One of the enduring mysteries of the food scene in India is the success of the multi-cuisine restaurant. Rarely do joints that fall into this category produce meals that leave an impression. Usually they’re forgotten as soon as the cheque had been paid. Yet this is a thriving format. Could the reason be the Indian diner’s love of choice? A desire to be wooed by novella-sized menus and items from almost every continent? The latest such establishment to plant a flag on Mumbai’s food map is 29, which offers food from India’s 29 states. Like an airplane paperback, whose plot you will be hard pressed to remember after a flight, 29 at Kemps Corner serves up the sort of populist grub that’s somewhat gratifying but not memorable.
The vegetarian restaurant, in a quiet lane adjacent to Cumballa Hill Hospital, is brightly lit and done up in a cheery combination of colours. The chairs are upholstered in orange, blue, green and yellow and panels in the same colour scheme punctuate white walls. The sliver of kitchen visible from the dining area looks clean and well kept. The service is swift and you get a sense of being in an efficient, hygienic environment. This is not the kind of place that urges you to linger. The eatery was full on a Tuesday evening but by 10.30pm it had emptied out. From the conversational hum, we gathered that a majority of the diners were Gujarati. This implies 29 is likely to appeal to the area’s sizeable population of Gujaratis, many of whom are vegetarian and eat early out of habit.
To do justice to the menu, we ordered food from the north, south, east and west. The lal hara chaat (Rs160) from Mizoram was a mix of corn, green vatana and tomato in a sweet and sour dressing. While it had the refreshing taste and crunch of fresh produce, it was the sort of casual, hastily tossed salad routinely made at home. The punugulu (Rs110), a snack of fritters made of a rice and dal batter native to Andhra, could’ve done with more flavour and softer texture. It should’ve been crisp on the outside and soft on the inside but was uniformly stiff. The kitchen got the texture right with the malmali galouti kebab (Rs220), a platter of kebabs made of pureed rajma that had the creaminess of the meat version.
The only savoury item to truly stand out was from our home state. The hearty Maharashtrian dish dalimbi usal ani arbi amti (Rs275) is worth returning for. The dalimbi or fava beans was light and well-spiced and contrasted well with the accompanying sweet and tart arbi amti, a mush of colocassia leaves. On the other hand, the veg xacuti with Goan daali thoy (Rs275) was forgettable. The daali thoy or daal as it’s known in parts of the Konkan coast was fairly ordinary and the mix of veggies tasted more like achari veg than Goan xacuti. The chickpea-laden Kabuli biryani (Rs220), which the menu informed us was from Telengana, had the masala-heavy quality of fast food tava pulao.
The sole aspect of 29 that made us hesitatingly put aside our scepticism of multi-cuisine restaurants is that it offers a variety of regional food. The one thing the city’s foodscape lacks is adequate representation from the north east and states like Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. However, it’s clear 29’s cooks need a better education. That said, they know their deserts. The kesar malai ke laddoo (Rs80) had four saffron-flavoured spheres in two leaf cones balanced at the ends of a miniature seesaw-like contraption. The jaggery-sweetened laddoos were fresh and gorgeously creamy, and the mawa jalebi with kesar rabdi (Rs120) was a plate of crisp dark orange jalebis and luscious kesar and pista-flavoured rabdi.
Get: Dalimbi usal ani arbi amti (Rs275), malmali galouti kebab (Rs220), kesar malai ke laddoo (Rs80), mawa jalebi with kesar rabdi (Rs120).
Skip: Lal hara chaat (Rs160), punugulu (Rs110), veg Xacuti with Goan daali thoy (Rs275), Kabuli biryani (Rs220).
It is our policy to wait at least a week after an establishment has opened before we review it.
Prices exclude taxes. This review was conducted anonymously.
29, Mohammedbhai Mansion, Ground Floor, in the lane between Cumballa Hill Hospital and Shivsagar Fast Food, Kemps Corner. Tel: 022 3312 6003. Open daily, from 11am to 3.30pm and from 7pm to 11.30pm. Get directions here.