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We've compiled the best of the best in Mumbai - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
This well-known seafood restaurant attracts the office-lunch crowd as well as packing them in during the evenings. Some of the character was stripped out of the place after it decided to go upscale, and the floor-to-ceiling marble might be a bit much, but the traditional Mangalorean seafood dishes are reliably good.
A short walk from the blue Knesset Eliyahoo synagogue is The Nutcracker, a tiny, pretty vegetarian restaurant with pink and white bougainvillea tumbling down its wooden windows, and mosaic tiled floors. Go for breakfast (or lunch, or dinner), and order any of the delicious egg concoctions.
Rarely packed even on Saturday night, Oh! Calcutta serves the city's best (mustard-heavy) Bengali food in upscale surroundings of dark wood set off by simple black-and-white archival photos from the British Raj. The seafood is exquisite, and if it's all too unfamiliar, defer to the waiters—some of the best in the city—to choose something, based on your specifications.
This unpretentious restaurant in Bandra Reclamation—a scenic, walkable section of Bandra—has a classic nouvelle cuisine menu and a simple rooftop terrace. It gets crowded on weekends, so be sure to make a reservation, preferably for the terrace, where the cover of giant palm trees somehow blocks out the cacophony from noisy Chapel Road below.
India's French influence might be strongest in sunny Pondicherry, on the east coast, but with two Frenchmen at the helm, this tiny crepe joint can provide a taste of it right here in Mumbai (branches have blossomed across Mumbai, including in Bandra and Powai). Try the Méditerranée, with grilled chicken, olive tapenade, mozzarella, and tomatoes, or the Italie, with arugula, a tomato coulis, mozzarella, and oregano, or build your own crepe from an extensive list of ingredients.
Popular with rich Mumbai housewives—who pack the place for lunch during the week—this Italian restaurant helmed by Chef Ritu Dalmia serves gourmet food in a relaxed, tasteful setting. On the top-floor veranda of Good Earth (a designer furniture store), the Tasting Room shares its hosts' penchant for subtle Indian minimalism in bright jewel tones.
Although most of the items on Trishna's seafood menu are of respectable quality, you'd be remiss not to order the much-vaunted butter garlic crab---even if that was all this legendary Kala Ghoda restaurant served, it'd be full year-round. The succulent crab is available in myriad treatments—with Indian and Western spices, green hariyali masala, black (spicier) Hyderabadi masala—and Trishna maintains the quality that's made it a favorite with tourists for more than 30 years.
