Frontier Cuisine and other Mumbai, India Restaurant Reviews

Restaurant Name: Khyber

Khyber is one of Bombay's most attractive and popular restaurants, with three floors of delightful rooms done up in Northwest Frontier decor -- white marble floors, terra-cotta urns, carved stone pillars, low wooden rafters, and handsome fresco murals by local artists. The waiters, dressed in Pathan tribal garb, serve delicious kebabs, rotis, and other North Indian food.

Favorite Dish: Bhutta Masala Curry - Corn in a Rich Creamy Sauce.
Pomphret Green Masala.
Chicken Makhani.
This is a high -end Restaurant which only cooks with mineral water and can cater to western palettes (Mild) on request. Hence feel free to order whatever you fancy.

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Theme: Indian
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Phone: (22) 267-3228
Address: 145 M.G Road, Fort, Bombay
Directions: Kala Ghoda Opp. Rhythym House

Restaurant Name: Baghdadi

This is one of my favorite restaurants in all of Bombay. It is an old time-tested establishment which is no frills just good food. The food here is exceptional, it is just what bombay is about, get past the decor and the setting and just focus on the food. The seating is communal so don't be suprised if you have to share a table. The Specials are on a board on the back wall.

Favorite Dish: Chicken Stew W/ Naan - Now don't mistake this for your traditional western stew. It's just called stew it's actually a yummy green gravy served over pieces of Tandoori Grilled Chicken Best eaten with the Famous Baghdadi Naan.
This is a local haunt. Hence only for the DARING. If you believe your palette is up to it, this is where you should be eating. Trust me you will relish the food.

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Theme: Indian
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Directions: Colaba, Behind Taj Hotel. Ask for Leo Pold's Bar head past it and make the first Left.

Restaurant Name: Goa Portugesa

Situated behind the Hinduja Hospital and opposite the Mahim Post Office, is a seafood fancier's paradise: kurleo, teesro, sungta, kalwa, mhori, pomfret, para, lobster, you ask for it, they will get it for you.

Favorite Dish: The prawn balchao is to my mind the piece de resistance of the menu. Now balchao is not a dish everybody can eat. It is too strong, too sour, too aggressive, too Goanese. You have to develop a taste for it. In essence, it is a pickle, the Parsis call it kolminu achar, but the Goans eat it as a dish. I understand there are seven to eight types of balchao, subtle distinctions exist between the balchaos of Bardez and those of Salsette.

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Theme: Indian
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Address: Hinduja Hostipal, Mahim

Restaurant Name: Noor Mahammadi

It is too late today, but for breakfast Monday morning, visit Noor Mohammadi Hotel at Bhendi Bazar. Order nalli nihari, methi kheema and ghee dal, all in half plates. They don't serve tea, but with a breakfast like that, who needs tea!
You'll have to go early, the nalli nihari finishes by 9 a.m., even earlier. The meat (beef) is lovely, the best part of the buffalo, the thigh muscle, cooked on slow coal fire for 12 hours, till it becomes so tender that a toothless customer can eat it.
They have opened a branch in Mahim opposite the church (it's within the gentleman restaurant) , but it isn't half as good

Favorite Dish: Nalli Nihari is the speciality of the place. I do not know any other restaurant in Bombay which serves it. Nalli is the thigh bone of the buffalo, and the marrow that is obtained from it. In other words, it is bone marrow, and, naturally, its quantity can't be much.
The bhattis for the nalli nihari are started twice a day, at 6 o'clock in the evening to get ready by 6 the next morning, and at 9 o'clock in the morning to get ready by 7 in the evening. They are cooked on dum, the marrow bones and the meat, in large vessels, sealed with an atta paste and a heavy 10-kilo weight put on the lid. When ready, the marrow is knocked out of the bone.

This is a local haunt. Hence only for the DARING. If you believe your palette is up to it, this is where you should be eating. Trust me you will relish the food.

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Theme: Indian
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Directions: Noor Mohammadi is practically at the junction of Bhendi Bazar, where Mohamedali Road meets the roads going to Dongri and C.P. Tank.

