Food @ IIT KGP

One of the sad things about IIT Kharagpur is the mess food and its quality. Hall Mess is the primary source of food for most of the students (at least in the initial years). The food menu is controlled usually by mess secretary who is an elected student representative but the quality of food is bad nonetheless. The messes are usually owned by private contractors but some messes of old hostels do operate with HMC staff. Private hostels sometime serve food outside the official course periods but they charge extra per meal for the same. The fee although is pretty nominal and availed by students who stay back in the summer or winter vacations.

The second most popular source of food is Hall Canteen. Each hall canteen has its specialty be is Aseem's cheese chotia or Ravi Da's aloo paratha or few canteens which allow entry of girls. The canteens usually open in the evening and are operational till early morning. Eating at college canteens is also pretty cheap and quality varies, but its wayyyyyy better than mess food. Sometimes near semester exams/placement season the canteen run full with huge number of students pouring in to grab some quick food.

The third most visited food spot is the famous Tikka point which has a whole lot variety at extremely cheap prices near the academic complex. This is another stop where students after/in between classes come and eat food. The food quality here is worst and this has led management to act previously as well. It temporarily improves but again goes back to being worse than hostel food.

Apart from these we have popular Chedi's which is a must visit for any KGPian with its famous morning chai as well as Little Sisters (LS) for all the drinking enthusiasts. Flavours was always considered a good restaurants for Hukka enthusiasts which is the only restaurant in kgp with good music and dance setup.

In 2011-2014, there were only 5-6 good restaurants outside the campus and only 3 inside apart from CCD and Baskin Robins. But from 2015, with the opening of Dominos, Subway and other restaurants, this has changed. Still its pretty costly and usually not first preference of a student on budget. There are famous stops though, for getting momos in nearby villages, eating and drinking around Kolkata highway etc., but students seldom visit there.

I would say that after graduation, you will surely remember the food you had during the 4/5 year long stay in kgp. I remember and its already been 3 years :)