If you ever find yourself wandering Tokyo’s Arakawa district and think, “What I need right now is mustard fish,” there’s a basement eager to satisfy your cravings. Downstairs from the Lions Plaza Machiya, through an entrance you’d probably ignore if not for the lip-smacking aroma, is Puja, an unforgettable Bengali food joint in Tokyo run by people who seriously know their mustard seeds.
Not Your Average Curry House: Puja In Tokyo
Japanese Chef Hiroaki Nagagata lived and breathed the Bengali technique of cooking for years. After training and living in Kolkata, he returned to Tokyo with his wife Sanchita and a culinary mission: real Bengali food made to serve the Indian taste buds in the city. Puja is nothing like your next-door neighbourhood restaurant. It is unique, transparent and all shades of earthiness. It has warm beige walls and practical wooden tables. It’s more like you’ve walked into a friend’s Bengali living room than a Tokyo eatery.
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An Authentic Bengali Menu
Puja, Tokyo’s beloved Bengali restaurant, does not believe in doing the whole pan-Indian, watered-down-for-tourists thing. Instead, it offers thalis on weekends that punch well above their weight. Picture this: a metal platter crowded with rice, dal, dry sabzi, a mustardy fish curry (or goat, depending on the day), a special chutney, papad, and sweet yoghurt so creamy you’ll forget dessert ever had to try hard. Sounds like a dream? At Puja’s, it’s a reality.
Dinner is when the restaurant stretches out. You get delighted with a real Bengali feast with à la carte servings of Pomfret Bhaja, Shorshe Ilish (the elusive hilsa drowned in mustard) or their fiery Achari Murgi and maybe even some bharta or chingri if you’re lucky. Puja makes the kind of meals where you leave the table both full and oddly sentimental.
It doesn’t just serve food; it holds onto a regional identity that gets flattened everywhere else. And Japanese diners love it! If we say they are obsessed, we are afraid it might be an understatement! But Puja has rules too! It is closed on Wednesdays and has a strict cash-only policy, because, well, why complicate a good thing? Call ahead, because there are only about 16 seats.
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Where: B1F, Lions Plaza Machiya, 3-2-1 Machiya, Arakawa, Tokyo
When: 11 AM to 3 PM, 5 PM to 11 PM
Cost: ¥1,000 for two (₹598.38 approx.)
Puja doesn’t chase the spotlight, but if you’ve ever craved Bengal in Tokyo, it is your delightful, mustard-coated answer.
Cover Image Courtesy: Puja_bengalirestaurant/Instagram