The taste of marvellous Mumbai on Bay
History lives on in the old McLaughlin Motor Car showroom on Bay St.
Bombay Street Food, a new restaurant inside the 1925 building, evokes the iconic cafés of India’s most populous city with high-definition food and old-timey decor.
Alibaba lanterns hang from the high ceilings, as do the house rules. (“No tantrums.”) Rotating fans circulate air redolent with cumin and turmeric. Geometric tiles and sepia prints make the space feel timeless, save for the Harry Belafonte playing. Sister-in-law act Amreen Omar circulates through the room offering glasses of milky chai. Those are her family photos on the wall, four generations of Gujarati Muslims with ties to Mumbai.
Amreen (a lawyer) and her sisterin-law Seema Omar (a fashion designer) first opened Bombay Street Food as a farmer’s market stall in 2014.
To get to the May 10 opening of the restaurant, they hired hospitality and design consultants, plus a professional chef. The result blends street favourites with their mothers’ home cooking and that of the city’s Iranian Parsi population.
During busy lunches, customers order at the counter, take a number and sit; someone quickly brings the food. Dinner tends towards table service. Street urgings The food ranges from the simple — dal and rice, for one — to the spectacular.
By this, I mean the party-in-your-mouth appetizer of sev puri ($7.95) showered in fried noodles as short as a summer weekend.
Also from Mumbai’s street vendors: potato vada pav ($11.95). A sturdy white bun, made by Cobs to the Omars’ specifications, cradles a super crunchy sphere of fried mashed potatoes laced with mustard seeds and curry leaves.
Anda bhurji is another revelation. Bombay doesn’t dumb down the heat in these creamy eggs scrambled with green peppers and onions ($10.95).
Strong black ginger tea, adrak chai ($3.95), helps reboot the palate. Café culture A bowl of Parsi-style salli chicken ($11.95) makes a nice change from butter chicken, with its topping of shredded fried potatoes resembling Southeast Asian hickory sticks.
Spicy ground beef is another option. Try it as a sandwich slathered in fried onions and yogurt sauce ($11.95).
Orange juices leak onto the bun like an Indian sloppy Joe.
I imagine the fish is fresher in seaside Mumbai. The broiled haddock ($12.95) on Bay St. is dry and whiffy. Still learning Bombay looks past the usual Indian desserts with delicious cardamom shortbreads ($3.95) and flaky bland khaki biscuits ($3.95).
Qubani ka meetha ($4.95) is a family recipe of soft poached apricots and heady cardamom paired with chocolate cream biscuits.
Still, not every recipe has excited customers. The sisters-in-law’s beloved falooda dessert — ice cream, rose syrup and sweet vermicelli — went over like a lead balloon at a trial pop-up.
“So many people asked us, ‘Why is there spaghetti in my milkshake?’ ” remembers Amreen.
We could all stand to learn more. apataki@thestar.ca, Twitter @amypataki