I often find it difficult to answer when asked about my experience with fine dining tasting menus. These meals typically consist of over ten courses, most of which are crafted from the chef’s imagination and research. It is hard to remember what each dish was all about. Usually, a menu features a hero dish that remains memorable. This was the case at Indian Accent, Mumbai, for lunch yesterday. I was joined by a couple of my batchmates. Before discussing the food, I must point out a few things. The service was impeccable. The three of us felt at home. We had a lot of catching up to do and chatted for three hours before I suggested we should leave. I am no philosopher, but I realised that shared memories, a common language, and a shared sense of humour (understated and self-deprecating in our case) make for a lovely lunch. Great food certainly helps! That’s what we experienced in chef Rijul Gulati’s newly launched menu at Indian Accent, Mumbai, yesterday. The company behind Indian Accent is Old World Hospitality, and the afternoon was all about classic Indian khatirdari, reflecting the spirit of its owner, Rohit Khattar, and its executive chefs, Shantanu Mehrotra in Delhi and former Dilliwala Rijul, who has made Mumbai his home. Both chefs are self-effacing to a fault and focus on their craft. You won’t see them in glossies as often as others in their genre, but what you can be certain of is a great meal.
What was the hero dish? It was a dish that was part of the brunch menu and not on the tasting menu – Kanya Kumari crab in a Goan balchow-based dry masala. The combination of the juicy crab meat and tongue-tingling masala mix was a hit. One of my friends, who is vegan, was delighted by the vegan dessert that the chef offered her, as she rarely finds exciting desserts. Our other classmate, based in London and well-travelled, remarked favourably not just on the food but also on how measured and fluid the service was. We had the advantage of the chef explaining each course to us, and the restaurant was less crowded than at night, which added to the relaxed atmosphere. I won’t give you a detailed breakdown of each dish. Chef Gaggan Anand once told me that revealing too much can spoil the element of surprise for diners when reviewers do so. I see his point. However, I also realise that you might want to get a sense of what you’re about to experience. So, here are some highlights from the non-veg menu in terms of taste experiences: mango appears in various forms as it is a summer menu; there is a dry-aged duck served with a Gujarati summer sauce, which might seem odd at first but will make sense once you try it; tiger prawns served in a form you wouldn’t expect but will make complete sense when you have it; karela that will beat the defences of any karela hater…bas…now go and give it a go. One more thing, I don’t drink, but the pomegranate shikhanji and the OG soda shikhanji I tried were ambrosial in this heat. 
