When was the last time one of the countless Mumbai culinary chroniclers went to town about the opening of an authentic Indian cuisine-slanted, fine-dine restaurant?u00a0Chances are, it’s a number you can count on one finger. While the city’s foodies, culinary czars and gourmet gurus seem to be over the moon, what with the near assembly-line-like emergence of international cuisine restaurants across the city. Celebrity chefs being flown down from far-off Scandinavian lands, open kitchens, meet-the-chef contests, unpronounceable mentions on the menu, the works, we’ve seen, experienced and read it all, this past year. And, this, one dares to mention is probably another avatar of the McDonaldisation of India that hit our shores a while ago.

It’s been such a lopsided affair that even the younger generation (read: school and college yuppies) has rather effortlessly, latched on to the bandwagon, in their eating out tastes and preferences. A visit to any popular mall will confirm this. While most fast food/fine dine restaurants serving international cuisine will be choc-a-bloc on most days, the Indian themed restaurants have a relatively lesser buzz around them. Unless of course, they happen to be one of the older restaurants that, we are sure, must be having to work extra hard to keep up with the more popular Johnny-come-latelys.