Home delivery restaurants in Mumbai

Ordering khaana in or getting take-out is both the bane and bonus of life in a Mumbai suburb called Bandra. It’s not always smooth sailing and the experience of calling for food could spice up your evening in strange ways. There is nothing more painful than dialing a restaurant and talking to a cretin at the other end. Inspired by the glossy flier of a new restaurant you call up only to be told that "Bangkok stir fried meat main kheema hota hai" (has minced meat). And on further questioning, "lal rang ka sauce hota hain" (it's a red sauce). This is the point at which I give up on the Asia Woks and Bamboo Shoots of the world and throw my phone down in disgust. There is nothing worse than having your orders get lost in translation.

In spite of it all these five home delivery restaurants in Bandra, make it worth the wait.

 

1. Kakori House on Waroda Road

Kakori House at Bandra West has some of the best kakori and galawti kebabs in town. They easily match the famous ones at ITC’s Dum Pukht restaurant and, unlike the five star hotel, Kakori's kebabs come at an average price of Rs 130 a plate. They also offer some of the most fragrant, delicate and deeply flavoured mutton and chicken Lucknowi biryanis. Now here’s the catch. They don’t have a seating section. Kakori House operates through home deliveries only.

 

 

Maroosh is fed by Bandra's growing working class crowd.

2. Maroosh off Carter Road

Maroosh at Carter Road serves one of the best hummus and pita breads, my new comfort food. The hummus here is very subtly flavoured and has just the right level of pungency to balance the creamy chick pea paste. Their pita breads are soft. A softened urbanised version of the coarse Lebanese nomad’s fare. And then there are the chicken shwarmas. Just thinking of them puts me into a daze. Comparable only with the spell of watching Monica Belucci on screen. Such tender chicken. Such a heady marinade. Such well balanced fries.

I often call for shwarmas, hummus and pita from Maroosh. Which works out fine if it’s a weekday night when business is slow. But Maroosh's home delivery policies suddenly change over the weekends, when you are stumped by answers such as "the delivery boy is on leave," "we don’t do home delivery" or "home delivery only above Rs 500." Such is the price you pay.

 

5 Spice chilly chicken, prepared in rocket fuel.

3. 5 Spice at Pali Naka

5 Spice is a Mumbai landmark. They have Indianized Chinese food to an extent which makes the entire debate on China’s role in Indo-Pak relations a bit redundant. Some of my Bombay expat friends are big fans of this place. As are my brother and mom in Calcutta and my in-laws here. Each large portion poses a delightfully uphill marathon towards a primordial pleasure. 

But you need the patience of a lamb and a hawk’s eye if you call in from them. Check if your burnt chilly chicken rice (the ultimate Chinese pulao, a heady mix of caramelised onions, ajino moto, dried red chilly, chicken and rice) has chicken in it and if your crab sweet corn soup actually has crab in it. The meats mysteriously disappear on the way to your house.

One  Saturday night we reached home at 11pm and ordered from 5 Spice. A slightly dimwitted person took the order and at one point asked me how to make crab sweet corn soup even, and then as I explained, the coin dropped, "Ah, sweet corn crab soup." The order did take a while to come. In fact when I called him at 11.45pm he said that the food had left "five minutes back."

The men at Khane Khas know how to work a tandoor.

4. Khane Khas on 16th Road

But the folks who never let me down are the merry men at Khane Khas at 16th Road, Bandra, a favourite of mine for over ten years. Calling them up is closest to what it feels like to call home. Got a bad stomach and want less spice in your food? No problem? Want only leg pieces in your chicken curry? No problem. Want tangdi kebabs but in a tandoori masala? No problem. Want your alu parathas to be baked and without ghee? No problem. Want just two rotis because the maid has cooked the rest? No problem. At times I feel like calling them just to hear them sing "Khane Khas" merrily when they pick up the phone. A guaranteed mood up lifter.

 

 

 

The brownie at Candies takes the cake, every time.

5. Dessert delivery: Candies

My most innovative use of home delivery for food was with Candies. Candies gets more crowded than an MJ concert on weekends. Getting yourself noticed at the counter requires quite an effort. I wanted something sweet from there a few days Sundays back and didn’t want to brave the crowds. I saw a Candies delivery guy returning to the restaurant and hopped onto his scooter. He went inside and got me my favorite melt in the mouth, mushy Candies brownies.

A bit Bollywood I know, but this is Bombay.

 

 

 

• Kakori House, tel. +91 9320090269 • Maroosh, tel. +91 (0) 22 26005584, 26000025 • 5 Spice, tel. +91 (0) 22 26421941, 26421943 • Khane Khas, tel. +91 (0) 22 26006970 • Candies, tel. +91 (0) 22 26422324