In a nutshell:

A curious looking restaurant that is almost 70 years old & serves some really great kheema pav & Marathi style seafood.

Address & other details: Hotel Grant house
Meal for 2: 300 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.

We have been driving past this restaurant beside JJ flyover & have always been wanting to pay a visit – something in the looks of the restaurant attracted us.
It took us almost 8 months to make it & then we paid a second visit in a couple of weeks.

We met the owner Mr. Shekhar as he has the habit of going around the dining hall & talking to customers. It was a great short chat. We saw him finishing some of the dishes in the kitchen as well…. Admire his passion to offer the best.

We got to know that this restaurant was established by his father in 1950. Those days it was inside the mosque compound. Those days they used to sell the keema pavs & chai – usual Mumbai restaurant food. 30 yrs bk they came out of the compound & started offering seafood.

The seating is on ground floor with 4 rows of seats. The place is generally neat & clean.

Menu card was a simple list of items, no description

The service boys are like u get in most mid range mass restaurants – efficient, fast, some have a good sense of humour, no formal service training.
Food was excellent. Loved it

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

Kheema bheja was very nice. It was one of the best kheema I have had in Mumbai in some time. The curry was hot n spicy but not on the face. Masalas were very well cooked and blended well in the curry. The meat retained its flavours. Ginger and crunchy onions made their presence felt. Rate it 4.5/5

Shimply masala (shell fish) was very enjoyable too. The masalas were in good amounts and so was chilly but it was far from being a mindless bombardment of the tastebuds. The shell fish tasted very good. Loved the gravy and polished it off till the last drop. Rate it 4.5/5

The fish fry was good. The fish was nice and flaky. It was not juicy though. The outer layer had spices.

The problem with the fish was that it was served after the spicy kheema. So it took us a while to start getting the taste of fish. Rate it 3.5/5

Deshi / gavran (Country) chicken was very nice soft and YUMM chicken pieces with the skin retained (like in chitradurga Karnataka ). Flavor of the meat was vastly overpowered by the outstanding flavours of the spices.

The gravy was unbelievably good. It was flavourful beyond imagination and it tasted just too good. Rate the dish 4.75/5. Wud hv rated 4.95/5 had the flavours of chicken been a bit more pronounced.

We ordered gaboli fry – fried fish roe ( egg of rawas fish). The roe tasted less intense than the likes of Hilsa/ rohu or other river fishes but the restaurant did a great job in keeping the texture of the fry soft and that enabled the taste to get better expressed. They served a green chutney with it which was intense and excellent. Loved it as it is and also with the chutney. Rate it 4/5

We then tried oyster curry – once again, it was finger licking good. The gravy was thick with onions making their presence felt. Oysters retained their taste and flavor. Super YUMM wud b an understatement. Rate it 4.95/5

We ended our meal with seafood pulao. I have not had such a good seafood pulao in a while. The seasoning of the rice was perfect. The softness was just too good. Flavours were awesome.

Taste was spicy ( not on the face) and somewhat hot. We were told that it has fish, crab meat and prawns. The crabmeat was made into very small pieces , so cud not taste it separately. The fish was nice and prawns were surely very good. The wAy the flavours of rice and spices and seafood coexisted, was great. Rate it 4.5/5

Overall rating of food at this restaurant averages out to 4.4/5

Look forward to revisiting