Institutions all, each represents the varied palate that constitutes Mumbai. Mama Kane is a veritable old Maharashtrian restaurant next to Dadar station, one of the few in the city where you can get Home-style Maharashtrian food. It’s seen better days but its old customers still flock back for a bite of kothambir wade and a sip of piyush.

In Fort, Mocambo used to be a sleepy Parsi restaurant where you could have a beer and watch the world go by. After reinventing itself into an up-market Continental restaurant, Mocambo is where you go for nice thick pork chops, juicy steaks, pastas and burgers. Mondegars with its claustrophobic seating and noisy ambience marches on unchanged. Collegians bunking class to guzzle pitchers of beer, brush chairs with tourists who love the old world café charm lingering over a coffee and sandwich during the day. In the evening, it’s a raucous yuppie hangout, and weekends – don’t bother trying to get in.

McDonald’s is the face of Modern India, the one that is happy to sit in and stuffs itself with tasteless burgers, great shakes and the crispiest fries. Tradition, history, culture, health – forget it, this is instant gratification and this is as good as it gets.