The boats land at six.
Dinner is at seven.
One kitchen, one menu, written each morning once the catch is up the beach. Tropicana is not a hotel that happens to serve fish — for most of the people who come back, the kitchen is the reason.
- Where
- Beach Road, Kolatoli
- Seats
- Forty, half of them outside
- Open to
- Residents and visitors
Whatever is on the sand at half past five
The Kolatoli boats come in between five and half past six, and someone from the kitchen walks down to meet them. What is on the sand at that hour is what goes on the board by lunch — rupchanda most days, coral when the water is clear, loitta through the cold months, prawn nearly always.
Hilsa when the season allows it and not when it doesn't. A farmed substitute in the middle of a ban is not worth putting in front of anyone, so on those weeks we simply cook something else and say so.
Eleven years, one stove, no shortcuts
Shahnaz has run this kitchen since 2014, with two cooks and a boy who does the grill. Mustard is ground the morning it is used. The daal sits at the back of the stove from noon until service and is never reheated twice. Rice comes from one mill in Chattogram because after four suppliers it was clearly the best of them.
Nothing here is elaborate. Coastal Bengali cooking done attentively is already enough — the work is in the sourcing and the timing, and in knowing when to leave a fish alone with charcoal, lime and green chilli.
At the table
Visitors are welcome at lunch and dinner. Call after four in the afternoon and we will keep you a table along the rail.
- Breakfast
- 7:00 – 10:30
- Terrace and in-room
- Lunch
- 12:30 – 15:00
- Board changes daily
- Dinner
- 18:30 – 22:30
- Last order 22:00
- In-room, residents
- 7:00 – 23:00
- Full menu
Roughly what to expect
There is no printed menu. This is the shape of it across a normal week — the fish changes with the boats, and the kitchen will happily cook around an allergy or a preference if you tell the front desk the day before.
The board goes up beside the door once the boats are unloaded, usually a little before noon. Ask for a fish you want and we will look for it in the morning.
From the water
- Rupchanda, whole
- Over charcoal, lime and green chilli. Nothing else.
- Chingri malaikari
- Tiger prawn, coconut milk pressed that morning.
- Coral bhaja
- Cut thick, salted an hour, fried hard and fast.
- Loitta shutki bhuna
- Dry fish, onion, a lot of patience. Winter only.
- Kakra bhuna
- Mud crab, black pepper, mustard oil. Ask before six.
- Rui shorshe
- River fish in ground mustard, for anyone missing home.
From the land
- Mezbani kalabhuna
- Beef, four hours, Chattogram spicing.
- Murgi roast
- The wedding version — sweet, thick, slow.
- Kacchi, Fridays
- Order it by noon; the pot takes the whole afternoon.
- Begun bharta
- Aubergine blistered directly on the flame.
- Shobji ghonto
- Whatever the Kolatoli market had at seven in the morning.
- Daal
- On the stove since noon. Comes with everything.
First thing
- Paratha
- Rolled to order, which is why it takes ten minutes.
- Dim bhuna
- Egg, onion, tomato, plenty of it.
- Khichuri
- Only when it rains, which in July is most days.
- Nehari, weekends
- Left overnight on a low flame. Finished by nine.
- Fruit from the market
- Whatever is ripe. Through the summer, mostly mango.
- Tea from Sreemangal
- Or filter coffee, if you must.
To finish
- Payesh
- Rice, milk, and an hour of stirring.
- Misti doi
- Set in clay, sent down from Bogura.
- Chomchom
- Two with the tea, if you ask for them.
- Green coconut
- Opened on the terrace and drunk where you sit.
Prices sit between 400 and 1,800 taka a dish. Residents can charge meals to the room and settle at the end of the stay.
A table by the rail, most evenings
Twelve rooms look onto this terrace and the rest are a minute's walk away. Book a night, or just book dinner.