Mumbai’s Most Underrated Restaurants

Crispy avocado roll at Shiro.

Determining how highly rated a restaurant is involves a number of subjective factors: it is a combination of buzz (press and how much it is talked about among people we know), respect/recognition (“awards” and the opinions of people and publications we respect) and popularity (how much business we think it does). Each of these factors is in turn based on the restaurant’s food, service, ambience, and a fourth, highly subjective criterion, value for money. In the first of a two-part series on Mumbai’s most underrated and overrated restaurants, here are six establishments that don’t get their due. You might nod in agreement or be enraged, but either way, it’s food for thought. Post your comments below.

KONKAN CAFÉ
The Taj President Hotel, 90 Cuffe Parade. Tel: 6665 0978.
Konkan Café manages to be better than most traditional, older seafood restaurants where it counts most—the food. Here, they concentrate on balancing spices, use only the freshest ingredients and, despite being in a five-star, offer good value for money. Our pick off the menu is the seafood thaali. It allows you to try an array of dishes, including the perfectly executed appam and stew as well as the famed pepper garlic prawns. To us, Konkan Café is underrated because though it commands a fair amount of respect, it certainly doesn’t enjoy as much buzz or popularity as other Taj restaurants.

SHIRO
Bombay Dyeing Mill Compound, Pandurang Budhkar Marg, near Deepak Talkies, Worli. Tel: 6615 5980.
When Shiro opened in 2006, it was touted as a bar and, thanks to its high ceilings and imposing statues, got compared with Tao and Buddha Bar. Soon enough, it became a favourite venue for parties and drunken nights. Four years on, its Friday retro night is still fairly popular. However, its pan-Asian restaurant continues to be relatively ignored. The sushi is inconsistent but often very good, while the appetisers and mains are largely reliable. Some, such as the Thai curry and sesame crusted tuna, are excellent. The combination of chic ambience and good food makes it ideal for a date. Forget retro night; go for a meal on a weeknight.

DELHI DARBAR
Holland House, Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, near Regal Cinema, Colaba. Tel: 2202 5656.
Okay, we accept that the food is ridiculously heavy and you need to cancel any plans post a meal at Delhi Darbar, but at a time when Mumbai’s restaurants are taking a modern, lighter look at various cuisines, it is nice once in a while to stuff yourself with some old-school Mughlai. Their dabba gosht and bheja with egg are ridiculously tender and creamy, and their signature mutton biryani can easily hold its own against even the ITC’s famed restaurants. Loyalty and buzz may have moved to the spin-off, Jafferbhai’s Delhi Darbar (there was a split in the family), but the original still has plenty to offer.

STELLA
The Leela Kempinski, Sahar, Andheri (East). Tel: 6691 1345.
The Leela, as with most hotels near the International Airport, doesn’t generate much buzz purely because of its location; Andheri East is a nightmare to get to even for residents of Andheri West. But the trip to Stella is always worth it, given the dearth of non-pizza-touting Italian restaurants in our city. Prato at the Four Seasons was excellent until it went downmarket (it is now a 24-hour coffee shop that serves pizza and kathi rolls), Vetro took a hit during the 26/11 terrorist attacks, and you can’t get serious Italian food in a formal setting elsewhere. Chef Maximiliano Cotilli was replaced by Chef Marco Priolo earlier this year, but we would be surprised if that has changed much. Order the grilled lamb chops, or one of their many steaks (angus, tenderloin, rib-eye and t-bone), and you won’t be sorry. Stella is underrated for both its food and as a place for an “event” meal, i.e. a dining experience that should be the central part of a night out. An evening at a quiet and dignified restaurant with impeccable service isn’t easy to find these days.

SPAGHETTI KITCHEN
CR2 Mall, First Floor, Nariman Point. Tel: 6743 9429.
As far as mid-bracket Italian restaurants go, Spaghetti Kitchen is better than most. Under the helm of Australian chef Bill Marchetti, it has proven to be a reliable purveyor of pizzas and regular Italian fare. The pizzas are notably good; the wafer-thin ones aren’t too far off from Indigo Deli’s, and the pasta and mains (especially the pepper chicken and the vodka penne) have balanced flavours, and are portioned well. The Nariman Point branch, located in the same mall as the Inox multiplex, is particularly recommended as it isn’t as bustling as the others and can offer a good meal before you head upstairs for a film. We feel it’s underrated because at its price point (around Rs 1,000 a head), it is the best Italian in town after the more talked about Don Giovanni.

EAST
76 Nidhi, August Kranti Marg, near Gowalia Tank, Kemps Corner. Tel: 2381 1010.
Stints at New York’s Nobu and Penang couldn’t have hurt Nachiket Shetye, the chef at this Kemps Corner restaurant. This shows through the subtly spiced food at East, which does a fantastic lamb rendang and possibly the best roti canai in town. The pan-Asian restaurant would easily be on par with the more popular Busaba in Colaba, but the restaurant’s location is its worst feature—Kemps Corner doesn’t attract any walk-ins. Customers, therefore, are likely to be regulars or those who get to know of it through word-of-mouth. The food tends to be better when Shetye is around, but overall it’s consistent and very good value for money.

Devendra Das likes a bong, all Bongs and while not preoccupied by either, chronicles his gluttonous experiences.