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| - If there is one thing history has taught us, it's that coercive reform never works. Take CCC's namesake for example. Anglicized from Kolkata to Calcutta during British colonial rule, the entangled history of Bengals' rejection of English social reforms continue to present day history with renamed streets and Calcutta rechristened as Kolkata.
You might ask, what does this have to do with CCC as a restaurant? Well, it exemplifies the notion of how CCC's attempt at Westernizing Indian cuisine like reformation under colonial constraints just doesn't work. Between the four of us, we ordered the chili chicken, chicken kati roll, paneer roll, parsi prawn, doi begun and the lamb shank. While everything was certainly palatable, it lacked the depth and flavor I'm accustomed to at other Indian restaurants or Indian friends cooking. The best dish was probably the chili chicken but, many big box chain restaurants also accomplish this dish very well. The paratha in the kati rolls was good but the ingredients within, relatively basic and didn't wow. Perhaps one of the most disappointing dishes was the parsi prawn. At an incredibly small serving of about 4-5 prawns, I don't even know if I can truly call this a curry because it lacked so much in flavor and spice (although the prawns were well cooked), that by Indian curry standards it was tasteless. Next was the lamb and the doi begun which was also underwhelming and much too mellow. Don't get me wrong, I understand creative food and innovative chef's always put a spin on making dishes their own. But, I can't appreciate when the best part of certain dishes is missed. Innovation is about taking the best of something and expanding on it, not stripping it down so that it is a ghost of what it once was. Food aside, the decor of CCC is actually very pretty - although erring along the lines of colonial India than nationalist India - and the service was fantastic.
Would I come back? Probably not. Would I recommend it as a place for Indian food? Most definitely not. Would I recommend it to someone with $$$ to spend and looking for a hip place to hang out with little regard for authentic Indian food? Absolutely.
**My friends who dined with me just reminded me of the following points: We also had the gunpowder brocollini and It was one of the few wins but drenched in an unnecessary amount of ghee; all of the dishes were overly sweet and served just barely lukewarm; the server who did a fantastic job at addressing allergies failed to bring the complimentary bar dish; and while the allergies were addressed, I'm sure there was some slight misinformation since my stomach hurt terribly that evening.
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