In the bustling neighborhood of Matunga, this decades-old vegetarian establishment is known for its homey South Indian cooking. The line for lunch often curls around the corridor, with everyone from businessmen to students waiting for their portioned meal of vegetables such as coconut cauliflower, roti (bread), rasam (a spicy, tomato-based South Indian broth) and sweets all served atop a banana leaf.

This casual restaurant features authentic dishes from up and down the Konkan coast, a 450-mile region along India's western coast that includes Maharashtra, Goa, and spreads south to the state of Karnataka. Veteran Mumbai chef Ananda Solomon, who oversees the hotel restaurant, is known for his precision, whether it's picking tamarind and coconuts at their peak or grinding spices daily, so expect your fish and appams (rice pancakes) to be absolutely perfect.

This Taj restaurant is simply a classic. The Indian food served is truly authentic, but presented with thought and sophistication.

This busy, family-friendly restaurant serves up authentic vegetarian food, including comfort dishes like Gujarati-style daal dholki (whole wheat strips cooked in a lentil soup) and street snacks like pani puri (hollow canapés filled with sprouted lentils and chutneys that are dipped in a cool mint broth). Other standouts include the panki (rice pancakes steamed between bananas leaves) and dhanshak, a traditional Parsi stew of lentils and vegetables served over rice. Expect to wait for a table.

This is one of those restaurants that the late R.W. Apple, Jr., esteemed New York Times journalist and food lover, declared to be worth getting on a plane and flying half-way across the world for a meal. He acknowledged that the place was shabby and the service rude, but the seafood is divine. He wrote in 2006, only weeks before he died: “These are among the world’s choicest crustaceans, and I say that as someone who lives 25 miles from the Chesapeake. But Ravi Anchan has plenty of other savory delights up his sleeve, including tender little pomfret (a kind of butterfish) barbecued in the style of Hyderabad, with black pepper; deep-fried squid; and gorgeous, never-frozen tiger prawns grilled with mint." It is still a Mumbai must.