Eating Out: 37 Street Affair

The restro-cafe culture is slowly picking up in Guwahati and a number of cafes have sprung up all over the city within a very short span of time. This is indeed a welcome development as the concept of good cafés, where youngsters can meet each other or hang around with their friends, was sorely lacking in the city.

One of the latest entrant in the restro-café segment of Guwahati is 37 Street Affair. Located in the BagharbariTiniali Main Road in Panjabari Road, this small restaurant was launched last year. But within a short span of time, it has managed to gather a dedicated clientele of its own and figures among the top restro-cafes of the city. Although its location in Baghorbari is a way out of the main arteries of the city, 37 Street Affair has managed to impress its customers with consistently good quality food at affordable rates. No wonder then that this tiny restro-cafe was adjudged as the Best Upcoming Restro-Café in the Gplus Food Awards 2018 announced recently.

A tiny restaurant, 37 Street Affair is a new cafe and many might have a tough time locating it. But once you locate it, it is a world of its own, perfect for one to relax and unwind over a cup of coffee or meal of his or her choice.

The first thing that strikes one as he or she enters the place is the interiors. While the entire cafe is small in size, it is artistically decorated and creates a surreal environment for dining out. The layout of the interiors is nice and simple with bright colors adorning the walls, and one gets a very positive feeling right from the moment he or she enters. The management has tried to give a Bohemian feel and style to the entire café and judging from the response of the crowd, it has met with a good response.

So while the beautifully decorated interiors lift one's mood right from the moment he or she enters, the courteous behavior of the staff and the wonderful quality of the food makes dining here a pleasant experience. At present, the place has a seating capacity of around 30 people.

Coming to the food, this is the kind of food that has become popular in the city only in recent times. While the menu is very similar to those one finds in a cafe nowadays, it is still a very nicely selected menu, offering an eclectic range of dishes.

The cafe serves almost all the conventional cuisines like Italian, Chinese and fast food, which is highly popular in the city. However, the USP of the restaurant would be their signature Chicken Drumsticks and Sofiyana Biryani. The Sofiyana Biryani is one of the most popular items in the menu of the restro-café.

Giving her opinion about the food, a customer Trishnakhi Deuri said, "This is a cute little cozy restaurant. The interior was chic yet simple. I ordered sweet corn chicken soup and chicken drumsticks. The soup was good. But I didn't like the small bowls where they served the soup. They should definitely change their soup bowls for sure. Then coming to the drumsticks, I just loved them. The chicken was finely cooked inside out. Their menu is also pocket-friendly. A good place to visit with your friends. But maybe the sitting arrangement needs to be worked on a bit. The parallel sitting arrangement is not quite matching the tiny room, especially the room upstairs. I hope to visit this place again.”

Another customer Sukanya Neog said, "This is definitely a nice place at another end of the town. It has a wide range of food items with detailed information which is enough to confuse you about which to try first. Anyways, the food served is good and quite satisfactory. But the sitting arrangements are a bit disappointing as there is less number of tables and chairs. They too have a blackboard kind-off thing where one can write suggestions reviews on the sticky notes.”

While the place is definitely not spacious, most of the customers who returned found the food to be quite delicious and well served. The pricing is also reasonable and is one of the reasons which make it popular amongst the younger lot.

As a food blogger, Abhinandan Das opined, “The cafe is very beautiful. The interiors are small but well organized. The service is also very good. Now talking about the food, well, I had cheese sandwiches which were really good. But the gourmet Maggi is something which they need to improve and the masala tea was served in tea bags which was a disappointment. Overall, it was a great experience at the end of the day.”

Another customer Dhrubajeet Deka had a few words of advice for the management, “The ambiance is cozy and has a homely feel to it. Located away from the city, there is less noise of vehicular traffic. So this is definitely the perfect place to get away from the usual melodramatic, underage crowd. Coming to the food, the items served are top notch. The servings are in decent portions and the taste is perfect. While the menu is not over packed, it is good to note that the management delivers whatever they mention on the menu. Coming to the pricing, it is decent enough and not too high. It corresponds to the usual Guwahati rates and is pretty affordable.”

A meal for two will roughly cost you around 500 bucks here which is pretty decent when compared to other cafes in the same segment. The place also has an in-house bakery and freshly baked cakes are available for group gatherings and birthday parties.

So next time you are looking for a quiet place to enjoy some delicious Indian, Chinese, Italian or fast food, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, do give 37 Street Affair a try.