In a nutshell:

A new Parsi restaurant with a imposing facade , nice interiors, very good service , some great and some other good food – Master of desserts, great snacks & some just good curries.

Address & other details:  Rustom’s

Google map: Rustom’s

Meal for 2: Rs. 600 onwards

Cuisine type : Vegetarian & nonvegetarian

Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in going to a restaurant in anonymity, as a normal guest, experience everything & give a honest account of the same to you.

I rate all the food items & then give a final overall rating which is a simple average of the individual item ratings. What the ratings stand for: 5 = Excellent, 4 = Very Good, 3 = Good, 2 = Fair, 1 = Disaster.

Short description – in case u r in a hurry:

Came to know of this place from social media. So, immediately it entered our list of ‘to visit’ in a city starved for many Parsi food options ( so far we cud go to sodabottleopenerwala and Parsi anjuman, in addition to occasional food festivals here and there like the one at amaranta).

We also read that the place fills up fast and someone had to wait for 45 minutes to get a seat.

So we reached pretty early at around 12.30 noon and were pleasantly surprised to get access to 1 of the 2 reserved parkings of the restaurant.

We got to know that this restaurant is 3 month old and is a First venture.

The restaurant looks mammoth two storeyed from outside but in reality the dining hall is entirely on the first floor. As soon as u enter, u hv to compulsively take a right turn to the staircase and reach first floor.

The staircase was made to look retro with the use of old railings. On the wall of the staircase were framed pictures of Parsi families.

The first floor had typical geometric tiles , some old wooden furniture and polished wooden tables and chairs.

The menu card had a lovely cartoon on the top. It had 4 pages with list of food and description of the same. Easy to read and understand.

The waiting staff were very courteous and nice. The guy serving us was knowledgeable about the menu.

Food in general was very good. This restaurant has a bright future if I might try to predict.

Detailed description – in case u hv the time to njoy reading:

We started our meal with Keema pattice

What came on our plate was Two huge chunks of deep fried patties. Mashed potato cover and curried keema in the middle. Looked like it took gallons of oil to fry those.

I wud recommend in retrospect that Never order this dish when alone coz u will not end up tasting much after finishing this ( in case u r interested in trying out a lot of things).

The outer layer of the pattice was crisp but not firm. The inner layer was super soft but the potato had texture – not plain machine mashed. The keema was nice and flavourful. It was not dry but was not ‘meaty juicy’. The juiciness of the keema came from the Keema curry gravy. The keema filling was not emitting strong meaty flavours but spicy flavours. Very good to taste and rate it 3.5/5.

The next dish Patrani macchi was awesome.

It was Fish wrapped in a Dark green leafy paste that was pungent , rustic and enjoyable , packed in banana leaf and grilled.

The fish was soft, flaky, juicy and excellent. Loved the marination and the fish. Rate this dish 4.5/5

We ordered rustom’s ginger fizz. This Ginger drink had a syrupy / cough syrupy feel but had an excellent ginger aftertaste. Had such drinks at other Parsi places in mumbai but did not get this feel. Rate it 3/5.

Beeda par edu outstanding. Bhindi ( okra) was at the base and on top was eggs. The eggs were poured raw sunny side up on top of cooked okra and this was baked together.

The Bhindi had a charred effect that I just loved. The egg had hardened. The sliminess of okra was non existent. Spiced up dry charred bhindi that wud emit juices when bitten into – loved it. Rate this dish 4.25/5

Prawn patio was an awesome gravy – so chatpata, so nice. Tangy , khatta meetha ( sweet n sour) we cud just not stop having more.

The prawn flavours had got intertwined with the gravy very well. However the prawn pieces were ok. Infact they had become ‘ beside the point’. Rate the dish 4/5.

Khichdi sas was the next thing we had. The khichdi was dry unlike the North Indian or East Indian variant. We cud see the grains of moong dal among the rice. Nice flavours I must say but not that salted, hence limited taste.

The fish we were told was tilapia. De skinned tilapia tasted like any other random fish. The gravy was quite sour, very hot and pretty innocent looking. No one cud guess if to b so strong taste just by looking at it.

