A well-traveled friend recently asked me if he should spend a week eating in Mumbai on his way back from Bali. “Are there enough good restaurants to keep me busy?” he wondered. “I very much want to try Masque.” Enough? You could spend a month in Mumbai just getting a handle on the bread. That said, a New Yorker spoiled for newness, excellence, and variety would most likely run out of high-end—or simply buzzy—Indian spots by the end of a week. That’s because most locals who can afford to go to good restaurants have a cook, and when they go out, they don’t want more Indian food.
As a result, many of the new restaurants tend to be Instagram replicas of Mexican, Italian, Japanese, and blurry fusion. And I did not incur the wrath of New York–to–Mumbai jet lag to eat pulled-jackfruit tacos.
