At #2 on the Top Restaurants Awards list is Masque in Mumbai. On every global stage where Indian restaurants are measured, Masque is the name that comes up. It has become the country’s most visible standard-bearer for modern Indian fine dining, thanks to its constant international collaborations, its daring sourcing journeys, and menus that refuse to stand still. A Relais & Châteaux member, it sits inside a converted Shakti Mills warehouse, where the room feels part theatre, part temple, its dramatic volumes framing the experience to come. The Masque experience unfolds as a ten-course tasting that can move from Manipuri black rice dumplings with fire ants to barramundi with prickly pear, closing on sheermal wrapped around lamb kebab floss. Foraged ferns from Himachal, apricots from Ladakh, sea herbs from Goa, each course is shaped by pilgrimages across India, and sometimes by childhood memories slipped in for surprise. Guests step into the kitchen mid-meal for a counter course, before returning to wines that shift between the classic and the unexpected. At the helm is chef Varun Totlani, who joined as a commis and rose to head chef in 2022, working alongside founder Aditi Dugar, one of the few women steering a marquee Indian restaurant. Together, they’ve made Masque a touchstone, a restaurant that signals how India wants to be seen on the world’s table. Nearly a decade in, Masque still feels like the restaurant setting the agenda for where Indian fine dining goes next.
Papa’s, Mumbai
At #3 on the Top Restaurants Awards list is Papa’s in Mumbai. You don’t book a seat at Papa’s, you win it, like a golden ticket. Twelve seats, gone in under a minute every month, and for good reason. Getting there feels like stumbling on a secret attic rave disguised as dinner. Squeeze into a Bandra bylane, climb a narrow staircase above a sandwich shop, duck your head so you don’t slam it on the low ceiling, and you have a feeling you’re not on Waroda Road anymore. Chef Hussain Shahzad is behind the counter, plating Nihari pies, throwing char siu pork into modaks, blasting a playlist that cues Abba after Kanye, and pouring negroni shots into teacups like your mischievous older cousin who has usurped the house party. It’s called Papa’s in honour of the late legendary chef Floyd Cardoz, but what Hussain has built is his own playground. Nothing about it plays by the usual fine-dining rules. The twelve-course menu isn’t some solemn march through precious plates. Instead, it’s Hussain riffing, pranking, and flexing years of big chops from Eleven Madison Park and The Bombay Canteen. One course might be a Kashmiri Wellington lined with morel muslin, or the famous Bugs Bunny dish, ants included. And while the food is outrageous and dazzling, the vibe is pure structured chaos-by-design: tables with in-built fidget spinners, joke books, magnetic loops to fiddle with in between courses, even a gola machine wheeled out so you can crank your own ice. Pro tip: ask about the cutlery holders that change with each course. General manager Madhusudhan Kashyap keeps the energy tight, playing half sommelier, half ringmaster, sometimes pulling card tricks mid-service. Behind the bar, Harish Subramanian stirs cocktails that taste like pizza, tom yum, or the ocean, drinks as off-kilter and clever as the food itself. By dessert, which may or may not be a honey-noodle sundae with champagne foam and potato chips, you’re convinced there’s no place like chef Hussain’s second home.
The Bombay Canteen, Mumbai
English