When Indian Accent launched in Delhi in 2009, the idea of progressive Indian cuisine was still unprecedented. A 35-year-old chef, reinterpreting Indian dishes that are doused in nostalgia, and pairing them with global ingredients and techniques was an unconventional approach that got Chef Manish Mehrotra enormous recognition. It put the restaurant on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list—for nine years in a row; TIME Magazine listed it on the 100 Greatest Places in the World in 2018. In 2016, they opened the New York outpost and this weekend, finally, Indian Accent opened its doors in Mumbai.

"Der aye, durust aye [better late than never]," smiles Mehrotra, who is now the culinary director for EHV International, a part of the Old-World Hospitality Group that runs Indian Accent, Comorin, Koloman and Hosa. Two weeks ago, at a lunch hosted exclusively for Sunday mid-day, he looked part happy, part stressed, part relieved.