Restaurant Name: Gaylord's

The murg makhanwalla, which, in spite of its name, is finished with just a small pat of butter and must be the least greasy butter chicken in the world. The bird is first tandoored, then deboned and cooked in a tomato and onion gravy. More cream is used than butter, and the kasuri methi, which gives it a rich bitter taste.
Then there is the roganjosh, in saffron and kashmiri herbs; the pot-roasted lamb in its natural juice; and a variety of kababs, including the smoothest reshmi kababs this side of town.

Favorite Dish: Chicken marina is cooked in a cream and brandy sauce, with fresh pomegranate juice, and though the combination may sound odd, it comes out very well.
The grilled fish steak with the maitre d'hotel butter (Rs.160). I understand the fish is either ravas of ghol, cut into chuncky steaks. The dominating tastes are tomato and mustard, with the fish, naturally, and the parsley butter. The steak is dipped in butter, then grilled on order. Pomfret Portuguese (Rs.175) is baked with melting cheese.
The lobster thermidor is served as in many polite hotels in the West, the meat scooped out of the shell, poached in white wine, and replaced into the shell, along with chopped mushrooms, then topped with cheese and baked.
The lobster newburg is served in a plate, minus the shells, and it is cooked, not baked, in a smooth sauce of cream, egg, white wine. The lobsters are priced at Rs.375.

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Theme: Eclectic/International
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Address: Churchgate Street
Directions: Churchgate

Restaurant Name: Pancham Puriwala

The puris are large, and a little thickish, made by practised hands, which must be making a few hundred (thousand?) puris a day, fried in Godrej ghee.
They have a pleasant fresh taste about them, and are slightly saltish. They always come straight from the frying pan, and they are always hot. Be careful.
They give you five puris per order, more than enough for a person like me, though not perhaps for a large bhaiya chowkidar from U.P. With it is the bhaji, in a katori, it is liquid, not the Gujarati sukki bhaji. It is almost watery, but with adequate taste and strength, always made with potato and bhopla (pumpkin). The puris and the bhaji come in a small round tray. You break the puri, dip in the bhaji gravy, and eat it. And you pay Rs.10 at the counter. Lunch over.
Hundreds upon hundreds of people have their lunch and dinner at Pancham Puriwala every day, and also their in-between meals, always puri bhaji. There is an achar that goes with it, a chilli and lime pickle placed in a large bowl in the centre of the table. You help yourself to it.

Favorite Dish: Pancham Puriwala is located at the entrance to Bazargate, the VT end of it, opposite the Bhatia Baug. The lane is also known as Parsi Bazar Street. It is an interesting lane, a part of old-old Bombay. The next time you eat at Pancham Puriwala, walk down the street to Pherozeshah Mehta Road.

This is a local haunt. Hence only for the DARING. If you believe your palette is up to it, this is where you should be eating. Trust me you will relish the food.

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Theme: Indian
Comparison: least expensive
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter

Restaurant Name: A. Rama Nayak's Udipi Shri Krishna Boarding,

The procedure is a little elaborate. Take a Central Railway local, get down at Matunga, come out of the station and enter the first building on the left. Climb up to the first floor, gentle South Indian music will greet you, and the bustle of a busy restaurant (lunch 10.30 a.m. to 2.30 p.m., dinner 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.). There is normally a queue, you pick your token and wait, as in a bank. There are newspapers to read in the waiting room, quite pleasant, and, once again as in a bank, an electronically operated indicator which tells which number can go in for the meal.
When your token number comes on the indicator, you enter. The restaurant is divided into two parts: the plate section (Rs.16 per plate meal, with curd, Rs.15, without curd) and the plantain leaf section (Rs.40 per meal, everything unlimited). In the plate (thali) meal, everything is limited, except rassam and sambar, but the food and the kitchen are the same. The two sections are divided by a counter, either Mr. Satish Rama Nayak is sitting at the counter, or his manager, Mr. Pundalik Vasudev Kamath. You are asked whether you want a plate meal or a full meal. Once that is decided, you buy your coupons and settle down. In the plate meal, everything is served together at one go, in the full meal, things are served on your patra, one by one, but eventually the food is the same.

Favorite Dish: Bang outside Matunga Station, Central Railway, is one of Mumbai's oldest and best known Udipi restaurants, established in 1942. Food is served on plantain leaves, eaten with bare hands, three servings of rice (with rassam, with dal and with dahi), the GSB (Gaud Saraswat Brahmin) special - avial, powder chutney with pure ghee, six payasams for six days, Mondays closed.

