This must be one of those recent experiences where we never actually found out what the praise was all about, however hard we tried. The promise was of village style food run by some honest cooperative type people and we thought it must be worth...the trek from the heart of Bolpur (where we were staying) in battery-powered tuk tuks of questionable safety and comfort. There were 8 of us of different age groups, all rather well-versed with this type of food and cooking and nothing was really unknown to us. There was some waiting for us and we had to enter inside a store to pay. I don't like food establishments where you need to pay in advance! In any case, apart from the usual thalis we had pre-ordered for chingri malaikari, chicken, mutton curries and bhetki paturi. In the regular thali, jhuri alubhaja was all burnt and soggy, the dal was tasteless, the malakari lacked any "malai" flavour, the mutton was only fat, the chicken was mostly bones while the bhetki was tough and rubbery. The gokul pitha we bought from across the eatery was actualy stale. Only the dhoka was any good! When we complained the staff showed only passing interest. I think those who are showering praise of this location either have never been exposed to decent home-cooked non-veg Bengali food or have completely lost access to such food for a long time.More

It’s like someone wrote down my worst nightmare and then paid me to eat it. Being a food lover, what a disappointment this was! The staff is rude and unprofessional. People are gorging down food cause they have been convinced this is a good place....Food is dumped on your plate with bare hands from a mini bucket. Nothing is being prepared fresh, everything is getting stored in a casserole. Food is being transferred from corner of the restaurant to another with hands, in open air. Dirty. Disgusting. Unfriendly. Poor quality. Don’t believe the hype. Do yourself a favour and don’t waste your money or resources to go down to this hole!More

We had mutton curry, and prawn malaikari. All the dishes from alu bhaja, to shukto, to dal, to all the non-veg items and chatni were amazinnggg. Would love to visit again. Also, do not miss taking home their home made ghee and bori - amazing...qualityMore

Visited after prior booking on phone on 13May2022. Ambience was unique with basic facilities. Food was simple but excellent preperation and tasteful. Mutton was very good and worth giving a try. A Big problem is that they don't accept cards or any mode of digital...payment either in the restaurant or in their attached Store. They say that network is not working whereas our mobile phones were getting all the signals. Even some other shops nearby had facility of digital payment. This point is a big handicap for any visitor. We are not sure whether GST is being added. Overall a nice experience.More

Our next visit of Shantiniketan might be solely to taste the mutton curry of Bonolakshmi - so good was the dark reddish mutton oozing in spices and oil! The USP of this place lies in its food. From the first serving of moong dal, to...the juicy dhokar dalna to mutton or chicken curry its quite a feast. The main thali cost us Rs 130 and the mutton was an addon at Rs 200. You need to "book" your lunch and its suggested that you book it the day before. They also offer local handicrafts and stuff like ghee, honey, bori at a reasonable price but of high quality. The service gets a little slow at times - you need to bear with that aspect. Saturdays and Sundays get quite busy and you might need to wait for quite sometime - so factor that in. As an afterthought : We had visited Barishaler Rannaghar (spun off from Bonolakshmi) last year. The experience - which I had rated at 4 stars on TA - needs to be revised after this visit. Barishaler Rannaghar, according to me, is a good 2 notches down when compared to Bonolakshmi. https://www.tripadvisor.in/ShowUserReviews-g1436005-d4086502-r833282825-Bonolakshmi-Bolpur_Birbhum_District_West_Bengal.html#More

It's a great experience to visit Vanalaxmi specially if you want see and witness the actual village life of West Bengal. If you want have lunch at Vanalaxmi canteen then you have to prebook your meal over phone +91 94344 46150. You can have veg...thali @150 along with mutton @200 and on any given day you will get 5 to 6 type of fish preparations price of which starts @100 and so on. You will also get Bengali sweets obviously home made which is known as PITHAS, prices of which starts@30 per piece. I have also purchased GHEE @780 per kilo. You will get 250gm and 500gm plastic bottles. Coming to the quality and the quantity of the food. It may be mentioned here that the food which they provide is absolutely home made and the preparation of food except mutton all dishes are less oily and real testy. They keep on repeating the veg thali items. You will also be provided with their own made GHEE with hot rice when the thali is initially served, however they also repeat the same if you ask for. You can also go there without prior bookings but in that case you will get vegetables thali for sure but nonveg items can only be provided depending upon the excess availability of the same. Overall it's a great experience.More

This place which was a great stop for lunch near Santiniketan has lost its charm. Too crowded because of popularity, and over priced while the quality of food and seating arrangements have deteriorated. The products they sell from the store are still good but I...won’t recommend their food to anyone.More

do visit here for authentic Bengali food... Eggs, fish, chicken, mutton, prawn... Ooh the food is to die for

Horrible hospitality. Accommodations are moderate.Cleaning is alright.Better to avoid this over hyped resort .

Yesterday we went to the restaurant with advanced booking. Normal meal without any sidedish is 130₹ . We went to lots of expectation as it has good rating here. But at the end , I can conclude that after travelling almost 30 mins from Bolpur...and payed for high priced food , the quality of food as as normal as any kolkata street food shop. Local people also now not recommend it.More

This is my umpteenth visit to Banalakshmi. The simplicity of the place never ceases to amaze me. The food isn’t your typical restaurant food but it’s homely, made by the local villagers, not a trained chef, so if you’re driving all the way for restaurant...food, DONT! Go because you want to eat a simple lunch which doesn’t leave your stomach feeling bloated. Bring back their ghee, achar’s and bori. If you have a mosquito problem at home, try their citronella oil for sure. Do visit!More

Very good bengali food, also good collection of various types of sweet and sour pickles, and very good quality ghee.