A restaurant that serves only idlis and its numerous variants

Featuring Matunga's Idli House, whose menu is full of idlis

Idli House, an eatery with an odd name, is among my favorite restaurants in Mumbai. It is at King's Circle or Maheshwari Udyan at Matunga in south Mumbai.

This eatery not likely to be more than two hundred and fifty square feet (including dining, kitchen, and wash areas) is an epitome of simplicity. They can seat just twelve patrons at their three small tables, and an equal number can stand and eat at a long counter on one side. Their cramped space does not prevent them from being a unique eatery and a memorable one for diners.

Popular food writer Rashmi Uday Singh has best described the place by called it 'Idli Heaven' in her review of this restaurant. Do read on to find out why this humble eatery is worth such acclamation.

Idli House's claim to fame is its single-minded focus on idlies or a steamed dumpling made of fermented rice and lentil batter. Idli is a staple of breakfast plates across South India and now increasingly across the nation and perhaps the globe.

Idli House's twist on their only dish is that they have a large variety with the base batter mostly the same and variation in garnish and leaf wrapping in which they steam their idlis.

They make the whole range of idli-type dishes made by the Gowda Saraswat community of the Indian west coast.

They also have regional variants like the Kanchipuram idli and Puttu made at Coorg (a district in the south Indian state of Karnataka) and Kerala (southwestern state of India).

So, you have idlis made with grated cucumber (mudho) or even jackfruit (also Mudho but sweet).

Then there are idlis which the restaurant steams by pouring into jackfruit leaf cups (khotto) or screwpine leaves (Mudho). Some other Idli house idlies have included black pepper and vegetable garnishes.

Then there is idli upma, which is nothing but garnished crushed idlis.

Traditionally, households made idli upma to use the leftover idlis from the previous day by crushing the dish and garnishing it with mustard, turmeric, dal, and curry leaves.

In the Idli house, idli upma, they likely make it out of fresh idli and not rely on overnight stock.

The idli variants listed in the menu are a staggering thirty-two, which very few other Indian dishes can match.

The restaurant serves steaming hot idlis off their kitchen and with white coconut chutney and sambar. They also do dal (lentil soup) with the idlis if customers choose. The waiters provide each table with supplies of chutney powder (plain or curry leaf infused) and pickle and warn the diners that the restaurant charges for accompaniments they waste!

Idli House restaurant and menu

The waiters carefully remove the wrapped idlis from jackfruit or screwpine or banana leaves to enable diners to start eating. One can have a full meal here as the variety makes up for starters, main course, and even dessert! Their idli made with spiced cabbage and colored brown is very filling, and one serving of it is a light meal.

The idlis are grainy, soft, and melt in the mouth with the accompaniments. About two or three variants make up a hearty meal for one at Idli House and could cost just about a hundred or a fifty more. The best part of the meal is that the common spice and less oil in the food help you to feel contented but not glutted with food.

You can eat much here but can walk out without feeling having overeaten. There is not enough privacy at Idli House to chit-chat with your companions during a meal as other diners are just a foot and a half away on the table and even nearer in the case of the stand-in counter.

Idli House has no website, FB page or Twitter handle, or any presence on social media. They do not need to, as their idlis do all the talking or tasting in this case. For whatever publicity needs to be done (i)d(l)i(e) hard fans like me and scores of others seed the worldwide web with stories of appreciation that help spread the word around about a tiny restaurant that dishes out idlis or steamed rice dumplings.

Idli House stands as a symbol of simplicity in a world of brand clutter, over-the-top concepts, and bombastic execution. It humbly continues to serve good food daily without noise and fanfare in one corner of Mumbai.

Idli House is a part of the Matunga area, which has what I call the Udipi Mile or a long stretch of Udipi restaurants.

Starting in the forties of the twentieth century, Matunga came to have numerous south Indian vegetarian restaurants, with the first being the famous Rama Nayak Udipi Lunch home. They serve vegetarian thalis from their first-floor dining room just outside the Matunga station. They are so popular that you have to wait in line to get a seat and eat your meal.

Food historians believe that Rama Nayak is the first Udipi restaurant of Mumbai, which spawned the movement for inexpensive, south Indian vegetarian food eateries since then. At Mumbai, Udipi is now a synonym for something good and affordable in any product category.

When you to Matunga, you will choose numerous age-old eateries such as Sharada Bhavan, Ramashray, Mysore Café, Madras Café, Amba Bhavani Coffee Club, and Anand Bhavan.

With lockdown restrictions in 2020 and 2021, many of these restaurants have switched to take away mode, whereas, between the first and second COVID-19, several Matunga Udipi restaurants were operating normally.

I call Matunga the "little south India of Mumbai" as the whole area has the feel of southern Indian states. You can see colorful temple gopurams and temples in traditional Tamil style, flower garland sellers with fragrant jasmine and other flowers, vegetables that south Indian communities prefer, and even coffee powder stores that smell coffee from a distance.

Idli House is at the start of the Udipi Mile and close to the famous Mumbai Theatre Aurora. You can easily find parking nearby and partake of an entire meal at Idli House. They sell paan, south Indian snacks, and spice powder mixtures at their small restaurant.

If you are looking for a unique culinary journey, a visit to Idli House assures you of one.

Bon Appetit.