Is Wasabi Our Best Restaurant?

Konkan Cafe.

Yes, if you go by the World’s Best Restaurants awards, which ranked it number 54 in its 2010 list of the world’s 100 finest eateries. However, the Japanese restaurant conceptualised by chef Masaharu Morimoto and housed at The Taj Mahal Palace & Towers hotel, has not impressed Bloomberg editor Margo Towie, who in a recent review wondered “if it’s really India’s best restaurant”. Her main gripes with the place appeared to be loud background music, and chatty waiters who had a “long discussion about wine” right behind Towie and her guests. Towie describes the food—which can go up to Rs1,600 for the braised black cod—as notable for the most part, only really finding flaw with the dish known as the newspaper beggar’s purse, a pouch of edible silver, salmon, caviar, asparagus and mushrooms. Despite saying she would come back, Towie gives the restaurant only three stars (of a possible four), with minus points for waiter chatter and “dining ho-hums”.

Which raises the question, is Wasabi really India’s best restaurant? While we can’t speak of other cities, we’d be apt to say, maybe not. While it might be too soon to be called India’s best, Vineet Bhatia’s Ziya at the Oberoi could be a good contender for the crown once it settles down and people in the city get used to the concept of pre-plated nouveau Indian cuisine. While Bhatia himself told us in April that India Jones, the pan-Asian restaurant at The Trident, was one of the best in town, our vote goes to another Taj restaurant: Konkan Cafe at the President.

There is perhaps no better restaurant for both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food (writer Vir Sanghvi has also long trumpeted its culinary excellence). While the service can be a bit iffy, it is amazingly one of the most underrated restaurants in Mumbai. Perhaps because the cuisine is Indian, perhaps more so because it’s South Indian, which has never made the leap to being considered or packaged as “haute cuisine”. And for good reason. A dosa and idli at a five-star is likely to be trounced by a dosa and idli at an udipi. However, for seafood and meat (the masala crab and pepper chicken come to mind), Konkan Cafe is perhaps second to none, consistently delivering on quality and flavour (and here die-hard foodies might protest, but the same cannot be said of Trishna). What are your picks for India’s best restaurant, especially those outside of luxury hotels? Tell us in the comments section.

India’s best restaurant offers veggie sushi, chatty waiters [Bloomberg]