather than an eating joint) limit the menu to be devoid of Pork. But Pork, and good quality pork, is sold here and highly promoted by the management. In fact, after the inauguration date, on our second visit, we ordered the Gondhoraj Coriander Soup (Mixed). 1 portion was enough for the two of us. Now, Sunando probably was working on fine-tuning the recipe of Chilly Pork and served me some.
The soup was pretty good. But then a thin clear soup, loaded with meat, shrimps and flavored with fresh coriander leaves- how can it go wrong? And served piping hot on a winter evening, it definitely tasted great. The chilly pork, rather, had mixed feelings. The first version that we were served, lacked the punch- that fiery spiciness. But when I sent it back and asked them to toss it with some slit green chilies and crushed black pepper, it was damn good- fiery and interesting. I hope they are serving the second version now. Please check and let me know. Et Set Mix didn’t waste any time in roasting the pork meat (a good mix of lean and fat meat) and rather served a rather good spicy non-authentic Indianised version- which worked wonders, at least for me. And if somebody packs it back, the Old Monk bottle will have a good company.
Well, the last starter that I must talk of, is named Chicken drumsticks with Jhalamela Sauce. Now, it’s a strange no-authentic sauce (conceptualized by a mad nut-head), flavored with sliced ginger, black pepper, and Honey. The taste is more towards a hajmi candy and though unconventional, it actually was quite nice. I must say… talking of non-authenticity, Et Set Mix took it quite seriously. This dish is definitely recommended.
The main course, or pork-y course
We preferred to have the main course with pork items. Please check the rate card. Most of these dishes were being offered as combos and are pretty decently priced- less than 300/- price bracket- having 8 decent cubes of Pork. The pork, that is served here at Et Set Mix, is a good mixture of lean and fatty meat- appr in the ratio of 70:30 and is sourced from Haringhata, as I was told by the management. The mix is really good, even for a finicky lean meat lover like me. Most of the pork dishes came as a combo- either with Gobindobhog rice (good move), or with two parotas. Well, it was dinner time and parota was our choice.
The first dish was named Junglee Pork and honestly, I couldn’t find a reason for that. It was plain good Pork Kosha, with some fiery red color- probably thanking itself to the Kashmiri chilly. It was pretty civilized and tamed- nothing really Junglee about it. Is it bad? No. Is it mind-blowing” No- it’s plain good. Remember Dr. Wattson in Sherlock Holmes movies? No matter how good he is, he ended up being the sidekick. It’s the same case here. But THE Pork Kosha simply blew us. It was damn tasty.
Now again there’s a catch to this dish here. If someone expects something like the Golbari Kosha Mangsho (yes, that cult Kolkata nightmare), they will be disheartened. It’s a semi-thick curry, with a slightly sweet aftertaste taking it to a different level altogether. I’m definitely looking forward to tasting it with the Gobindobhog rice that comes along with it. I must talk of the Parota here. It’s pretty well-built, thick and large. One full parota (2 pcs) is quite filling- IMHO. And don;t expect some Laccha stuff here- they make Bengali soft Parota- not Parantha.
My final take
Overall, I quite like Et Set Mix. The founders are good friends and I am somewhat biased because of that reason. But what else do you expect in this price bracket? Good tasty food at pocket-friendly pricing- this is the place.
Things I liked:
- Food portion size and taste
- Pricing
- The fantastic wall art, done by my immensely talented friend Anirban Bora
Things that could’ve been better
- Junglee Pork somehow could’ve been better
- the service needs some better tuning, food took a relatively long time… but the reason may have been the initial starting phase
do visit the place, order from there, and let me know your feedback. Et Set Mix is already on the primary delivery Aggregators.
Bon appetit!!!
I can be reached at Indrajit.lahiri@ymail.com
