Vinay Health Home

When you walk through the doors of Vinay Health Home you can easily tell that it has been around for quite sometime. Despite the slight modernization, of the space, the ambiance retains the aura of the ancien regime.

Located in the Thakurdwar which is now a spectacularly busy commercial area with narrow lanes. Parking is impossible as is the noise.  Although famous for typical Maharashtrian fare, they also serve sandwiches, limited South Indian fare as well as milk shakes (egad) and fresh juices (I reckon the disparate cuisine is down to the emerging cosmopolitanism of the neighborhood) 

Despite the expansive menu, i was only there for one thing. The Misal which I am a big fan of. I have had the misal at Vinay before with my dad and i found it a tad too spicy the last time. Maybe the frequently ordered, delicious but extremely inauthentic version from Swati has dulled my senses a little.

This one was however stunning, easily the best, i have had. The spicy dish paired with some slightly cold, creamy yoghurt. Sheer bliss this was. 

A  gratuitous close up of the dahi misal against which all future dahi misal shall be compared.  I must say that this was so good, i ordered another one. They do have some other dishes i would like to try out some day but unless i go in a rather large group i don't think ill every get around to moving beyond the Misal.

Food : 9/10
Service : 7/10
Damage : minimal 

Swati Snacks

Rest : Swati
Meal : Dinner
Loc : Tardeo

Swati is ol faithful and a quick walk round the corner from my place. A bunch of friends wanted to dine there and we walked up to find a 20 min wait on a Monday, they must be making money hand over fist. 

I wont go into the details as i have reviewed them enough times before, suffice to say, they took and got them out to the haute set, the menu is pretty much the greatest hits of all ethnic dishes across from India, comfort food at its most comfortable. 

The Panki Chutney was amazing as usual, we got like three, its a dish that got its popularity via Swati and must not be missed. 

The days special was the Palak Appam & Stew, not bad at all, immensely enjoyable, again we got a bunch. 

the baked masala khichadi is legendary and still amazing with its caramelized onions and baked yoghurt. 

the dahi misal is one of my fav things here and i always get it, in fact if i see misal on a menu anywhere i get it. 

the mysore sada was pretty lame. avoid any south indian dishes here, not their strongpoint. 

mrs J says that the Dahi Puri at Swati is the best she has ever had (and she is from Delhi) and she knows a thing or two about chaat.

overall, if you have not been to Swati, finish reading this and rush there because its an essential Bombay experience, a must do. Its not cheap considering the kind of food they are serving but its quick, comfortable and most importantly hygienic.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 1700 for 4. 

Konkan Cafe

Rest : Konkan Cafe
Loc : Taj President, Cuffe Parade
Meal : Dinner



Konkan Cafe is a restaurant i have been meaning to dine at for quite some time. Its quite unfortunate that it happens to be in the same hotel as two other extremely popular eateries (Thai Pavilion & Trattoria) because its a pretty stellar venue for an eat out.

Most five star restaurants in Bombay/India focus on eastern or western cuisines or variations of North Indian. There are maybe two restaurants that dare to present the complexities of South/Konkani specialties which are terrific in their own right. Konkan Cafe is of course one, the other being Dakshin at ITC Grand Maratha.

While there is some overlap, Dakshin has a larger menu and focuses on a wider range of cuisines from the various Southern states.

Konkan Cafe on the other takes a comparatively limited view of the South and has many dishes which are found/inspired by Maharashtra.

The worse thing about Konkan Cafe is its decor. Its terrible, the place looks as if its stuck in the 80's with wood paneling to give it a rural Maharashtra feel.
The utensils on the wall were done by
Status eons ago and now feel quite out of place. The bar in the center looks like it is straight out of villains den in a B-Grade Bollywood pot boiler.

Down to the food, the menu offers veggie, non-veg and sea food options. One can order a-la-carte or get a thali.

For first timers the thali is a great way to taste multiple dishes, with a dish of each variation on offer. It is also a very well priced offering.

Like Dakshin, you start of with a bowl of various types of papads and chutneys, the red one being the best.

Its very easy to go through a few bowls of chutney and papad but its best to moderate and not ruin ones appetite.

The thali is well balanced and offers a one each of a dry and semi-dry veggies. There is a rasam, an usal, a curry, there was also some lightly fried potato and mahrashtrian style masala rice. The thali itself could be just a little bit larger, the bowls are really quite tightly bunched and i almost missed the spinach vadis which were hidden two one side.

