I found The Yellow Straw in Chandni Chowk Region one fine sultry summer evening, while I was on my way to a watch shop, huffing and puffing from the exertion, and cursing myself for not drinking enough water. The little shop on RN Mukherjee Road looks small from the outside, but go inside, and you will find a little space to sit and play games once you get up the stairs. Happily enough, I had consumed a fabulous strawberry shake that day, and gone forth my merry way, but well, when one of the store’s owners invited me and a few others over for some fresh seasonal juices and shakes, I nodded my head, and followed him down to the outlet once again.
Kolkata Juice Bar
The Yellow Straw is Kolkata’s first juice chain. They have an assortment of juices – from pure juices (one fruit or vegetable only), to a combination of their choice, to customizable choices that can be asked for by the customer – the list is quite large. The owners are two young entrepreneurs, Piyush and Vikram, and they decided to make juices with slow rotation juicers, which does not heat up the juice, and that helps in less oxidation and getting more nutrition out of the fruits being pulped.
Yellow Straw Dalhousie Region
So, taking in the quirky décor, we seated ourselves, and looked around. The place is neat and packed with fun games – you can play chess, checkers, pick up sticks and other games for absolutely hours in the end. The guys don’t mind – in fact, they encouraged it. I picked up a pack of sticks, scattered them, and went to work.
Yummy Tummy
The Yummy Tummy juice is an assortment of fruits – I got the distinct taste of mausambi and pomegranate as well as some apples. They try to keep as much seasonal fruits as possible, and this combination is supposed to be a full meal. It is pulpy and quite filling, and I ask if I could have small portions of the next things that are about to come.
Chilli Cheese Toasties
The Chilli Cheese toasties come on a sharing platter, and within seconds, it is gone. There is a generous amount of chilli-laden cheese which is quite a lovely sight.
Skin Glow
D had ordered something called a Skin Glow, and it is a dark red affair, rather Gothic to look at, if you ask me. But its quite nice, with beets and apples and a tiny hit of ginger to spice things up.
Corn and Spinach Snackies
The Corn and Spinach Snackies are little golden crackers topped with a little bit of well-cooked corn and spinach, sprinkled with some cheese. Its easy to forget how many of these you are consuming, especially if you are too busy talking to your friend.
Mean Green
Daring soul that I am, I venture towards the Mean Green after reading the words Spinach and Celery on it. This is more like a cold soup than a juice – its quite savoury, and has a considerable amount of celery, which, for some reason, makes me want to have a Bloody Mary later.
Cold Chocolate Shake
To be fair, the chocolate shake was nice, but it just paled in front of the juices before. This was sweet, with a good bit of cocoa in it, and although it was fine, it lacked.. something.
Sweet Chilli Potato Toasties
The Sweet Potato Toasties were served at this point. Now, these were intriguing us from the start, and the layer of potato on the toasties has a great combination of tamarind, cumin, which is quite nice, especially for those who like street food, because this has streetfood written all over it.
mango shake
Of course, the piece de resistance was the mango shake. This is part of their special menu on mangoes, which will stop with the mango season getting over soon. This contained chopped mangoes, mango ice cream, butterscotch bits, and nuts – between the four of us, we could not finish it (alas!), and hung our heads in shame as we were about to go. But, I have to say, I did win a game of pick-up-sticks, so these things don’t hurt me any more.
pick up sticks
Disclaimer: Poorna Banerjee dined at the Yellow Straw at the kind request of the management.
Welcome to my blog which is mostly about Food, Travel, Lifestyle and Beauty. I generally review restaurants and hotels in Kolkata and my work as a Restaurant Consultant and Food Critic in Kolkata allows me to maintain this blog as a showcase of my work. I am also a published author and have been a panelist at many events.
