Plural, Fort, Mumbai Continental Restaurant

Restaurant Name: Plural, Fort, Mumbai
Phone: +912249605020, +919892382740
Address: 108, Ground Floor, Jaihind Building, Kala Ghoda, Nagidas Master Road, Fort, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400001 India
Time: 12:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Meals for two: Rs.2,000
Cuisines: Asian, Continental, Desserts, Beverages
Facilities: Home Delivery, Takeaway Available, Indoor Seating, Table booking recommended, Desserts and Bakes

Stop press! Mumbai’s brand new vegetarian South East Asian restaurant Plural passes the singular acid test — it is approved by dyed in the drool non-vegetarians! Believe me, a bichara food critic’s life can be fraught with lots of tension, especially when I invite four articulate non-vegetarian gourmets to the vegetarian Plural. Phew! The air is thick with tension. Globetrotting carnivorous gourmets, Vikram and Maya Merchant, love the traditional and celebrate innovation equally, whether it be food, wine, literature or music. Micky Dalal, the accidental McLeod Ganj tourist as well as the fourth gourmet, our birthday boy (who prefers to remain anonymous) love to meat and greet. Sure! They love vegetarian Gujju food but South East Asian? You kidding? No! I’m not. I insist on dragging them kicking and screaming. The pure vegetarian amongst us, Bela Dalal (the wannabe polyglot, farmer and philosopher) also gives Plural her whole hearted approval. After their initial resistance, tension and suspense, we have a relaxed evening as plate after plate of delicious surprises fly in.

Plural, Fort, Mumbai: Simply Done Up

Please take a look at the photograph: we’re perched cozily in the tiny loft. We book ahead to remain safe. The narrow, long eatery is packed. It is enrobed in muted, understated colors.

A firm commitment to sustainability and environmental consciousness manifests itself in the materials used — right from the interiors to the choice of packaging. Happily, this extends to the kitchen and bar, too.

Dimsum To Vietnamese Pizza

Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia distil onto our plates. But do so in their vegetarian avatar. Oh! How we love tantalizing freshness! The summer roll’s crunchy vegetables in the embrace of rice paper roll flirt with our taste buds, even more when we dip it in the tangy nuoc cham sauce. The pomelo salad with its sexily luscious grapefruit, tumbling in bed with pink radish, tender coconut dressed with miso soy is made crunchy with peanuts.

Can dimsum be so familiar and yet so foreign? Edamame marries fennel and sambal. In another dimsum, mixed mushroom, leek, enoki swim in a celery and ginger broth. Who’d have thought that roasted butternut squash, coconut and mint labneh would make for a memorable dimsum?

Pizza has its own pizzaz on a crispy rice paper base topped with velvety tofu, avocado, spiked with bird eye chilli sauce. Even the humble rice congee is elevated to a masterpiece of flavour and texture.

It’s amazing how a roasted head of cauliflower can be metamorphed into this multi-flavored, plump seductive sphere, infused with cashew and sambal glaze sumac mint yoghurt. We do a tasting of the mind-blowing choice of unique curries and stews. They are red, yellow and green and unique and must try. Unusual delightful desserts… it’s the vanilla panacotta which comes up tops — variations of peach, almond sponge, roasted almonds. The letdowns? The pho which lacks punch and the stodgy banhmi.

Plural: A Singular Success

I’m in the exciting midst of researching my 41st book, The Ultimate Global Vegetarian, and been dining in the world’s most awesome vegetarian restaurants, including Eleven Madison Park (NYC) the Michelin-starred pure-vegetarian restaurants in China, Italy and Japan. Suffice it to say that the brilliant young Vedant Shah’s Plural is world class. It’s moderately priced and has a full bar. Plural’s dishes seduce with a range of authentic flavours and do so with a creative cheeky tweak and sophisticated spin. Any wonder that my non-vegetarian guests totter out with a smile? To borrow Vikram Merchant’s words, “Plural… a singular success.”