These twin restaurants in Kolkata, TUA and Synthe, share an address, but nothing more

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On the second floor of Lee Road’s Altitude Building, two doors stand side by side, each promising an entirely different night. Open one and you enter a room of roses, softly-lit tables and conversations that slowly give way to dining and dancing. Choose the other and you step into a world that imagines what cocktails might taste like centuries from now.

Like an Alice in Wonderland moment without the rabbit hole, the hardest decision arrives before the first bite or sip. Which world do you enter first?

Across a shared address in Kolkata, stand Tua and Synthe separated by little more than a wall and two distinct philosophies.

Together, Tua and Synthe feel like parallel universes conceived by a trio of founders - Aman Bansal, Omaid Amir and Tabrez Nadeem - who met fittingly over karaoke sessions in the very space they now occupy.

Aman recalls, “We joked that in another universe we should work together. One conversation led to another and here we we are!”

The result is two entirely distinct concepts sharing an address but refusing to borrow each other’s identity.

Aman explains, “ ‘Tua’ means ‘yours’ in Latin.” The possessive isn’t accidental. The 3,000 square foot, 75-seater restaurant has been imagined as an unapologetically feminine space not in the clichéd sense of pink interiors, but in its emotional architecture. The palette leans towards warm reds, hushed yellow lighting, music curated by an in house DJ who moves between retro and contemporary, roses recur throughout the room and every guest receives a different message embroidered on the table napkin. The one on our table reads, “Drinks Before Decisions”.

Every guest receives a message embroidered on the table napkin. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The details create a blanket of relatability and intimacy around people. “It is designed with women in mind. They’ve shaped who we are. We wanted them to feel comfortable here,” explains Aman.

Trio of founders: Aman Bansal, Tabrez Nadeem, Omaid Amir | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

That philosophy also extends to the restaurant’s tagline: Dance and Dine. “The city has forgotten how to dance. Our idea is simple to dine first, dance later. Good food should naturally put you in the mood to celebrate,” smile Aman and co-founder Tabrez as they share a table with us.

Rather than offering the familiar catalogue of chilli chicken, chilli paneer or American-Chinese staples, Tua’s kitchen, guided by consultant chef Vaibhav Bhargav, explores what the founders call modern Asian alongside contemporary West Asian and European cooking.

The distinction reveals itself immediately. Sous chef Shobuj Sheikh, in charge of continental and the robatayaki counter, presents an expansive Turkish kebab platter with warm flatbread, tzatziki sauce, pink onions, cabbage, lettuce, hummus and a Turkish chilli that lends gentle warmth rather than aggressive heat. He assembled the wrap himself, rolling every element into an impossibly pillowy parcel before insisting on placing the first bite in our hands.