Brussels: A Canvas of Creativity
Photo by: Selma D'silva
Way ahead of its time, Oberoi dared to start a Japanese restaurant. It failed. Closed down. Busybee was Sakura’s biggest admirer. He loved Japanese cuisine and was thrilled there was one in India now, in his own beloved city, so he didn’t have to wait to be in London to eat sushi and sashimi. But his sole patronage wasn’t enough. And the encouraging reviews he wrote also didn’t help much. Food lovers were generally orthodox in their tastes, and not too adventurous those days. The ‘70s, I think.
Well, then came Wasabi in 2004 at The Taj. Morimoto’s name was thrown about and it caught on. The timing was right. Dining out at high-end restaurants was now fashionable. There was great snob value attached to being among the well-heeled, who “loved Japanese food”.
Well, we’ve gone from one or two good restaurant openings every quarter to a dozen opening every month now! To be honest, I have stopped trying to keep pace – even as an editor of a food magazine, and just let others in the office handle it. I have my favourite go-to places and I stick to them.
Bombay’s food scene in 2026 is thriving. Openings galore, from avant garde dining to casual multi-cuisine hotspots. But what amazes me is that Japanese and Korean and Peruvian are at the top. You don’t have to go into a 5-star hotel to enjoy these cuisines, it’s right there in Pali Hill, Versova, Lower Parel, Colaba… Fancy places, design-led, dramatic, brightly-lit and noisy or dark and sexy with out-of-this-world music. All very welcome. Bombay needed it. Food remains secondary, but fortunately there are many chefs, owner-chefs actually, who don’t adhere to that line of thought. These are among the new places I go to.
So, this long-drawn intro was actually to take your notice to the foodie area of this quarter – what we call the Central Bombay mill lands. We began this series taking into account this very aspect of 100s of new restaurant openings and our readers calling in asking for recommendations, confused about where to go.
We chose Bandra to begin our geographic breakdown of culinary Bombay because the biggest buzz was there. That issue was well-appreciated and the next one was on SoBo, the third on BKC. And now we are milling around.
Do check our 10 best in that locality and tell us what you think of our pick. Mohan Krishnan, who is in and out of our office during the days this section is being planned, is a serious foodie and a sincere food critic.
So, what is the other interesting part of the current issue? Cookbooks! Seems for every restaurant that opens, someone comes out with a book on food. While I am glad the trend of writing about food continues, and publishers are willing to publish, I wish there were some level of individual quality control here. However, some very worthy new releases have just come out, and we have a pick of seven for you. Over 10 pages! Lately, a little birdie has been whispering in my ear, planting an idea in my own brain! But nope, not for now!
For now, I will just eat, drink and travel. Like I did to Belgium and loved it there. Brussels is lovely and Bruges, lovelier. Pure enchantment.
Talking about enchantment gets me to talk about The Leela. The one brand that evokes romance and awe. Especially their property in Udaipur. How did they even conjure such a happy place, as beautiful, as elegant. Ah! Anuraag Bhatnagar, our cover boy is one fortunate guy that he gets to head all these wonderful Leela properties. What’s more he is all set to launch 10 more in the next few years, starting with at least three in the following months. Can’t wait to check them out… Coorg, here I come again.