By Rajlakshmi Dastidar
Updated:Mar 02, 2026
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Under the direction of Chefs Goku and Dylan Pereira, the Italian restaurant Veneto Bar & Kitchen honoured its 4 years in Kolkata with the pop-up Nonna’s Table. The chefs blended history and cross-cultural flavours to celebrate Italian culinary heritage while embracing seasonal, hyperlocal Indian products. The pop-up gave Kolkata a new take on Italian food while establishing a familiar yet creative connection with the city’s developing culinary scene. Every meal promised a genuine flavour of Italy, from freshly prepared pastas and wood-fired pizzas to crispy arancini, creamy burrata salad with focaccia bread, and decadent desserts like panna cotta and cannoli.
Image Credit: Veneto Bar & Kitchen, Kolkata
Creating food that tastes simple on the tongue is often harder than it looks. It takes thought, balance, and restraint. And presenting it in a way that makes people pause and truly enjoy it? That’s another art altogether. New cuisines come into play, new ingredients find space on the plate, and even familiar flavours are seen differently. Some dishes stay, some quietly fade away. That’s just how the food world moves. After completing 4 years in Kolkata, Italian restaurant Veneto Bar & Kitchen brought in all of that learning together with a pop-up called Nonna’s Table, led by Chef Goku and Chef Dylan Pereira. Chefs Goku and Dylan Pereira brought in fresh appreciation to Italy’s rich culinary heritage. Maintaining a centuries-old tradition of making meals from scratch, just like how a traditional Italian grandma would, with love and with basic ingredients and tools, they picked up regional ingredients, turned them into a dish of their own, and served it to Kolkata as a time-honoured practice.
Image Credit: Veneto Bar & Kitchen, Kolkata
“We wanted to present a rustic-style menu since we have worked in fine-dining for so long. We wanted to make the menu universal. Something simple, no thinking needed. Simple things coming together,” shares the duo. They also share how Kolkata’s pop-up culture is gradually developing as more eateries become open to partnerships and creative concepts. It’s allowing chefs to experiment with other menu items, even if only briefly. With Nonna’s Table pop-up, Veneto, an Italian eatery in a city that genuinely loves food, capitalises on that changing landscape. It unites people, ideas, and viewpoints in a way that is both new and established. The use of seasonal, hyperlocal ingredients from Kolkata and throughout India, which are skilfully incorporated into Italian recipes and give well-known flavours a fresh context, is what sets it apart.
It would be an understatement to say that the Cured Crudo, which features cured tuna, lemon dressing, grapefruit, capers, celery, and Calabrian chilli, is excellent. None of the flavours was overbearing, and the sweetness of the grapefruit and the spiciness of the chillis brilliantly balanced the tanginess of the fish, dressing, and capers. With the Tortellini Di Parma, which are delicate, home-cooked parcels filled with ricotta, sun-dried tomatoes, and parmesan and served in a rich, slow-cooked tomato gravy, Chefs Goku and Dylan combine comfort and depth for the main course. The Seafood Risotto is equally distinctive. Bold, well-balanced, and undoubtedly one of the menu’s most memorable dishes, it is made of arborio rice boiled in a delicious bisque and topped with grilled lobster, crispy fried squid, and pickled prawns. For Kolkata, this one’s surely a hit!
Image Credit: Veneto Bar & Kitchen, Kolkata
Image Credit: Rajlakshmi Dastidar
Image Credit: Rajlakshmi Dastidar
Address: 375, Prince Anwar Shah Rd, South City Complex, Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal 700068
Timing: Til 14 March 2026
Dining and Cooking