Good Eats MUMBAI

[Saregama]

Linking @klyeoh’s trip reports

[Mumbai, India] Dinner at Copper Chimney, Fort

It was a beautiful evening in Mumbai last Friday, and we wanted to make the most of the last few days of our stay here. So, we decided to walk down to the Colaba Causeway to see the lights at the Gateway of India. [DSC06377] [DSC06355] [DSC06360] As we were walking back towards our hotel near the Horniman Circle from Colaba Causeway, we decided to stop by Copper Chimney for a quick bite. [DSC05767] Copper Chimney (founded 1972) was perhaps Mumbai’s first restaurant chain, and a very s…

[Mumbai, India] Vada pav - the quintessential Mumbai snack.

Mumbai is really the city of chaats, that rich collection of street-side savoury snacks that one finds all over India. And the one snack that defines Mumbai has to be the vada pav, essentially a spiced potato croquette sandwiched between two halves of a soft bun, slathered with a mint-based chutney, and a sweet-sour tamarind chutney. [DSC09798] Hungry Mumbaikars would grab a bagful of vada pavs on their way to work, or on the way home, from any of a number of vendors who tend to line the outs…

[Mumbai, India] Cafe society along Marine Drive

We spent one early morning along Mumbai’s picturesque Marine Drive - a lovely esplanade lined with Art Deco buildings. In 2018, these were part of Mumbai recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for its collection of Victorian Gothic and Art Deco buildings. [DSC00368] In the twenty years since I was last in Mumbai, more cafes had sprung up along that stretch, making it much livelier than I remembered. [DSC06006] [DSC06004] [DSC06009] [DSC06018] Amongst the Art Deco buildings the…

[Mumbai, India] Parsi dinner at Jimmy Boy Restaurant & Cake Shop

We walked by Parsi-owned Jimmy Boy Restaurant & Cake Shop countless times during our stay in Mumbai this time, and marveled at its retro ambience and the familiar 1950s & 60s American tunes we kept hearing each time. So, we decided to pop in here for a simple dinner one evening. [DSC06439] [DSC06429] It was a casual, atmospheric bakery and restaurant, filled with warmth and friendliness. We see customers - we assume are regulars - who popped by to take away its eggless plum cakes by the box…

[Mumbai, India] Middle-Eastern lunch at Souk, Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

It was the penultimate day of our India holiday, and we are back where we started - in Mumbai. We reckoned that we’d like to go somewhere for a meal with a panoramic view of the city, and opted for Souk, a Middle-Eastern eatery on the top floor of the 20-storey Tower wing of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. The iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel’s main building was completed in 1903, a virtual city landmark with a million-dollar view out to the historic Gateway of India. [DSC08519] [DSC09158] The To…

[Mumbai, India] Middle-Eastern lunch at Souk, Taj Mahal Palace Hotel

It was the penultimate day of our India holiday, and we are back where we started - in Mumbai. We reckoned that we’d like to go somewhere for a meal with a panoramic view of the city, and opted for Souk, a Middle-Eastern eatery on the top floor of the 20-storey Tower wing of the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. The iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel’s main building was completed in 1903, a virtual city landmark with a million-dollar view out to the historic Gateway of India. [DSC08519] [DSC09158] The To…

[Mumbai, India] Lunch at Cafe Mondegar

We’re back in Mumbai after a two-hour flight from Trivandrum. Suddenly, we’re back in the concrete jungle of the Big Mango, with its heaving masses of humanity. The lush green valleys and palm-fringed waterways of Kerala seemed worlds away. [DSC00181] [DSC00191] One tip: we get all our rupees off ATM machines and, being HSBC customers, we get to withdraw without having to pay any service charge, usually 8% or more, which all local Indian banks will levy. Mumbai has 18 HSBC branches through…

[Mumbai, India] Street food guided tour

It’s been a whirlwind two weeks for us here in India, hopping from one city to another every two days does take its toll. Anyway, am now relaxing by the beach in Trivandrum, and just taking stock of the hundreds of photos we’d taken over the past fortnight. I just realized that I’d not shared about the guided street food tour by Reality Tours and Travel’s knowledgeable guide on Day 2 of our India holiday. Anyhoo, here it is - a quick glimpse into what we ate that evening. We started off our fo…

[Mumbai, India] Lunch at Britannia & Co

Any foodie to Mumbai simply has to make a pilgrimage to Britannia & Co, one of the city’s culinary landmarks. [DSC09297] [DSC09575] [DSC09604] [DSC09580] Established by Iranian emigre, Rashid Meherwan Kohinoor, in 1923, the eatery got its name from sheer pragmatism on the part of the founder then: a British licensing officer jokingly told Messr Kohinoor that if he gave his establishment a “British name”, he’ll obtain his license within 24 hours. Lo and behold - Britannia & Co was born! …

[Mumbai, India] Dinner at Mahesh Lunch Home

It’s been 20 years since I was last at SC Karkerar’s iconic Mahesh Lunch Home. Established in 1977, offering Mangalorean seafood dishes for the first time to Mumbaikars back then, Mahesh Lunch Home seemed to have climbed higher and higher in terms of sheer quality of cooking and its super-efficient service. [DSC08468] Our dinner last night was a revelation - we ordered from the menu and our waiter promptly showed us our live seafood orders table side - they are as fresh as they come: a gargan…

[Mumbai, India] Lunch at Pangat

We spent much of yesterday morning exploring the old Buddhist cave temples inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park, so lunch was at Pangat, a popular family restaurant near there which specialized in Konkani seafood. [DSC09065] [DSC09081] Established in 2002, Pangat commanded quite a reputation among locals for its seafood thali sets. We ordered two pomfret sets, one vegetarian set and one Bombay duck set. [DSC09084] [DSC09082] [DSC09087] [DSC09086] I had the Bombay duck thali set - abs…

[Mumbai, India] Lunch at Leopold Cafe

Parsi/Irani eatery, Leopold Cafe, is a Mumbai landmark of sorts. Founded in 1871, it was a popular hangout for foreign tourists and visitors at Colaba Causeway, near the iconic Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, a couple of minutes’ walk away. It became a target of Pakistani-Muslim terrorists in 2008, where 10 people in the cafe were killed. [DSC09183] [DSC09180] Today, local Mumbaikars packed the cafe as well, to demonstrate a sort of local defiance that they will never be cowed by terrorism. They no…