Mumbai Chowk - Newark (near 880 & 84W)

This place makes a wide variety of dishes that are popular in Mumbai, so no particular regional focus.

I went yesterday for lunch and before ordering talked for a while with the owner about how I like very spicy food but not when they just throw in too many of the wrong chiles and make the dish bitter and unbalanced. He recommended I order one of the kolhapuri dishes, which are the spiciest on the menu if you don’t order extra-spicy. He said a proper kolhapuri has a mix of 20 spices including an edible fungus he had his brother bring him from home. I got the mutton one, the sauce was delicious and complex, clearly a lot going on but hard to pick out any one element.

$10 as a lunch special came with bread, rice, delicious dal, and a dessert I guess was kheer, a soupy rice pudding, usually I find Indian desserts too sweet but this was lovely.

Menu seems pretty legit compared to what I see in Mumbai.

This place is legit. I believe there was a change in ownership a couple of years ago, and the new owners have done a great job. While the menu caters to one and all - they do a surprising number of things quite well. During my last visit - we sampled a whole gamut of items: from street side snacks (e.g., Pav Bhaji/Vada Pav) to Curries (e.g., notably good was the Kheema) to Indo-Chinese and all were respectably good and fresh. I for one would highly recommend Mumbai Chowk.

I had an errand to run nearby the other day so stopped in for a lamb frankie. Very satisfying. Reminded me of a northern-Mexico-style burrito made with fresh flour tortillas.

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