As we mentioned in this post before, the visit to Cuppa Java was a part of the plan to hit as many interesting places in the city possible, to celebrate 11th’s ‘Eat what you want day‘. We visited ‘Victoria Junction‘ first, and then, went to ‘Cuppa Java‘, adjacent to it.

We have had some experiences of well-known cafes from all over Kolkata, and hence, we had expectations from Cuppa Java on aspects like the food we can have there and their services, as well as, most importantly, the ambience they can offer. When you are going to visit a cafe, it’s always the ambience that is being put at the top of the priority list. At least, that’s how we, the coffee fanatics, work.

Cuppa Java offers a wide range of choices when you tend to take up your perfect beverage. With witty coffee related quotes marqueeing in and out in the front panel in their website, you will be happy to realize that the staffs and the people associated with this place is as much a coffee lover as you are. This was our first visit to Cuppa Java and within minutes of entering the place, the way we were being welcomed, the way we were guided with the menus, the orders; we already started regretting why we did not visit the place earlier.

The store has a very simple appearance, situated at the northern fringes of the city, on the long stretched Sevoke Road. Though the placement could have been much better had it been nearer to the central area of the city, but then again, on second thoughts it became clear to us that it’s the silence and the aloofness of the place that has made it such a good experience. Maybe the hustle-bustles of the city would have broken the peacefulness that is connected with the place.

Cuppa Java has two sections – the outer section serving coffee, cookies and other baked goods, and the inner section boasting of a hookah parlor. We tried out both the sections. The outer section was more common to the serious coffee lovers who use to hit the place simply to gorge on the blended goodness. Various offerings of cold coffee, moccaccino, cappuccino, espresso – you say it, and you will have to wait for hardly five minutes before you are being served.

The inner section was the hookah parlor. It was a dark room, as lengthy as a club room, with pool table set at one end, bean bags all around, and cushioned seating arrangements along the wall. A 26-inch LCD mounted on the central wall of the room plays video songs all throughout the day, and the best part, it’s accompanied by a really rich collection of contemporary and all time hit English numbers. The semi-darkness inside, along with the music gives a psychedelic appearance to the room, and you will never feel like coming out of it.

The best part of Cuppa Java, as it seemed to us, is their customer service arrangements. Since we were the first timers there (which the staffs surprisingly noticed), we were in awe by the help we got from the staffs. They did a quick briefing of their offerings, and helped us choose our orders. The quality of the food was quite good, and the service time lightening fast. We ordered Fudge American Brownie with chocolate sauce add-on, Black Forest Fudge et al. And turned out that we relished all of them equally.

Though Cuppa Java, as a chain, is not as popular as the likes of Cafe Coffee Day in small towns like this, but we liked the way it has managed to create a niche of its own. In the 1.5-2 hours we were inside, we saw a steady stream of customers flowing in and out of the eatery, and seemed to us that each of the them were regulars there.

Cuppa Java was an experience in itself. We liked their offerings, the services, the ambience, the food, everything. Of course a recommended place, if you talk about both their cafe as well as hookah parlor services.

According to us, best points regarding Cuppa Java:
1. Ambience.
2. Free Wi-fi zone.
3. Musical Den.
4. Quick and efficient customer service.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10.

Website: http://www.cuppajava.in/home.html
Cuppa Java on Facebook: Cuppa Java
Contact: siliguri(at)cuppajava(dot)in

Our main intention was to celebrate ‘Eat what you want day’ in as good a way as possible. And what can be better than to hit new eateries in town and eat what all you want!

Yesterday was the day we are mentioning here, and two of our team members took up the aim of visiting at least four eat-out joints in the city. Turned out that we could visit two of them – one being a little disappointing visit, and the later one an experience of a life time. This post is about the first joint – Victoria Junction, a live bakery.

When we entered Victoria Junction, it was in the middle phase of the day’s business in the early afternoon. Seeing us enter geared with cameras and note-taking pads surely seemed not to be a very good idea to them. Though that did not deter us from taking our independence of moving all around of the place taking pictures, scan the menu books, peek into the adjoining hookah parlour etc.

Victoria Junction is well known in this city as a live bakery and patisserie where you can get patties, pastries, cakes and other baked goods and also beverages of various types. They also have an adjoining Hookah Parlor with cushions and couch which seemed to be an ideal place for hangouts with friends, and strictly not with family. Seeing cameras in our hand made two of the young guys inside it throw us suspecting looks. But anyhow, they decided to carry off with their hookah-jobs with ease.

Though the staffing and attending system seemed to be unsatisfactory in Victoria Junction, I liked the fact that the visitors are given complete independence there. We moved all around the place, checked out the bookracks, took numerous pictures (without not even a single complain from the attendees) and finally settled down with some baked goodness.

Food was okayish. The donuts were not soft enough, but anyhow tasted nice. Victoria Junction has this delivery service of cakes for various parties and celebrations. We saw two customers picking up their orders and also two other coming up to place new orders. It seemed to us that the USP of the place is their system of delivery of cakes and party foods. Other than that, the regular items sold are not too much in demand. We were there for around 30-45 minutes, and saw only one another customer come and settle down in a table a little away from ours.

Overall, Victoria Junction may not score well in areas like customer service and quality of regular food items; but seemed the live bakery section working hard all through the day serving the delivery orders is what keeps their business running.

About Victoria Junction, we most liked:
1.The latest ‘Kindle’ magazines put on the tables for the customers to go through.
2.The book racks. Though they really had a very bad choice for the collection, but I don’t remember getting to see much of these bookracks in other eateries.
3.The interior decoration of the Hookah Parlor, which they fondly call ‘Kafe adda’.
4.The beautiful paintings on the walls.
5.Pricing. Very reasonable.

We disliked:
1.The customer attending system.
2.Quality of foods. We, obviously, could not taste all of their items, so this non-likeliness can well be restricted to the items we had.

Overall Rating: 7/10.
Website: http://www.victoriajunction.in
Victoria Junction on Facebook: Victoria Junction
For more pictures of Victoria Junction, visit BTL on Facebook here: Between The Lines
Contact: +91 353 6500167
Services:
Takes Reservations
Walk-Ins Welcome
Good For Groups
Good For Kids
Delivery
Catering
Waiter Service