Goa
Palolem Beach
Cafe Inn
Just to your right as you turn onto Main Road and are looking toward the beach.
The food is nothing special here but the drinks and the atmosphere more than make up for it. Real coffee drinks, delicious smoothies, and yummy desserts as well as breakfast/lunch/dinner fare. Cool tunes play in the background as a mostly foreign crowd takes advantage of the free and relatively fast wifi.
Dropadi Bar & Restaurant
Directly on the beach to your left as you emerge from the main street leading from the interior.
Good food at slightly expensive prices, including fresh seafood caught that morning. They have a great reputation, excellent service, and mesmerizing views of the sea to relax your mind as you chow down. You don’t have to give up the feeling of sand in your toes, either, as their floor is a covered in nice, clean sand as well. Their claim to use only bottled (mineral) water to cook their dishes will give the wary some certainty about eating out, so peace of mind might justify spending a few extra rupees.
Magic Italy
260 Main Road, Palolem Beach Street
The owners are Italian and they personally oversee the quality of the food and service. Cute, cosy dining room with a beer and wine bar as well as smoking and people-not-smoking right next to you sections. Homemade pastas that melt in your mouth in addition to a huge selection of wood-fired pizzas and salads. Good service to boot, but bring cash because they don’t take any credit cards.
Mumbai
South Mumbai
Bademiya
Behind Hotel Taj Mahal,Tullock Road, Apollo Bandar, Colaba, Apollo Bandar, Colaba
This is the restaurant that started from the food stalls selling baida roti, or egg roti, just outside Gokul Restaurant next door in Colaba. Open until 3 am, these stalls dish out delicious baida roti from either the veg or non-veg stalls and are a favorite after-hours stop on weekends, especially for those partying late in Colaba. I haven’t been to the actual restaurant, but the food from the stalls is cheap and fantastic.
Bhagat Tarachand Restaurant
47/55, Mumbadevi Road, Next to IDBI BANK, Pydhonie, Mumbadevi Area, Bhuleshwar
There are actually four of these restaurants all within a stone’s throw of one another in the hectic market area just south of the Shri Kamnaath Mahadev Mandir temple, and the names are all the same except for the initial preceding the restaurant name. My friend and I discovered this fact after calling one another from different Bhagat Tarachand Restaurant’s upstairs dining rooms, each of us thinking the other was crazy, until a waiter helped my friend to understand that there were four restaurants owned by brothers with the initials B, G, K, and R.
Regardless of which one you end up in, the food will be the same, and it will all be delicious and inexpensive. Two thalis came to just over 500 rs (about $8 USD), with cheap sodas on the side. These restaurants are pure veg, so don’t bother asking for the liquor menu. Meals can be made to Jain specifications as well.
Gokul
Ground Floor, Nawaz Building, 10, Tullock Road, Apollo Bunder, Colaba, Apollo Bandar, Colaba
Great place to stop in for a snacks or a beer after enjoying baida roti from the Bademiya stalls just outside. Open late nightly and all day Sunday. A/C and non-a/c sections, priced accordingly.
Khyber
145, M G Road, Fort, Kala Ghoda, Fort
This is a great restaurant for special occasions. Sumptuously furnished with precise yet subtle service, the food is the star here despite the distraction of beautiful surroundings. Not cheap, but sometimes you have to live a little. And, hey, if you love it enough, you can buy a franchise.
Samrat
Prem Court Building, Ground Floor, Samrat Veg Restaurant, Churchgate
Just west of the Oval Maidan near Fort, Samrat serves up an amazing Gujarati thali for lunch and dinner as well as other regional specialties. The food is delicious, and the all-you-can eat thali is a bargain at 340 rs for lunch (440 rs dinner). The clean, elegant dining room on the first floor has a view of the busy sidewalk below, which makes for great people watching if you can tear yourself away from the food.
Soam
Ground Floor, Sadguru Sadan, Opposite Babulnath Temple, Chowpatty
Pronounced “som” with a long “o,” this place is a sure bet every time: fresh, delicious Gujarati dishes (which can be made Jain), excellent “street food” specialties, and amazing hand-churned ice creams for dessert. Best to go with friends to share as the servings are on the small size, which makes for great Indian tapas plates. Reasonably priced as well, with no dishes going above 300 rs.