Restaurant Review: Mi Maratha

It’s never difficult to find a decent meal in Lower Parel, which boasts a balanced office to lunch-home/ restaurant ratio. However, if you’re looking for the closest approximation to a home-cooked meal, you will find the choices vastly reduced. The worthiest of the restaurants that do serve simple, home-style grub in the central suburb is Mi Maratha, a month-old no-frills Maharashtrian establishment located next to Peninsula Corporate Park.

The restaurant belongs to Arvind Haldipur, a musician who works in both the Hindi and Marathi film industries. Haldipur inherited the hospitality gene from his father, who ran a multi-cuisine restaurant and bar in Wadala. Thankfully the son has chosen to focus on coastal specialties at his 28-seat air-conditioned restaurant that offers little by way of ambience.

All your expectations are then pinned on the meal, which was packed with flavour and notably grease-free. With the vegetarian thali (priced at Rs75 with three chapatis and Rs95 with two rice bhakris), which comprises a bowl of dal, a dry sabzi (ours had a simple cumin-flecked aloo and ghobi preparation), raita, sol kadi, a large portion of rice, a vegetable with gravy (we got black chana in a goda masala gravy), and a sweet dish, you get your money’s worth. The vegetables and dal had a good balance of spices, while the milky sol kadi was tempered by the piquant kick of green chillies.

Non-vegetarians with an equal interest in seafood and meat will find themselves torn when picking what to eat. If you have a proclivity for fish, we insist upon the bangda ambat tikhat (Rs80). The dish, which is supplied daily by Haldipur’s home kitchen (where its cooked by his wife), had two pieces of bony but tender bangda (mackerel) coated in a fiery red, tangy gravy. The gravy outlasts the small pieces of fish and pairs well with the kolambi bhat (Rs160), a subtly spiced, khichdi-like prawn rice. The chicken sukha (Rs130) was liberally spiked with the peppery goda masala, an all-spice mix which is the base for a lot of Maharashtrian fare. We seldom leave a restaurant not wanting to see any improvement, but Mi Maratha’s formula—food first and above all else—serves it well. If you work in the neighbourhood, you’re likely to become a regular on that basis alone.

This review was conducted anonymously.

Mi Maratha

LocationNext to Peninsula Corporate Park
G.K. Marg
Off Senapati Bapat Marg
Lower Parel

Phone022 2493 0345

HoursDaily 11am to 3.30pm; 7pm to 11pm