Trishna

The Jehangir Art Gallery, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya museum and the Gateway of India are all a short walk away, so Trishna fits easily into a day in South Mumbai. Churchgate and CSMT stations are a quick taxi ride.

The crab is the order. A whole jumbo crab is cooked in a rich, peppery garlic butter and served with soft butter naan for the sauce. Squid koliwada, a spiced fried dish named after Mumbai's fishing communities, and Hyderabadi fish tikka are the other dishes regulars order. The cooking draws on the coastal traditions of the Konkan and Mangalore.

The dining room is small and plain, and tables turn over fast at busy times. Prices are high for the setting because whole crabs are charged by size. Ask the staff for the weight and price of the crab before it is cooked. One large crab shared between two or three people, with a lighter fish dish alongside, is enough for most tables.

Trishna serves lunch and dinner seven days a week. Guides give lunch as 12:00 to 15:30 and dinner from about 19:00 until 00:30, but the restaurant does not publish its own timetable, so ring ahead. Book at least two days ahead and phone +91 92062 60260 to confirm crab availability on the day.

World's 50 Best gives 1991 as the year Trishna opened, while some local guides date its crab to 1965, when the site traded as an older Mangalorean lunch home. The same listing puts the average spend at about US$35 per person and names koliwada prawns, seafood biryani, Bombay duck and salmon in black pepper among the other dishes worth ordering. King prawns can be cooked in any of 21 sauces. The room is simple and gets loud when it fills. The listed landline is +91 22 2270 3213.

Sources: World's 50 Best Discovery, Trishna; Tablejourney, Trishna. Facts checked November 2026.