In the heart of bustling Bandra, Mumbai, Chef Saurabh Udinia has built a temple to fire. The Delhi-born, Singapore polished chef, who trained under Manish Mehrotra and earned accolades at the award-winning Revolver, now brings his modern, irreverent vision of Indian cuisine to this compact yet striking 42-seater restaurant.
Walking in feels as though you have stepped into a design magazine, fluted glass walls, terracotta chairs and a skylit verandah greet you like an elegant host. But the real magic happens in the main dining room, seven front-row seats at the chef’s counter face flames licking up from a custom grill, while a plancha and tandoor simmer alongside in perfect harmony. Even the open fire feels tamed, thanks to a futuristic air curtain ensuring that heat is kept for the food, not the guests.
Saurabh’s tasting menu is an 11-course symphony of flavours, a sine wave, as he describes it, alternating between smoke and cream, zing and earth. It kicks off with a reinvented chaat course, where dahi bhalla is baked and aerated into a cloud like hybrid of bread and cake, drenched in whipped yoghurt and chutneys. From there, Kashmiri morels nestle into vegetarian nihari, mud crab blends with scallops over embers, and red snapper arrives wrapped in banana leaf, a ‘patra ni machhi’ echo from Gujarat.
Each dish is playful yet technical, letting its star ingredient shine while gently teasing tradition. And the drinks? Mischief in liquid form. Ashes to Oolong is whisky tangled with clarified passionfruit and pandan, effervescently triple carbonated. Even an espresso martini gets earthy with beet and sesame.
HOM feels like a fire-driven adventure you didn’t know you needed, a bit cheeky, yet sophisticated. It’s Mumbai’s edible poetry sung with smoke.
