Category Archives: Bombay/Mumbai

Pradeep Gomantak Bhojanalay + Ideal Corner (Bombay, April 2026)

Posted on by


Call off the celebrations: I’m back.

I was not expecting to be gone this long from the blog when I announced a hiatus in January. My father had just passed away at the end of December and I had come back to Minnesota physically and mentally exhausted. And then the ICE assault on our state began. Even though we were not as badly affected in our town as people were in the Twin Cities, we were not insulated from it. With a low hum of worry at all times—especially for our boys—sitting down to blog in detail about whisky and food was not high on my list of priorities. Especially as I was also teaching and preparing for a 10-week off-campus program in the spring. By the time things eased in Minnesota I was off on that program and that kept me busy (and exhausted) through the first half of June. Through it all I kept meaning to get back to the blog but I couldn’t get the energy together. But I’ve been back now for 10 days and—the World Cup notwithstanding—am trying to get back into my old routines. And so, I’m back. Continue reading →

My Best Restaurant Meals of 2024

Posted on by


I began my recap of the 2023 version of this post by noting that we had been literally all over the map that year. Well, in 2024 we did not go to Europe at all (unless you count layovers in airports) but we/I spent even more time outside the United States. Our year began with an off-campus program: I took a bunch of students to Bombay for five weeks before we moved to Seoul for another five weeks. As you might imagine, we ate out a lot in both cities and ate a lot of fantastic food in both cities. On the way back to Minnesota from Seoul we stopped in Delhi for two weeks and ate out quite a bit there too. Then in May I was in New York/New Jersey by myself for a few days before the whole family did a trip to Southern and Northern California together in the second half of June. A long break from travel followed after that till I went off by myself again, this time for two weeks and to Delhi. In between we ate out at our usual weekly clip in the Twin Cities metro. And so there’s a lot of geography to draw on for this year’s top 10 list as well. As I did last year, I’ve tried to manage things a bit by separating more expensive/formal restaurants from more casual places into distinct top 10 lists. This year, however, I’m not doing an overall top 5 list that draws from both; instead each list is ranked rather than presented in chronological order. Continue reading →

Some Casual/Street Food (Bombay, Jan-Feb 2024)

Posted on by


Here, finally, is my last food report from our time in Bombay from early January through the first third of February. It’s the only one of my eating-centered reports that is not an account of a single meal or multiple meals eaten at the same restaurant. Instead, this is a compendium of several far more casual meals eaten on the go over the course of our time there. It’s a mix of experiences: quick bites eaten on the street, things eaten as part of food tours, things eaten quickly at casual restaurants. A few of these things were among the best things I ate in the city, but almost all speak to an experience of eating in a city like Bombay that cannot be encapsulated in regular restaurant reviews but which is quite central to not just the story of food in Bombay but to the city’s larger cultural makeup. Continue reading →

Slink & Bardot (Bombay, February 2024)

Posted on by


Here, finally, is the long-promised last formal restaurant report from our time in Bombay. We were there from the middle of the first week of January to the middle of the second week of February. There was a lot of eating out, most of which has been chronicled already on the blog. Those who’ve been reading along know that the majority of those meals were in more or less traditional restaurants. The one exception in my reports so far was The Bombay Canteen, where I ate twice. The other was Slink & Bardot, a restaurant in Worli where I also ate dinner twice. This report is on the second meal. Continue reading →

At the Sassoon Dock Fish Market (Bombay, January-February 2024)

Posted on by


As my reports from Bombay wind down, I finally have for you a look at the place I went back to more often than any other: the Sassoon Dock fish market in Colaba. At the time that I booked the flat in Colaba in which we lived for five and a half weeks I had not realized that it was so close to one of the city’s premier fish markets. But when I did I was very excited. As it turned out, it was just about a 7 minute walk from our building. Reading up on it, I learned that it’s best to go very early in the day. Thanks to jet lag this was not going to be a problem and so I was there before sunrise on our first morning in the flat. Over the next few weeks I went there a bit later each time, but never very far past sunrise. Predictably, I took a lot of pictures on each visit—both of what I bought each time (we ate a lot of excellent fish and shellfish over our stay) and other things at the market that caught my eye. As being a blogger means being able to inflict your excesses on the world, you too can look at almost all the pictures I took across those visits. You’re welcome!  Continue reading →

