Koli Fish Curry, Mumbai

The Koli are the fishing community who were here before Bombay was, and their kitchens are the oldest in the city. The curry is coconut, kokum, red chilli and a fresh-ground masala, cooked thin, with whatever came off the boat that morning — surmai, bangda, bombil, pomfret, prawn.

The villages are still inside the city: Colaba, Worli, Versova, Khar Danda and Mahim.

Name	Where	What it is known for
Sindhudurg	Dadar West	Malvani seafood; plain room, strong fresh masala.
Gajalee1990s	Vile Parle West and Palladium	The best-known Malvani seafood house in the city.
Highway Gomantak	Bandra East	Gomantak fish thalis, unfussy and consistent.
Apoorva	Vasta House, Fort	Mangalorean and Malvani seafood upstairs off a Fort lane.
Mahesh Lunch Home1977	Fort and Juhu	Coastal; crab, Bombay duck, prawn koliwada.
Trishna1965	Kala Ghoda	The fine-dining end of coastal cooking; butter garlic crab.
Malvan Katta	Dadar and Prabhadevi	Malvani thali with bhakri and sol kadhi.
Sassoon Dock1875	Colaba	Not a restaurant — the fish dock that supplies the city, busiest at dawn.
Worli and Versova Koliwada	Worli Village, Versova	The fishing villages themselves; the cooking there is domestic.

Worth knowing

• Ask what came in that morning rather than ordering from the card.
• Sol kadhi after, to cut the coconut and the chilli.
• Bombil (Bombay duck) is seasonal and best fresh rather than dried.
• Bhakri — rice flour flatbread — suits this food better than roti.

The other dishes

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