We’ve been in Seoul for just about a week now but the blog is still in Bombay, food-wise. Things got very hectic there towards the end of our five weeks in the city and I’m now two weeks behind with my restaurant reports. When last seen, I was writing up lunch at Chaitanya, a seafood restaurant. Today I have for you a quick report on lunch at another seafood restaurant. But whereas Chaitanya is a Malvani restaurant, today’s review is of a Mangalorean restaurant and one of Bombay’s most famous ones at that: Mahesh Lunch Home. We celebrated the older boy’s 15th birthday at the mothership in Fort. Herewith the details.

The first Mahesh Lunch Home opened in 1977 in Fort. That would have been a much humbler affair than the current restaurant, serving food primarily to office workers and Mangaloreans missing the tastes of home. Along with restaurants like Trishna, Apoorva, Ankur and Excellensea, it became one of the standard-bearers of coastal seafood in South Bombay, with each—and others—having their partisans who swore by their favourites over the others. Branches—in Bombay and elsewhere—followed in recent decades and now it’s been a long time since Mahesh Lunch Home was a humble seafood eatery. Like the other survivors of its genre—Apoorva and Ankur have both closed—it remains very popular but many Bombay foodies say that these restaurants are all coasting on their former reputations. Despite having heard these misgivings from more than one friend, we descended on the Fort location for the older boy’s birthday lunch. This because he had requested lobster for his birthday lunch (having eaten it on his birthday in Goa just last year) and I was pretty sure Mahesh would have good lobster. So it proved to be the case. And I am also happy to say that we quite enjoyed our meal.

We were seated in the upstairs dining room. The lower was empty—I think it might not be airconditioned, which might explain it. We got there on the early side for lunch in India and were one of very few tables occupied at the start of our meal; but it began to fill up slowly by the time we were done (the lower level stayed empty).

What did we eat? We began with ordering drinks: Thums Ups for the boys, watermelon juice for the missus and a glass of excellent sol kadhi for me. A few plates of fried things opened proceedings. We got both their prawns and squid Koliwadas and also a plate of their bombil/Bombay Duck fry. This latter had by this point become one of the missus’ very favourite genres of things to eat in Bombay and she liked Mahesh’s version, which features more spice in the marinade and more of a thin crisp batter coating than in the versions we encountered at Malvani restaurants. I liked it too but far preferred the Highway Gomantak version. The birthday boy got his lobster wish: we selected a large one and had it rendered in the butter-garlic style. We also couldn’t resist splurging on a large crab (which turned out to cost more than the lobster), which we got done as a ghee roast. Both were very good but the crab was better than the lobster.

To mop things up: neer dosas and appams, and for the boy, inevitable naans. The neer dosas were very good, the appams were just okay. The naans, I was told, were very good as well. Ice cream and pretty good caramel custard to end.

For a look at the restaurant, its menu, and what we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down for thoughts on service and to see how much it cost.

As with most formal Indian restaurants, Mahesh Lunch Home offers a ludicrous ratio of servers to guests, and when the restaurant isn’t full it’s hard not to notice the number of people standing around aimlessly. The servers we interacted with were very good though. Price? With included service charge and tax the total was just below Rs. 7500 or just about $90. Not a cheap meal in Bombay but not bad for a meal involving a large live lobster and a large live crab. On the whole, as I said, a very tasty meal. I don’t know if I’ll return to Mahesh on my next trip to Bombay—my program is scheduled to return in two years—as I will almost certainly be sans the family, but if I do make it back, I hope to eat their surmai gassi, which is one of their signature dishes.

Alright, I’m going to try to knock one more Bombay report out tomorrow. On Tuesday I might put a quick Seoul report. Let’s see how it goes.