Gajalee, Andheri (Bombay, January 2024)

Posted on by


I’ve reported on a number of Bombay’s premier Malvani and other coastal/seafood restaurants before: Chaitanya, Shri Datta Boarding House, Jai Hind Lunch Home, Highway Gomantak, Mahesh Lunch Home. I am very happy to now add to that list the name of one of the most esteemed of all these restaurants: Gajalee. I’d hoped to eat there much earlier on our trip than we did—the only reason for the delay is that we were based in Colaba and all the branches of Gajalee are further north in the city. And if there’s one thing you don’t want to do after having been Bombay for a few weeks it’s to sit in more traffic than you strictly have to. But when a lunch to thank someone who had helped out with the program in a big way took us all the way to Andheri, Gajalee was an easy call. Continue reading →

The Bombay Canteen (Bombay, January 2024)

Posted on by


Our eating out in Bombay was done mostly in places in the more traditional end of the culinary spectrum. Almost all the places we ate at prepare the foods of particular communities in ways that would be instantly recognizable to members of those communities who have never given much, if any, thought to food trends. There were two exceptions in this restaurant itinerary. I’ll post about the second next week. Here now is a very long report on two meals eaten at the first: The Bombay Canteen. We first ate there as a family and then a few weeks later I took the students whose birthdays fell in the Bombay portion of the program we’re on there for a celebratory meal. Both meals were good, on the whole, but one was far superior to the other. Herewith the details. Continue reading →

Swati Snacks 2 (Bombay, January 2024)

Posted on by


Okay let’s take a break from seafood restaurants. The weekend’s second Bombay food report (see here for yesterday’s report on Mangalorean seafood lunch in Fort) is of an entirely vegetarian restaurant, the venerable Swati Snacks. I have eaten at their Tardeo mothership on every single trip I’ve made to Bombay as an adult (since 2005) and there was no way I was not going back with the family. The only shocker is that we made only one visit. The main reasons for this are 1) that on account of my regular visits to the fish market in our neighbourhood we were cooking at home a lot; and 2) since we were eating a fair number of meals out every week as part of the program, we didn’t end up eating out so very much more on our own—and so didn’t end up making repeat visits anywhere as a family. This lunch, at any rate, was very good. Continue reading →

Mahesh Lunch Home (Bombay, January 2024)

Posted on by


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. Continue reading →

Chaitanya (Bombay, January 2024)

Posted on by


Alright, let’s keep cranking the Bombay restaurant reports out. Here is another lunch eaten at one of the city’s stalwart Malvani restaurants: Chaitanya. You might remember that my second report from this trip was of a very good lunch at Shri Datta Boarding in Lalbaug. Well, not that there’s a competition but I would say that this lunch at Chaitanya was even better. I took a subset of my students there after a morning outing a few weeks ago and between us we tried a large number of their seafood thalis and also a veg thali. There wasn’t a single less than deeply-satisfied customer in the bunch. Herewith the details. Continue reading →

An East Indian Feast in Uttan (Bombay, January 2024)

Posted on by


A very quick report today on what has been one of my favourite meals so far in Bombay: a feast at an East Indian home in Uttan, in the north of the city. This was part of another of the food outings curated for my program by my friend, Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal. The morning saw us make an early start by bust in the direction of Malad. There we took a very short ferry ride across the water to Dharavi Island (not the same as the more famous Dharavi, adjacent to Mahim), and then a longer, rattling auto-rickshaw ride to the East Indian village of Uttan (I squeezed onto the driver’s seat of the auto our family was in, and it was fun for about the first five minutes—I hadn’t realized it was going to be a near-20 minute ride). On arrival in Uttan we were met by our host Mogan Rodrigues at his family’s home. There Mogan introduced us to the history and present of the East Indian community and then we ate the massive meal they had prepared for us. Continue reading →

Highway Gomantak II (Bombay, January 2024)

Posted on by


Not that there was a bad one in the bunch but one of my favourite meals on my last visit to Bombay, back in December 2018, was at Highway Gomantak in Bandra East. I ate there then in the company of the food writer and old food forum friend, Vikram Doctor. I knew I was going to go back there for sure with the family on this trip. As it happens, I went back with the family and 21 of my students (one was out with a bad cold)! We’d had quite a trying day so far. We had a culture walk around Bandra West scheduled from 9 am to 11 am and the plan had been that the students would return to their housing in the coach while we peeled off for lunch on our own. But the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley, especially when the fucking Bombay Marathon turns out to be scheduled on the day of an outing… Continue reading →

