Rs 65 for ma ka khana

If you Are sick of packing sandwiches in your lunch dabba, and the "Spatial Chainese Nuddle and Fry Dries" stall outside your office has lost its appeal, try this new dabba delivery service

Although the Chowpatty branch of Indian snack food joint Chaat Lo has shut down, and its Bombay Central branch is shut for renovation, proprietor Ashok Shahni is still using the Bombay Central kitchen to prepare simple and reasonably-priced meals that he has appropriately christened, Mumma's Dabba.

These 100% vegetarian meals are available in three sizes, and contain dal or curry, rice and at least 2 rotis and a dry vegetable or a gravy dish (or both, if you order the Rs 80 option and actually get it). We ordered the Big Meal priced at Rs 80 and received the Diet Meal priced at Rs 65. But to be fair, we were not charged the difference.

Both the dishes we tried, a Cabbage-Onion Vegetable and the Moong dal, were flavoursome and not excessively oily. Our only complaint was that the salad and Raita we were promised (salad, we were told, is included in all three meal-options, though the Raita is not part of the conventional Rs 55 meal), were left out of our package. Still, we were impressed to find that our meal was hot when it reached us, despite the torrential rain.

Although Shahni candidly admitted, "The diet meal is just called that, though it's not particularly fat-free," we think that adequate portions provided, the lack of oil and the nutritive menu, ought to make for a sufficiently balanced diet.

Free delivery from South Mumbai to Bandra-Kurla complex. Call Ashok Shahni on 9004307249