The food was good, the curry was just fantastic, the potato was excellent as well. The rasam though good was very spicy. The dal was not bad but it too was fiery, fiery hot. The usal i didnt care for at all & the masala rice was allright.

They serve an Appam, a Neer Dosa & a Kerala style paratha, all of them were brilliant, the Appam especially, which went brilliantly with the dal and curry. The paratha felt like a Roti Canai roti from Malaysia and probably shares some history there. Each of the three were freshly made and served out of a dim sum basket.

The dessert was Kulfi-Jalebi, however i dont like Jalebis so i chose the Kulfi on its own. Nothing great here.. very average.

the wife picked the jalebis and found them way to sweet.

We were finished off with a sweet or plain paan.

Overall, the food is good and really filling, in fact we were both surprised by how little we ate on the whole. The curry was the best thing on the table and also the heaviest, though you dont realize that until much later.


Also gorging on the papad probably contributed. I would highly recommend that anyone going for a thali avoid getting a drink, especially folks getting the non-veg or sea food options.

The one thing i missed was having a yoghurt or butter milk preparation served with the thali, sorely missed it and it would have cooled down the heat and added a dimension to the rice which suffers without yogurt.


Although i am no slouch when it comes to spice, too many hot dishes can kill the overall effectiveness of a meal. So for those who dont like it spicy, best ask them to tone it down because its certainly not for the fainthearted.



The service was quick, friendly and fairly good but that is expected from a Taj group hotel. One of our servers came by and told us to go easy on the papad because we would fill up very quick, which was good advice.

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 2400 for 2 with no drinks

Konkan Cafe
Taj President,
90, Cuffe Parade
Phone: 66650808

Purepur Kolhapuri

Rest : Purepur Kolhapuri
Meal : late late dinner
Loc : somewhere in Vile Parle

It was late and i was returning from a long days work. My friend / (slash) was looking for a dining companion, since he had mentioned this place before, i thought why not check it out. Although the other option was Mexican or Mezze...

Kolhapuri cuisine is usually fairly fiery, red chilly and pepper based. You order a Kolhapuri dish in a restaurant its usually among the fiery ones. So i was a little worried about how the dishes would be. They werent that bad... (in terms of spice)
The food unfortunaely was not upto the mark. I am a big fan of Maharashtrian snacks but i have always found the cuisine wanting when it comes to full scale dining.
There was a dal a few veggies and roti and rice. The normal thali setup but none of it stood out particularly.

The dahi was tangy with a sourish taste, which i like, however i had the chaas which was made with the same yoghurt possibly and was not so good. The peanuts and gur were fun !

Overall, i was not impressed with anything really. Maybe its being run as a restaurant and needs more of the communal lunch home feel to succeed as an ethnic cuisine powerhouse.

Additionally, they have a lot of meat, chicken and sea food options and i reckon this is their mainstay. The vegetarian possibly not their strong point and hence the weakness.

Food : 3/10
Service : 5/10

Damage : 125 pp.

Prakash - Fun Maharashtrian food

Rest : Prakash
Meal : Snacktime
Loc : Just ahead of Shive Sena Bhavan, Dadar

Prakash is a small no frill joint, on the same street as the Shiv Sena Bhavan (heading towards Worli) the ethos is old Udipi, eat good food quick and get out. The space is smallish, no air conditioning, you have to sit where you get space and you will find the odd line. None of these things, however is any sort of a deal breaker.


The menu is primarily Mahrashtrian snacks, appropriate since the area is a Mahrashtrian stronghold. They dont serve any soft drinks, which i find immensely annoying, you can however get a Piyush, which is a sweet almost shrikhand like drink, or a sickly sweet cup of Nescafe.

Its a different era in Prakash, from the table tops, to the uniforms and even the attitude of the waitstaff. They probably havent changed things much since their inception, which to me is a great thing, there is something to be said about tradition nowadays.

The Matha Misal, which is basically the normal misal with yoghurt, one of my fav dishes all around, Swati does an upscale version, this one is your working class dish, small portion, tasty and spicy as hell. Made the way it should be.

The day special was curry pulao, again, a basic dish, rice, veggies served with a fiery potato curry.. immenselye enjoyable.

Patra, fried little goodies, my mom makes these, but they are smaller and green, these are brown, cruncy and HUGE.

Thalipeeth, a firm favouraite of many, a traditional dish, i didnt think it too impressive though.

Prakash, also serves some sweets, i am not a big fan of local sweets, so avoid them but most of them look traditional dishes so should be worth a go.

A quick meal, a walk back in time, great tastes. Thats Prakash for you.

Food : 9/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 230