A Lagan nu Bhonu at the Ratan Tata Institute (Bombay, January 2024)

Posted on by


As I think I’ve mentioned before, the program I’m leading in Bombay is kicking my ass. We’ve been on the go pretty much every day and most evenings are taken up with checking and double-checking all the upcoming reservations. Not to mention, try corralling 22 undergraduates and you’ll beg to be allowed to herd cats. Actually, I kid. The students have been very game, very easy to deal with. But between all the activities and the fish market shopping and the cooking and the eating, I’ve not had much time to post detailed write-ups on the blog. Now, however, I’m at risk of falling behind quite severely with the dining out reports and so here’s a quick look at one of the highlights of our second week in the city: a Parsi wedding feast (or lagan nu bhonu). And none of us even had to get married to get the feast. Indeed, we skipped the wedding part altogether and went straight to the feast. Continue reading →

Delux Kerala (Bombay, January 2024)

Posted on by


We’ve eaten some very good food in Bombay in the last couple of weeks. A lot of it has been food people not from Bombay associate classically with the city: Malvani food, Parsi food, Gujarati food, Marathi food—and, as of yesterday, even an outstanding East Indian meal. Some of our best meals, however, have featured Malayali food, or the food of Kerala. Specifically, food from Delux Kerala in Fort. This is a small restaurant split across two levels: a small un-air-conditioned dining room on the ground floor and a small air-conditioned dining room on the first floor. Our first couple of meals of their food did not involve either floor: we got delivery via Zomato. It’s not a very long hop from the restaurant to where we’re putting up and we enjoyed both sets of delivery quite a bit. But eating in at the restaurant was a must. This because they do a sadhya or banana leaf meal that obviously can’t be ordered for delivery. On Sundays this has some extra items added on to it. I am happy to tell you that when we finally got there in person it was on a Sunday. Here is a look at that meal, and also at the two delivery orders. Continue reading →

Shri Datta Boarding House (Bombay, January 2024)

Posted on by


I’m in danger of falling way behind on my Bombay food reports. Those of you who follow me on Instagram are aware of most of my food-related activity: from fish markets to takeout to restaurants to street food. On the blog, however, I’ve only posted a report on our lunch at Soam more than a week ago. This is because the program I’m leading here has kept me insanely busy. This is all my own fault as I’ve over-scheduled us more than a little; it’s all been fun and interesting but the pace has also been intense. The program activities themselves, unsurprisingly, involve food. Here now is a brief look at the second meal we ate out together, just a few days after our welcome lunch at Soam. It features one of the cuisines I most love eating when in Bombay: Malvani. Continue reading →

Soam II (Bombay, January 2024)

Posted on by


We’ve been in Bombay for 10 days now. It’s been a hectic week and a half. First we were getting set up at our flat, figuring out where to do all our shopping and so forth. And then my students arrived last Sunday and we plunged into a breakneck pace of outings and activities. First up, last Monday was our welcome lunch, at the iconic Gujarati restaurant, Soam in Babulnath. The last time I ate at Soam—back in December 2018—was when I was last in Bombay, doing prep work for this trip. I ate there then in the company of my old friend Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal. Rushina, who is a bit of a big wheel in the Indian food world, is curating our food/community-centered explorations while we’re here in Bombay, and she suggested that we kick things off at Soam. I was very quick to agree. Continue reading →

Taftoon (Bombay, December 2018)

Posted on by


Here is my last restaurant report from my brief visit to Bombay, just three months after I left. Don’t scoff: it took me nine months to get done with my reports from London in June and I probably ate out just as much in Bombay as we did in London. This was my penultimate meal in Bombay (I ate dinner at Highway Gomantak later that evening), and was the third in three days with my friend Paromita who is as ideal an eating companion as you could hope for: willing to eat anything but not easily pleased. We also ate together at Just Kerala and at my second dinner at O Pedro. For this last meal she recommended Taftoon in the BKC. I should state upfront that—as at lunch the previous day at Soam—we were not regular diners off the street. She has a close connection to the chef and we were afforded special treatment and a number of dishes were comped on the final bill. With that in mind, here are my thoughts on the meal. Continue reading →