Ram Ashraya - Matunga

It is one of those well known eateries in Mumbai. But I never had the chance to be there and try out anything at Ram Ashraya. But today finally I landed there and that too during lunch time. The place is so famous and I was always wanted to be there. I just made my mind that today I will go to Ram Ashraya and thus I held a cab at Dadar and told the cabbie, Ram Ashraya hotel Matunga. He took me straight there, no questions or directions asked.


Ram Ashraya serves South Indian vegetarian food. The place was packed with few people waiting to be seated. I got a place to sit after 5 minutes. I guessed that the most people were regulars because they were just ordering what they wanted to have. Looking here and there I could see the food items list written next to the kitchen wall. I checked what others were having too. In my table one was having Bisi Bele Bhat and the other was having Puri with Korma. Since I had so much about their Dosas I wanted to try out a dosa. But last minute I opted for a Neer dosa to start with. It took about 7-10 minutes and I thought the waiter forgot about my order! He got me a piping hot Neer dosa with chutney, sambhar, a red chutney and a small katori of grated coconut which was sweetened. I thought of saving the sweet thing to the last.

Neer Dosa with the Chutneys & Sambhar

Then I asked for a vada with rasam. I did that deliberately because I am very particular about Rasam. I order rasam only in very few places and some places serving "South Indian" cuisine also cannot do justice to a simple rasam. It's so easy to get the rasam wrong. Ram Ashraya did not disappoint at all. I loved the Rasam and the vada too.

Vada with rasam

I saw one of the persons in my table order for Pineapple sheera. That looked yum and could smell the ghee already. But I did not have any today. Instead I asked for a cup of filter coffee. It was really good, not too strong and not too sweet. Just perfect.

Filter Kapi

This decision to go and have lunch at Ram Ashraya did not disappoint me at all. This is a simple no nonsense place serving what they claim to be good at. Trust me, they are not exaggerating. I have every plan of going to back to try out the other dishes in the menu soon.


Oh yeah, when the bill came, I had to check again. Rs.109/- for a Neer Dosa, Rasam Vada and an awesome filter coffee! Wow.

Ram Ashray Matunga