Authentic North Indian cooking in the heart of Mumbai. Dine in, take away, or let us cater your next celebration.
Twenty-two dishes, four sections, changed only when something better comes along.
Black lentils, twenty-four hours on a low flame.
Tandoori thigh in a slow-reduced tomato and cashew gravy.
Rajasthani mutton, Mathania chillies, garlic, ghee.
Blanched spinach, never boiled, with house paneer.
Button and oyster mushrooms, hand-pounded kadhai masala.
Kashmiri lamb shoulder, fennel, dried ginger, no onion.
Baby aubergines stuffed with peanut and sesame masala.
Chicken in a cream and fresh fenugreek gravy.
Fried bread in saffron rabri, pistachio, silver leaf.
Khoya dumplings, cardamom syrup, served warm.
Set overnight in traditional moulds. Dense, not airy.
Ground rice pudding set in earthenware bowls.
Kingfish in a carom-seed and gram-flour batter, finished in the tandoor.
Hand-pressed paneer, hung-curd marinade, charred peppers.
Roasted beetroot, toasted walnuts, a whisper of clove.
Minced thigh, green chilli, fresh coriander, off the skewer.
Hung curd and cardamom, crisp outside, molten within.
Roasted papad, tomato, onion, pomegranate, sev.
Kacchi style, sealed with dough, opened at your table.
Pakki style, gentler spice, saffron and rose water.
Seasonal vegetables, fried onion, mint, sealed and steamed.
Garlic and roasted cumin yoghurt — the biryani’s other half.
Spice Route began in 1998 as a twelve-seat room where Kamala Nair cooked what she had cooked at home for thirty years. Her daughter Meera runs the kitchen now, and the rules have not changed: paneer pressed each morning, masalas pounded to order, and nothing held over from the day before. The room seats sixty today, but the dal still takes twenty-four hours.
The laal maas is the only one in this city that has not been softened for tourists. I bring everyone who visits me here, and I have never had to apologise for it.
We took over the terrace for my mother’s seventieth. Meera called twice beforehand to check the spice levels for the older guests. That is not a thing restaurants do.
Ordered the Hyderabadi biryani every Friday for two years. It has never once arrived dry, and it has never once been late.
Came for the biryani, stayed for the dahi ke kebab. Service was quick even on a Saturday and they did not rush us out afterwards.
Genuinely the best butter chicken in Bandra and I have tried most of them. Not too sweet, which is the usual failure.
Excellent food, and they were honest that the laal maas would be too hot for my parents. Only mark down is the wait on weekends — worth booking.
Catered our office Diwali lunch for sixty people. Everything arrived hot, on time, and the vegetarian options were not an afterthought.
Kitchen closes thirty minutes before the room does.
Two minutes from Bandra station, on the Chapel Road side.
Message us on WhatsApp and we will confirm within the hour. Walk-ins welcome, but weekends fill up by seven.