The new Mainland China restaurant will have 180 covers, while Oh! Calcutta will seat 100-plus diners

This winter, if you don’t feel like driving into town for a Mainland China meal or an Oh! Calcutta munch, just head for the Bypass. For, a double delight awaits city foodies — one more Mainland China and one more Oh! Calcutta, and both at the Silver Arcade mall inside the high-profile Silver Spring condominium.

The twins of the popular cuisine stops are set to lay their tables around Christmas, next to the ITC Sonar Bangla premises.

The same Bypass property will house The Great Indian Spice Trail, doing signature dishes from “undivided India”, another offering of Speciality Restaurants Pvt Ltd, which will also be launching its “mood lounge bar” chain Kix post-Puja, with the first one at City Centre, adjacent to Haka.

“The overwhelming response in Calcutta demands an encore, and since like Mainland China, Oh! Calcutta has also grown into a national brand, we will do interesting tweaks to both the formats. The existence of star hotels along the corridor adds spice to the challenge,” says Anjan Chatterjee, director, Speciality Restaurants Pvt Ltd, which owns both the brands.

The Bypass Mainland China will have 180 covers, with master chef Li Yung from Beijing (who “has fed the former Chinese Premier”) anchoring the kitchen. “Since all sauces and condiments can be freely imported now, the chef can bring a refreshing new touch to the menu,” stresses Chatterjee.

Oh! Calcutta, which has brought many lost Calcutta dishes back to the table at Forum since 2004, will seat around 100.

The Bypass Oh! Calcutta will have an added emphasis on continental, “essentially vintage Calcutta club cuisine”. Both the dine-dens will boast “very contemporary wine bars, since wine and champagne go well with the exotic dishes”.

Also in the pipeline are 150 new outlets of Haka, the quick-service Chinese format linked to retail space from the same group, in Bengal. “We are signing up with every new mall coming up in Calcutta and its fringes and also penetrating places like Durgapur and Asansol,” says Chatterjee.

Speciality Restaurants’ aggressive expansion plan is backed by two “internationally-benchmarked” centralised kitchens, one in the upcoming food park in Howrah, and another in Durgapur, following the hub-and-spoke model to serve the outlets.

In addition, the group has signed up for nine food courts in forthcoming malls like Mani Square, South City Mall, the Avani Riverside Mall and Avani Galleria on Park Street, Forum II and retail rendezvous in New Town, Rajarhat.