Week 1543 - Bom Dia, Same Old Matunga

The Concept Explained

Counting Down to 90 - Week 1579

Why 1579

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

Audio

Link to click if you don't see the audio below.

YouTube Podcast Link

Text

The more things seem to change, the more they eventually remain the same or come full circle.

In Oct 2007, I wrote,

“Eating out for people living in Matunga follows very predictable patterns. For a quick, no-nonsense meal, any of the Udipi or South Indian joints works well. For a wider, but quick choice, the Classicy or Garnishy joints are always around. For tex-mex and a slightly more upmarket experience, there’s New Yorker’s. For Punjabi food and for some booze to go with it, Rasna Punjab fills the void. Ice-creams are either at Dimple or Naturals or near the Archies shop. Matunga Gymkhana is great for large groups and amazing value for money.”

Eating Well but not Fine

There are many restaurants and dining places in Matunga, but no fine dining place

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

This was a follow-up piece to an earlier one in 2005, where I wrote about how cheap it was to dine in Matunga, which it still is, more or less, depending on where you eat.

“Which is why it feels so nice to dine out in Matunga. You can take twelve people to Matunga Gymkhana and keep the bill for vegetarian food, to under a thousand rupees, and that too, thanks to Nandita and Amit, for above average food. Or you can go to Rasna Punjab or Peninsula for “Punjabi” food, for rates maybe a little bit higher, or to Fu Yong, for probably the cheapest, decent Chinese food this side of town.”

Good Food, Palatable Prices

Background: This was published on Nov 22 2005. Here is the archive link. Man From Matunga: Good food, palatable prices In a previous pseudo-socialist lifetime, mesmerized by Ayn Rand and living on endless cups of canteen chai, an article that Mr. Anil Dharker wrote, helped us fill at least three

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

I ended the 2007 article, with this,

“With the influx of nouveau riche Gujjus, Marus and Kutchhis, Matunga should be able to support a couple of fine-dining places. If not on the lines of Pure or Indigo, could we at least have something on the lines of a Copper Chimney or China Garden? Mr. A D Singh, etc. are you guys listening?”

Today, we went to a new place, Bom Dia, opposite Mysore Sabha on Bhaudaji Road. It looks nice but seems to have two personalities. The ground floor has a cafe vibe with large windows and an airy, sunny look, and the first floor is a more traditional dining place with poor natural lighting, tightly packed tables and loud background table talk volumes. Bom Dia means “Good Morning” in Portuguese and positions itself as an upscale restaurant but that ends with the name. The 1^st floor dining at Bom Dia feels like an upgraded version of Rasna Punjab or Matunga Gymkhana…the food was nice, and I may even go back some day, but in the end, it is pretty much the same crowd, the same noise, the same ambience…the non-alcoholic drinks were the only interesting, experimental part of the menu. Perhaps the cafe on the ground floor is different on a non-Sunday and I might try that out too some other day, but then TAB opposite VJTI at the corner of the SIWS college lane works equally well…quieter with good food. 

In short, 20 years later, we still don’t have a fine dining place. The Udipi restaurants continue to rule the roost with Madras Cafe and Ram Ashraya drawing large early morning crowds, Classic is still popular and Rasna Punjab and Matunga Gymkhana are still crowded. What is new is an RK, also on Bhaudaji Road with 1000 dishes on the menu as its claim to fame, Bachelor and Mawaali Dosa, serving road-side food, along with a proliferation of dessert and ice-cream shops that justifies my earlier 2012 moniker of Cream Circle for King’s Circle. Oh and we have one Starbucks in the Khalsa College campus…big whoop!

Cream Circle

King’s Circle has become cream circle due to the proliferation of ice-cream shops

Bhavin's WritingsBhavin Jankharia

Fine dining still means moving out to Lower Parel or BKC or into town or to Bandra. Matunga for dining is still a hick-town, as if Kandivali, Borivali or for that matter Mulund had been transplanted into an empty space between Dadar and Sion. 

TAB has tried to be different and it works, at a cafe level. Bom Dia could have taken a leap of faith and tried something different, but in the end, it just went with the usual Matunga flow. Such a wasted opportunity!! 

PS: Of all the restaurants mentioned in this piece, so many don’t exist any more. Garnish is gone because the building is under redevelopment. New Yorker is gone, though there is a New York Burrito, which has decent tex-mex. Pure doesn’t exist. Indigo is a pale shade of what it used to be. China Garden is shut for good. Fu-Yong shut a long time ago and gave way to other restaurants and is now a parlor. Nandita and Amit no longer do the catering for Matunga Gymkhana, which is sad!