A Homegrown Guide To Mumbai’s Best Fish Thalis

Image Courtesy: Mi Hi Koli

Mumbai is a city well-known for its coastal line and seafood. For an eternity Mumbai’s native residents have practised fishing as one of their primary occupations and inevitably, seafood is ingrained in the city’s food culture. In many seafood restaurants across the city, fresh and dried fish finds its way onto the plates of many. Here is our guide to fish thalis across Mumbai, covering a range of cuisines and culinary styles for all you seafood lovers.

I. Acharekar’s Malvan Katta

Where: Dadar West

Cuisine: Malwani

Known for its budget-friendly thalis, Acharekar Malvan Katta is a tiny coastal eatery located in Dadar serving authentic vegetarian and non-vegetarian Malwani food.

Accommodating around 20 people at a time, the eatery dishes out food that tastes like home. Serving seafood of all kinds, they offer an array of fish thalis — pomfret, bangda, bombil, surmai, prawns, crabs and more.

Their surmai thali and prawn dishes are locally beloved.

Check out Acharekar’s Malvan Katta here.

Acharekar’s Malvan Katta

II. Mi Hi Koli

Where: Thane West and Mulund

Cuisine: Koli

Imbibing the Koli identity, the food joint plates out popular seafood dishes adhering to the traditional methods of Koli cooking. Covering a wide range of seafood, they offer thalis prepped with a variety of cooking methods — offering fish like surmai, prawns, pomfret and crab in curry, masala, as well as fried.

In sync with Mumbai’s taste buds, these authentic delicacies are tempered with their homemade Koli masala. Their surmai curry thali and kekda masala thali are their primary crowd-pullers.

Check out Mi Hi Koli here.

Mi Hi Koli

III. Soul Fry

Where: Bandra West

Cuisine: Goan

Soul Fry is a Goan eatery based in Bandra offering Mumbai a taste of Goa with its range of authentic Goan coastal dishes. The food menu offers a familiar mix of selective vegetarian and non-vegetarian options of Goan, Bengali, Malvani and Mangalorean dishes.

They’re quite popular for their karaoke nights and Goan fish thali.

Check out Soul Fry here.

Soul Fry

IV. Just Kerala

Where: Andheri

Cuisine: Kerala

Kerala, which is known for its unique amalgamation of traditions and cultures that otherwise varies with geography and religion, has the same uniqueness attributed to its food styles. Operational for the last three decades, Just Kerala, is a family-run business serving dishes in a signature Kerala style.

They’re quite popular for their masala thali that’s served alongside a spicy fish curry, pappadum, appams/parottas, avial, rasam, boiled rice, and sambar.

Check out Just Kerala here.

Just Kerala

V. Maharashtra Lunch Home

Where: Nerul And Kharghar, Navi Mumbai

Cuisine: Kokani

Serving authentic regional food from Maharashtra’s Malvan and Konkan regions, Maharashtra Lunch Home offers a wide range of under-explored traditional Maharashtrian dishes like Black Chicken.

This quaint eatery dishes out fish thalis from surmai to pomfret with both dry and gravy variants of the seafood. This is can be paired with roti/bhakri/chapati, curry, rice and the traditional kokum and coconut drink — sol kadi.

Check out Maharashtra Lunch Home here.