8 Best Restaurants in Fort and Marine Drive, Mumbai

The food at Shree Thaker Bhojnalaya (not to be confused with Thackers, another Gujarati restaurant) makes an excellent primer for those venturing into vegetarian Gujarati thalis (a limitless set meal served on a metal plate called a thali). The restaurant is tiny, cheap, rather nondescript, and hidden away amidst the warren of Kalbadevi's lanes, but the extra peregrinating is well worth it—this is as close to homey Gujarati food as you will get in this city.

If you're searching for an authentic seafood "lunch home"—which implies unpretentious, tasty, and cheap—this old-school Kala Ghoda mainstay is spot on: slightly dingy, full of locals, with a too-cold a/c section that smells faintly of mothballs. Whichever main dish you choose, order an accompaniment of neer dosa—they are a little like rotis, but much lighter and fluffier, and made of rice; most Konkan restaurants have them, but none do them better than Apoorva.

In a somewhat dilapidated-looking store whose homemade ice creams hark all the way back to 1953, the pick of the menu is the ice-cream sandwich (slabs of ice cream slapped between two gossamer-thin wafer biscuits). A huge chunk of the menu is available year-round, but be sure to sample the seasonal flavors (such as mango and guava).

Though they don't come cheap, the succulent kebabs at this hotel restaurant are perfect for those who don't want to indulge their stomachs on Muhammad Ali Road (the inexpensive, street-side haven for meat eaters). Elegant and subdued, the restaurant's drawback is the minimum 25-minute wait for your food—but good things take time, and the chicken seekh kebabs (ground chicken and spices) and the biryanis are worth the wait.

The charming former owner of this old, dingy, and terribly atmospheric Irani restaurant had an obsession with the British royal family and thus pictures of royalty grace the restaurant's peeling walls. Unfortunately, the old gentleman has since passed away, but the restaurant has retained its charm as well as its fantastic chicken or mutton berry pulao, with rice, gravy, and dried fruit.

This very popular vegetarian restaurant, begun in 1958 and now part of a chain, is a convenient address in the city for delicious chana bhatura: the piping-hot, football-size puris made from white flour and yeast are served with spicy chickpeas and raw onions and lemons. The cheesy nachos and deep-fried corn cheese balls are good snack options, especially when washed down with their popular ice cream soda. It's so popular on weekends that the staff have initiated curbside pickup for the hungry hordes left waiting on the road for a seat in the restaurant.

Inexpensive, shabby, and frankly a bit of a hole-in-the-wall, Hotel Deluxe (neither a hotel nor deluxe) has long been the default choice of eatery for homesick Keralites. The menu is vast, but tunnel your vision towards the special section; anything on there is bound to be excellent.

Opened in 2010, Ziya quickly shot to the very forefront of Indian cuisine, and although other modern Indian restaurants have taken its place at the top of the heap, it still serves really tasty food. Here, traditional Indian flavors receive nouvelle cuisine treatment from chef Vineet Bhatia, the first Indian chef to win Michelin stars.