ITC Royal Bengal, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Kolkata

Loved every moment of our stay and it's safe to say that it exceeded our expectations. Food was amazing and breakfast was beyond imagination. Loved the complimentary luxury hour experience. Would definitely go back again.

Awesome service by Charan and whole team

F&B Services.

I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation to Chef Gautam for an absolutely outstanding culinary experience. His dedication, effort, and attention to detail truly reflect in every dish he prepares. The presentation of the food was nothing short of exceptional—elegant, refined, and thoughtfully curated. Each dish was beautifully crafted and visually delightful. Beyond the presentation, the taste was simply fabulous, with perfectly balanced flavors that left a lasting impression. It is rare to come across such passion and excellence, and Chef Gautam has certainly set a remarkable standard. Looking forward to experiencing his creations again.

Our 3-nights stay here during the NYE 2025 was one of the most anticipated one over the last decade or so. It turned out to be such a damp squib. I booked for an ITC One room quite early via the HDFC Infinia Stay 3 Pay 2 rate. Surprisingly, the specific card was not required during check out. I used ITC vouchers and a different credit card to settle the bill. On contacting the listed GM Gaurav Soneja, someone named Mohit Mungali, who signed as the resident manager responded. After two emails he blocked a suite for us. I was then a Club ITC gold member. We also did an early check-in. As we entered into the hotel there was no sign of a lobby. A rather low-ceiling area opened up with two grand staircases spiralling on both sides to the restaurant level, something akin to the Grand Chola. Beyond them was a dead end and we could go either right or left. The lobby was, in fact, to the right while a shopping arcade was at left. Initial impressions: disappointing; there was no wow factor on entering the property. The staircases with the water features around them had turned into good photo/insta opportunities for outsiders but these were not integrated to the lobby where hotel guests would go. Even ITC Sonar next door had a better entrance design. The ITC One rooms were perched on the top with the best wetland views from the hotel. The one-bedroom apartments, which we were initially upgraded to, were just above the lobby and had absolutely no views. The suites, which were of course priced higher than ITC One rooms were in between, but none, curiously, faced the wetlands. These rooms faced the low-rise densely-populated low-income communities that were at the backside of the property and is a feature of this part of the city. What about the interiors? ITC have used a design language that seemed so last-decade now. Except the four-seat round dining table near the entrance the whole living and bedroom had this worn-out-looking faded pink colour carpet. The main sofa was of the same colour with some random-looking orange and green cushions. The other single seat sofa was grey. The small oval-shaped glass-topped dark wood centre table had our welcome amenities. This included four small bites of the local "sandesh" and four small glass jars of snacks. No welcome note or anything of the like. There was a large work desk, of dark colour, with a beige colour office chair. The room control iPad was here, as was a Krups coffee machine with ITC's own pods. The minibar was behind a closet-kind of space. Nothing in the room, either in its design, furnishing or else had any homage to the local artistic or design tastes and it was largely generic in nature. The bedroom was surprisingly quite narrow. The bed had a hint of local elements with its two posters, which itself was comfortable enough. The bathroom and the walk in closet, again, was very generic. There was not even a double vanity or a powder room in the suite, typical of ITC though. The highlight of this room was sold as ITC's exclusive butler service. The butler appeared almost immediately and promised to take us to our intended lunch venue. When we mentioned that we could find our way he insisted. We wanted to have lunch at Pan Asian which was located in its sister property ITC Sonar. So we followed our butler, in tow, to our destination. Very soon we figured out that he didn't really know where Pan Asian really was as he kept on asking other hotel staff including other butler-like folks on the way. Ultimately, when we made it to the Pan Asian we found that it was not open for lunch and our butler had no clue on this! So we went to the Eden Pavilion for lunch. The food was okay but it came rather slow. Although we told him again that we were perfectly capable of finding our way back to the room the butler insisted on taking us back and so he waited as we finished our leisurely lunch. After lunch we thought of checking out the water bodies of Sonar and so our butler went ahead to open the secured door which, of course, his key card (programmed for Royal Bengal only) failed to open. Hence we waited until someone came from inside to open the door! The butler conveniently disappeared when we perhaps needed him the most. Like while trying to find a seat at the Resident's Lounge during the evening. This Lounge was easily one of the worst managed of any hotel. A single guest would be occupying a space meant for four, outsiders/non-hotel-guests would be seen conducting job interviews at the lounge, the food would not be replaced for long and then during the non-luxury hours no one would be posted there to take orders for tea/coffee, etc. The butler religiously showed up during breakfast hours to take our orders for eggs and dosas and then bring them to our table. Are these really tasks of a butler? ITC thinks so. During check-out, when we requested him to arrange for a couple of mineral water plastic bottles, he said those will be charged to our account! In summary, the butler was indeed behind us but he was more of an irritant than anything else. We never got any help from him when it really mattered. The food was an overall disappointment. Pan Asian was okay. Avartana was underwhelming (see my review). The most disappointing was food at Grand Market Pavilion. We didn't find any of the North Eastern food that was supposed to be its USP. Instead, it was a very generic, overcrowded buffet place. Basically a jack of all trades but .... When a flagship ITC hotel can't even get its food correct, which is how ITC hotels made their name, something must be terribly wrong. It must be a struggle for ITC to hire enthusiastic managers these days to run these large hotels and it showed every time during our stay when something went along unexpected ways. There was no one available to recover the situation. I think we have had enough of ITC hotels over the last 15 years or so. Gone are the days of Habib Rehman or Nakul Anand and the time has perhaps come to finally move on.