Kolkata The Swanky JW Marriott

I knew exactly what I was in for when I read Traditional Bengali Welcome in my itinerary. Sure enough, as soon as I was through the door, they plonked a topor, the conical headgear that every Bengali groom has to suffer at his wedding, on my head. It was an auspicious start.On cue, I found the coffee table in my room adorned withalbeit briefly, since I promptly demolished itsome of the best jolbhora sandesh I have ever encountered. I later discovered that they have an in-house guy just to make the sweets. It makes sense, considering the number of weddings they have hosted since they opened. For newbies, a name card proffered the following explanation of this remarkable Bengali invention An essential component of Bengali hospitality that literally means filled with water, where two elements, namely, chana, a cottage cheese typical to Bengal, and rose water, which is in its core, combine to give an exhilarating experience. I can assure you this description is spot on. Burp.

F&ampB is definitely their strong suit. Bathed in natural light, JW Kitchen, the all-day diner, was bursting with guests when I lunched there. The competitively priced buffet may have something to do with it, and I did find it noisy. However, not noisy enough to distract me from my shorshe ilish and mishti doi. That night, I dined atVintage Asia, their speciality Asian restaurant. They must be doing something very right, because rarely have I seen a speciality restaurant at a hotel packed to the gills. Of course, this was Kolkata and the cuisine was Chinese. But it was the proper stuff.

My meal was like a well orchestrated piece of music. I began with exotic dump- lings like edamame & truffle and pork xiao long bao, while someone dramatically poured me tea from a Chinese long pot. Next, I had a startlingly authentic sichuan hot & sour soup, before moving on to assorted main courses like Thai red curry and the standout mapo tofu. Dessert was a favourite a salted caramel ice cream served with a banana smothered in sesame seeds and toffee sauce. Heaven.

Kolkata is a city of infinite delights. Courtesy the Marriott, on this visit, I enjoyed three the Zoo (a shocking mess), the Victoria Memorial (stunning but a shocking mess), and a meal at a vintage Park Street restaurant (I chose Mocambo stunning, and shockingly cheap).

I have stayed in enough hotels to have developed an internal detector of little things that make a difference. At the JW Marriott Kolkata the detector went off with reassuring regularity.