Masque put the city of 21 million on the international dining map. When it opened, in 2016, it was one of Mumbai’s first tasting-menu restaurants that explored India’s countless regional cuisines. The team hauled suitcases of sea buckthorn back from the mountains of Ladakh, harvested seaweed in Goa, and fermented peppers from Naga. “Pride in India is new,” says owner Aditi Dugar, the energetic banker turned high-end caterer who opened the opulent restaurant in a former cotton-mill complex. After a rocky start, Masque is now a Relais & Châteaux property and ranks high on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list, which named it the Best Restaurant in India this year. Dugar and head chef Varun Totlani have shifted the focus at Mumbai’s high-end restaurants and re-framed Indian food in India itself. I recommend eating as much regional cuisine as possible before dining at Masque, to understand just how elevated their versions of it are. —Christine Muhlke