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Theme: Indian
Comparison: less expensive than average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter

Restaurant Name: Lazeez

It is not much to look at, but then Lazeez never was, just tables and chairs, and a large kitchen, which is the heart and soul of the place, with men toiling over tandoors and tavas. Service is reasonably fast, but not too fast, because everything is made on order, and the food naturally is fresh and fuly spiced. If you are an old lazeez diner, I do not have to describe the food, if not, read on. There are baida rotis, done in roomali, and rolls done in omelettes, some are rolled, others flat, all richly stuffed with meats, you eat them by themselves or with lashesof mint chutney. I prefer the chicken baida roti (Rs.40), it is the Indian version of the Indonesian murtabak. The chicken is minced and spread on the roomali, an egg beaten and poured on it, and the whole thing folded and slid on to the tava, allowing the chicken kheema and the egg to get mixed and cooked. A great deal of expertise is required to prevent the egg from running out. The interesting part is that the roti does not become crunchy like a dosa, it remains soft and yielding, and the minced chicken is moist with the egg, the tastes sealed within the roomali.

Favorite Dish: But my favourite is the bheja roll. The bheja is of the goat, it is mashed and mixed with chopped onions and tomatoes, not too much as to kill the taste of the bheja. These are laid on an omelette, and the omelette itself is laid on a maida patti, so that it will hold together when rolled. It is shallow fried and eaten au nature. At Rs.40, it's a steal. At double that price also it would be a steal.
The other bheja item is the bheja kebab, equally whole-heartedly recommended. A full bheja is served per order, but it is cut into five pieces for easier handling. It is cooked in a green masala, the pieces dipped in egg and rolled in bread crumbs. And I do not know how they manage it, but it is available for Rs.45.

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Theme: Indian
Comparison: about average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Directions: It is at Adarsh Nagar , opposite Tarapore Towers, Jogeshwari West.

Restaurant Name: Ankur

Be sure to order the Pomfret Malgudi to start your meal with.
It also provides an excellent ambience to eat in. It is a small restaurant, 85 covers, a mezzanine included, a lot of polished wood and glass, square tables, straight-back chairs, neat table mats, a well-stocked bar, trained service, a mirror on which the day's specials are chalked.
Directions -You go a little further down Flora Fountain, towards the university, and enter the first lane on the left, near Kandeel restaurant and opposite the Grindlays Bank. Turn left at the end of the lane and immediately enter the small lane on the right. That is Tamarind Lane and Ankur is there.

Favorite Dish: The language is Tulu, kori means chicken, rooti stands for the crisp roti. It is a pretty hot curry, a little thick, almost like a gassi. A portion, priced at Rs.125, is made up of a large bowl of the curry, with four to five substantial pieces of the chicken, plus a basket piled with the roottis. You pick up a rootti, crumble it (not powder, but flat pieces) with your hand, put it in the plate, then ask the waiter to pour the curry and chicken on top of it. I prefer a lot of curry on top, to soak into the rootti and make it soft. And this is one dish you have to eat with hand. Don't worry, the restaurant provides finger bowls.

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Theme: Indian
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: less than US$10  » Currency Converter
Phone: 265-4194 and 263-0393
Directions: Old Tamarind Lane, off Meadows Street, in the heart of Fort, Bombay.
Other Contact: Booking is advised for Dinner

Restaurant Name: Mahesh Lunch Home

Before all the others, There was Mahesh Lunch Home. It still is: the first and original Manglorean seafood restaurant in Bombay, famed for its black pomfret curries, its crabs, its fish roe masalas, prawn gassi, lady fish fry. It is 18 years old, inconspicuously located at the junction of Cowasji Patel Street and Pherozeshah Mehta Road, modest in every sense, except its food. It has recently been renovated, nothing grand, the downstairs is still workmanlike and non-AC, the mezzanine AC and 20 per cent extra for that, but it is looking brighter, more cheerful. And the crabs are as good as ever.

Favorite Dish: Crab, of course, is only one of the seafood available here. Others items include: mackrel, pomfret, halwa, lady fish (kane), surmai, rawas, squid, baby shark, lobster, prawns.

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Theme: Indian
Comparison: more expensive than average
Prices: US$11-20  » Currency Converter
Directions: Mahesh Lunch Home in Cowasji Patel Street, off Pherozeshah Mehta Road.