“If Hanumankind is in Bombay, he will eat here,” said a proud 60-year-old C H Basheer, the manager of Delux Kerala Restaurant, a 75-year-old eatery in Fort. He is referring to Sooraj Cherukat, the Kerala-born rapper and singer whose track Big Dawgs propelled him to global mainstream popularity, including a spot on the US Billboard Hot 100.He is far from the only recognisable name to have eaten here. Basheer, who has been manning the restaurant’s counter and floor for 30 years, recalls Ranjinikanth’s daughter Aishwarya, former Kerala health minister V S Sivakumar, former finance minister Dr T M Thomas Isaac and former education minister K T Jaleel among those who have dined at Delux. Their photos adorn a memory wall in the restaurant.
“In a nutshell, if anybody is coming from Kerala to Bombay, they will eat here,” he said with a smile.
The restaurant is arguably one of Mumbai’s oldest Malayali eateries. It was started by Keletra Abdul Kadar Haji, who came to Mumbai from Kasaragod in Kerala and opened a 24-seater restaurant serving Kerala-style food. It has since grown, adding an air-conditioned first floor, but its identity remains closely tied to the food and community it first served. Across both floors, murals and other design elements celebrate Kerala’s cultural landscape — Kathakali dancers, Vallam Kali, the state’s famous snake-boat race, and Thrissur Pooram, with its majestic, gold-adorned elephants. One section also has a selection of books, including Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me in Malayalam.
For Basheer, Delux is not just a restaurant he manages, it has been a constant in his life for three decades. He arrived in Mumbai from Kerala with very different plans. He had intended to go to Dubai with a photographer, Abdul Nazeer, who had a studio in Dongri. But when Nazeer’s photography venture did not work out, Basheer found himself staying back in Mumbai.
“He hired me as a waiter at his other venture, a restaurant called Maharaja,” he recalled. Five years later, Nazeer entered into a partnership with Keletra Abdul Kadar Haji and began running Delux, bringing Basheer along as its manager. He has been here ever since. “I am here every day, from the time it opens till it shuts at night, barring a small break in the afternoon,” he said.
Perhaps what has kept Delux relevant for so long is not only the celebrity names that have passed through its doors, but the generations of Mumbaikars who continue to return. The restaurant has an extensive menu, including Chinese dishes, but its draw remains Kerala food — particularly seafood and Sadya, with its spicy, peppery rasam, tangy sambar and perfectly sweet payasam with whole dry fruits, each tempting you to go back for another serving.
Delux serves a mini Sadya throughout the year and sees more than 100 people coming in for it on a typical day. Every Sunday, the spread gets more elaborate. For seafood lovers, there is also the Samudra Sadya, a seafood feast that is currently unavailable during the breeding season and will return in September.
“Our vegetarian Sadya features sambar, rice, dal, rasam, kadhi, pachadi, kootu curry, avial, thoran, pickle, papad and payasam,” Basheer said. The number of dishes increases on Sundays.
For Onam, the restaurant expands the feast further, where the number of items go up to 24: sharkara varatti, banana chips, two types of achar, inji puli, two types of thoran (mixed vegetable and chawli), avial, kootu curry, kalan, Kerala thiyyal, pineapple pachadi, pulissery, Kerala rice, parippu and ghee, sambar, rasam, two varieties of payasam (gul and dal, and paalada), along with papad and banana.
“It is how the Sadya is traditionally served,” Basheer explained, adding that there is meaning in how the meal ends too. The way a diner folds the banana leaf after eating is traditionally seen as a reflection of the meal: folding it towards oneself indicates that the food was enjoyed, while folding it away is said to indicate otherwise.
The Onam Sadya is popular enough for Delux to make special arrangements beyond its usual dining space. “The Onam Sadya is immensely popular, and a special sitting arrangement is made for it at Prospect Chambers,” Basheer shared, adding that at least 500 people queue up for the feast.
Heena Khandelwal is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express, Mumbai. She covers a wide range of subjects from relationship and gender to theatre and food. To get in touch, write to heena.khandelwal@expressindia.com ... Read More
