As far as restaurants in Mumbai go, there is no better place to try Maharashtrian cuisine than Aaswad in Dadar. It's right in front of Sena Bhawan and a customary wait of 15 to 20 minutes is pretty standard. Aaswad's varan bhat&ndashtur dal cooked with asafoetida and rice, served with fried chilli, garlic chutney, and sev exemplifies how good homemade food can taste. The flavour of the dal is taken up a notch with just enough jaggery to give it a perfect balance of salty and sweet. Their bharli vangi (stuffed brinjal curry), a dish so many get wrong, is spot on, from the masala to how the brinjals are stuffed.

Fifty metres away from Aaswad is the Prakash Restaurant specialising in Maharashtrian snacks. The sabudana vadas (tapioca pearls shaped into patties before being deep fried) and misal pav (Maharashtra's iconic curry made with beans, farsaan and served with pav) are what people queue up to eat. On holidays they do great puran polis (chapatis filled with sweetened chana dal) topped with spoons of hot ghee.

Seafood is prevalent in Mumbai and is available in a variety of forms. From Deluxe, which preps fish in authentic Kerala style, to Bastian, a high-end Asian restaurant dishing up the best crabs in the county, the city caters to everyone's taste buds. The Maharashtrian pinnacle of excellence goes to Gajalee in Ville Parle. Their food comes closest to that prepared in the khanavals (home kitchens) that can be found around the Konkan Coast. They make a stellar shark curry, where mori (baby sharks) are steamed in a tangy curry, loaded with amsol and tamarind and balanced by the sweetness of coconut milk.

The best way to try Koli cuisine is to eat it in a community member's home. The other option is Mi Hi Koli, a Koli speciality restaurant in Thane. It's better to refrain from the usual pomfret/surmai mains everyone orders. Their signature is Bombay duck stuffed with prawns, which the restaurant swears can be found only there. If luck favours a customer, they toss gabholi fry (fish roe) in as a starter.

Kolhapuri food can be sampled in Purepur Kolhapur in Dadar, where a classic Kolhapuri thali with red and white curry (tambda and pandhra rassa), mutton dry and rice can be eaten at a very affordable rate. The food is exceptionally high in spice, so eating it in moderation is advisable. In Virar, eating at Agashe Bhujing Centre is an unforgettable experience, which is well worth the journey out here. To taste a dish that has such an important place in the hearts of the people here and understand how something considered as boring as poha can be remade with such flair is what Mumbai is about. Their grilled chicken bhujing is the best of the lot, served with lots of curry on the side and sev on top.