Because You Can Eat Like A King On A Pauper’s Salary

A meal at Crystal.

If I skip one meal at Hakkasan, I can eat out every day for six weeks (without having to visit McDonald’s even once). On frugal days, I can choose from A. Rama Nayak’s satisfying limited South Indian thali for Rs42 in Matunga, or a gut-busting Sindhi dal pakwan at a Kailash Parbat for Rs30. I can have unlimited quantities of Kerala specialities in Hotel Deluxe’s Rs65 banana-leaf thali lunch in Fort. If I am feeling richer, I can choose to stuff my face at Friends’ Union Joshi Club in Kalbadevi, because no matter how many times they refill my ghee-laden rice, four sabzis, two kadhis and three farsans, it will still cost me only Rs120. At Crystal, opposite Chowpatty beach, a simple home-style thali will set me back Rs130, but I can still have a complete a la carte meal there with a friend and not venture into triple digits. At Guru da Dhaba in Lokhandwala, I can have two sabzis, a dal, rice, three chapatis and masala chaas for Rs90 (that’s just one rupee more than the price of salted lassi at Moti Mahal Delux). Just when it begins to sound like vegetarians have all the fun, I can say that the chicken thali at Stadium in Churchgate is Rs100 well spent; the contentment from the chicken dhansak with rice at Sassanian in Marine Lines is worth more than the Rs85 we pay for it; and that the grand sum of Rs125 is all you need for a bangda thali at Malwani Kkalwan in Versova. The words I’d use to describe that seafood meal would also describe Mumbai’s budget dining scene: generous, varied and easy to find, if you keep an eye out for it.

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