Flying Monk — A Mystic Flavour of the Orient?

And yet another new place opens in town!

Kolkata seems to have developed an insatiable appetite for new restaurants, and just when you think you've seen every possible cuisine and combination, along comes another one promising to take you somewhere completely different.

This time it was Flying Monk, with the rather intriguing promise of “Mystic Flavours of the Orient.”

Now, a restaurant specialising in South-East and East Asian cuisine is already ambitious enough, but Flying Monk has really gone for it. Japanese, Singaporean, Korean, Malaysian, Indonesian and Thai cuisine — all under one roof!

That's quite a bit of Asia to fit onto one menu.

Naturally, we had to investigate.

So one evening, we headed over for dinner, curious to see whether Flying Monk could actually deliver on this rather grand culinary promise.

We started with some Fried Prawn, which made for a fairly straightforward and enjoyable beginning. This was followed by the rather more interestingly named Prince's Wanton Soup. The soup was warm, comforting and exactly the sort of thing you want when settling into a long Asian meal.

Then came a couple of drinks, because obviously one cannot conduct serious restaurant research on an empty glass.

With the starters and drinks out of the way, it was time for the main event.

We ordered a noodle preparation which, I have to say, was unlike any noodles I've had before. This was not your standard Chinese restaurant chow mein making an appearance under a fancy new name. There was something quite different about it, and it certainly got our attention.

Alongside that came a chicken preparation and a fried rice, giving us a fairly broad sampling of what the kitchen was attempting to do.

By now, we'd eaten enough to be quite happy — but then we reached the dessert section.

And that's where things got interesting again.

The Trio Sorbet immediately caught our attention. Sorbet served in three rather unusual flavours — lemon, chilli basil and Japanese ginger.

Now, how could we possibly read that on a menu and not order it?

Out it came, and this was certainly not your conventional dessert. The lemon was familiar territory, but the chilli basil and Japanese ginger brought an entirely different dimension to the experience. Refreshing, slightly unexpected and quite a fun way to finish the meal.

And perhaps that's what Flying Monk is trying to do — take familiar Asian flavours and put them together in combinations that make you stop, taste again and wonder exactly what you've just eaten.

We went in because the whole “Mystic Flavours of the Orient” proposition had piqued our curiosity.

Did we discover all the secrets of the Orient in one evening?

Probably not.

But we certainly discovered a new restaurant, a menu that isn't afraid to travel across Asia, and a few dishes that managed to surprise us along the way.

And in a city where new restaurants seem to be opening almost every other week, that's not a bad way to spend an evening.