Mumbai's best restaurants

THE FOOD CLUB

Everybody I know "" Karen Anand, Vikram Doctor, Manu and Sonia Mohindra "" keeps an ever-changing list of favourite restaurants. I am currently in Mumbai, partly to update my own list of favourites.

The only trouble is that I have been here three days, and I already have six favourites. Do I sound like a goggle-eyed Alice in Wonderland? That's probably because I am. Consider the facts.

Kainaz Messman has always been fascinated by chocolate-making, pastry work and bread and has a shop on Colaba called Theobroma that does all three.

Her chocolates have the gloss that a chocolatier in Paris would be proud of, her pastry rack looks forlorn because she sells as fast as she bakes and the little shop is perennially bursting at the seams with impatient customers.

Indigo Deli looks like something out of a design magazine. Floor to ceiling shelves are lined with fine mustard, wines, herbs and ingredients as well as Le Creuset cookware. There are flagstones on the floor and furniture made of real wood.

The only reason I managed a table without a reservation is because I went with the Tiger of Mumbai "" Rashmi Uday Singh. The delicatessen menu has bagels and sandwiches on it. The roast tenderloin grilled sandwich I had was sheer poetry.

Pure at Taj Land's End features honest food. No butter, no cream, only intensely flavoured sauces that taste of nature. The Himalayan trout grilled on a plank of mango wood tasted of the wide open spaces, of the time when Early Man barbecued food on chopped wood "" not exactly the flavours you expect when you dine five-star.

Vikram Doctor's own favourite, Swati Snacks, turned out to be another winner (Theobroma too is from his winning list). After fighting a long line of customers for an hour, we ordered what was virtually the whole menu.

The wife of the wealthy jeweller who owns Swati Snacks is patently not doing it for money, but for passion, just like Ritu Dalmia and Diva: neither cut corners, because they can afford not to.

Swati Snacks features pure vegetarian Gujarati dishes with Maharashtrian accompaniments. The way Vikram tells it, Gujarati food is rich and greasy while Maharashtrian food is almost spartan in its appeal. Combining them imaginatively is a masterstroke.

Wasabi at the historic Taj Hotel (I've stayed in loads of palaces-turned-hotels and heritage properties, but the buzz in this place is something else entirely) exceeded my expectations. A chef-driven restaurant where Japan-inspired food is cooked demands that the chef be of Japanese origins and/or a master chef.

Instead, Chef Sadik looked seriously underage but managed the difficult task of impressing me. Especially with his Alaskan hairy leg crab with mayonnaise flavoured with sichimi.

I have 24 more hours in this amazing metropolis and I am going to dine at China House at the Grand Hyatt Mumbai which I know will make it to my best-list, then I need to track down the best bhel puri and the best vada pao places. Any ideas?

marryamhreshii@yahoo.co.in