The more the merrier.’ We hear this line or use it ever so often in routine conversation. Unfortunately, that does not hold true for the city’s restaurant-scape, especially when we take a closer scan at its diversity, cuisine-wise. It’s not a pretty, or shall we say, delicious picture because our large home state’s numerous and distinctly different regions appear nowhere on the chart. A recent, prestigious award to hail the country’s top restaurants, revealed quite a few from the city. And yet, among those winners, barring one space that was an ode to a hip suburb’s take on its people-inspired cuisine, a thorough look at the rest of the names shows no representation of the state’s or city’s own cosmopolitan, diverse flavours. It held a mirror to how underrepresented we are, when it comes to elevating regional fare, let alone take it to a high-end level.

The city scores alright with mid-level seafood fare, celebrating coastal food from various parts of the Konkan. And that’s about it. Here, too, we are yet to see dynamic, out-of-the-box, inspired fine dine restaurants spring up that celebrate this cuisine with a modern, edgy menu to lure the discerning, well-travelled foodie or tourist. The trusted names tucked in the lanes of Fort and Kalaghoda, and the Dadar-Parel belt, continue to be the big daddies. Where is the R&D to show any growth? What about the robust, spicy flavours of Kolhapuri cuisine? Or Nagpur’s famed Saoji cuisine? Try naming a popular dish or a cooking technique from Satara, Nashik, or Sangli? Chances are we’ll draw a blank. That pretty much sums up the scenario.