Liked the combo quite a bit. Rate the combo 3/5.

We also tried Bhatia nu gos – sweet, sour and hot – all in the same gravy.

This gravy had deep fried potato wedges in it. The potato wedges added added a nice twist to the dish with the wedges becoming soft and mushy on absorbing the gravy but not disintegrating. Also added a nice texture to the gravy. Rate it 4/5

For dessert we had Lagan nu custard. It was not ‘thal thal’, as my friend wud describe anything wobbly. It was creamy, firm but soft. Excellent texture. The flavour of nutmeg overpowered. Chironji made its presence felt. Outstanding dessert on its own and one of the tastiest Lagan nu custards I have had in a while. Rate it 4.75/5.

Day 2

We started our lunch with Vengna na kabab.

Aubergine cooked in direct flame, thus giving it a smoked flavour, mashed with spices and then made into balls and deep fried. Beyond wow.

Takes amazing calibre to convert the humble aubergine to something as good. Super soft inside and crisp but crumbling off outer layer. Great combo of textures. Rate it 4.5/5.

The next starter we had was Kolmi kabab.

Round deep fried balls of minced prawns. Excellent tAste , flavours of prawn in every bite. Good balance of seasoning. Was a tad dry inside.

Rest everything was perfect. We were served green onion chutney on the side. This kabab tasted good with the chutney as well. Rate it 4/5.

Salli boti. Salli means deep crisp fried potato matchsticks. The dish is thus a mutton curry with salli sprinkled on top. B4 eating one is expected to mix the salli with the meat curry & that gives a unique texture to the curry.

The meat pieces were super soft & good to taste. Rate the meat 4/5

The curry was good but it lacked the punch to make it great. The base of the curry was tomato & the curry was on the borderline of being tomatoeee. We have surely had better salli curry than this. Rate it 3/5.

Overall rating of the dish averages out to 3.5/5

We then moved on to Dhansak. For the uninitiated, mutton Dhansak is mutton curry in lentil gravy. This is usually accompanied by brown rice (browning is done by caramelizing). Deep fried meatballs r served with this & those r referred to as kababs.

The rice was suboptimally soft but the rice grains were independent. Was not great to eat as it is. Rate it 2/5

The kababs at Amaranta were mindblowing & I am salivating at the thought of it. The ones here were just normal meatballs – flavor of meat was not predominant. Spices overpowered. Was good to taste as it is. Rate it 3/5

The lentil based gravy was good to taste. Thick, flavors of lentils , spices & slight flavors of meat. Rate it 3.5/5

The mutton was super soft and good to taste. Rate it 4.25/5

Overall rating of the dish averages out to 3.2/5

For dessert we ordered Caramel custArd. It turned out to b one of the best I have had in a while. Soft yet somewhat firm custard surrounded by caramel ‘sauce’. The caramelised liquid referred by me as ‘sauce’ was sweet and had a bitter tinge. Loved it.

The custard was sweet and had a good element of salt in it. Thus overall it was amazing, rustic, non commercialised, non neutralised ( to meet taste of masses) . Just too good. Rate it 4.75/5.

We tried Malai na paratha. Super soft & excellent to taste on its own & with the curries. Rate it 4.5/5

We also tried parsi roti. It was soft, melt in the mouth, excellent (just as it is). Rate it 4.5/5

We tried Raspberry ice tea which our server vehemently discouraged us to order. He was saying ‘it is like cough syrup’. We bravely ordered & found it to b like what he described. I wud have rated it 1/5 but I am not rating it – coz the guy tried his best not to sell that item to me but I insisted.

Overall rating of food at Rustom’s averages out to 4/5

To sum it up – The Amarantha experience was authentic, premium Parsi marriage / party food, outstanding taste & memorable. The Parsi Anjuman was authentic, home like & surely memorable. Sodabottleopenerwala at times sways from being a purist as long as it tastes good, Rustom’s is close to authentic but wud need a bit of brushing up in terms of taste, on few fronts. Great initiative I must say – long way to go…………and all the best to the team.