I am nearing the end of my restaurant reports from Bombay in April. Only two reports remain, both from high end restaurants. The first features a return to a restaurant I ate at twice on my previous visit to the city: The Bombay Canteen, which ends up reliably every year near the top of lists of the best restaurants in India aimed at people less likely to eat at places like Jai Hind (the location I ate at this time is literally just across the street from the old Kamala Mills complex that houses The Bombay Canteen). We first ate at The Bombay Canteen as a family in January 2024 and then a little later I took a few of my students there for a lunch to celebrate their birthdays.  I wrote both these meals up together in 2024—you can go take a look at it to learn a little more about the story of the restaurant; and also to see what I made of those meals. There were a few students on this version of the program as well whose birthdays fell during our time in the city and so I made The Bombay Canteen the site of the birthday celebrations this time as well. Here’s how it went. Continue reading →

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 →