Indian Coffee House Kolkata (Calcutta)

It’s fascinating to look inside this unpretentious high-ceilinged restaurant that was once a meeting place of alternative Kolkata. The cheap, dishwater coffee (₹20) can't be recommended, but it used to host freedom fighters in India's pre-Independence era, bohemians during Kolkata's literary, cultural and artistic heydays of the ’60s and ’70s, and revolutionaries owing allegiance to the Naxalite movement of the 1970s. To get here, walk down College St to the Ashutosh Museum of Indian Art from Mahatma Gandhi (MG) Rd. After one block turn left, take the fourth doorway on the left and climb the stairs.