Inside Mei 13, Mumbai’s newest ode to Cantonese food

Gauri Devidayal has had a busy week. The restaurateur has just come off a series of relentless days and sleepless nights gearing up to launch two new culinary ventures: the delivery-only Iktara, helmed by chef Amninder Sandhu, which began operations last weekend and focuses on wood-fired Indian food, and Mei 13, the city’s latest answer to Cantonese cuisine. The former already seems to be a runaway success, as I discovered last Sunday while waiting for my delayed (although still delicious) meal to arrive. (“Demand is through the roof. We’re very sorry, but thank you for your patience,” I was told.) The latter opens its doors (or door, rather: a shiny red hard-to-miss lacquered one. Bonus points for instant identifiability) in Colaba, where Devidayal’s former co-venture, Miss T, shut shop not long ago.

I walk into Mei 13 two days before opening night (the restaurant will initially only be open for dinner). Though the set-up is largely the same as Miss T, that’s where the comparison ends—not counting the former’s stellar cocktail menu, which lives again within the confines of Mei 13. I settle on one of the plush blue velvet benches lining the walls, and I am soon joined by Devidayal. She tells me how the last few days have been a whirlwind of tastings for friends, family and others in the biz, with the night before seeing an intimate yet intimidating dinner with industry folk. “‘Couldn’t you have given me an easier litmus test?’ I asked my team,” she says, with a laugh.

She tells me how the restaurant’s Kent Lee (head chef), Michael Pien (dim sum master) and Xavier Tan (wok master) each brings a wealth of experience, and a strong belief in the core tenets of Cantonese cooking—a focus on using the freshest ingredients and high cooking temperatures. Devidayal admits that the kitchen of Miss T, which served Burmese, Thai and Vietnamese fare, had to be retrofitted in order to accommodate the new equipment, such as burners, needed for this kind of cooking.

There’s a menu before me, and I glance through it, but I know I’m in good hands. Ten minutes later, I’m proved right as the first dish of the afternoon, the Chinatown Duck Salad, is set before me. The duck is cooked perfectly—crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside—and scattered over with mixed greens and deep-fried lotus root, with a drizzle of fragrant truffle oil and a handful of sweet-sour pomegranate. Stuffed purple potato and edamame dim sum follows, as does pumpkin dim sum (it actually looks like its namesake, and is the most delightful looking dumpling I’ve ever eaten), wasabi prawn with chia seeds, a duck cigar with a delicious dipping sauce, and a fried dim sum roll of prawn and avocado that’s covered in a light-as-air, lace-like batter.

With dim sum done, it’s time for the big guns: fleshy, tender, melt-in-the-mouth, deep-sea butter lobster, Toban chilli rice with edamame (sweet, spicy and with a little fermented kick), garlic chilli garlic pak choi (crisp, fresh, crunchy), and wok-tossed french beans with olives (the beans have a great char on them) appear in quick succession. There’s also a nostalgia-laden dish of stir-fried hand-pulled noodles that I promise will hit a specific culinary comfort zone for all of us who grew up between the 1970s and early 1990s. “It’s comforting,” I tell Devidayal, between mouthfuls. “It’s like #NetflixandNoodles.” She laughs, agreeing, and says she’s going to put that on the restaurant’s Instagram and maybe try a bowl in bed herself, too.

There’s plenty more on the menu—cheung fung, soft-shell crab, ribs, spring rolls, black pepper and black bean variations of chicken and seafood, rice, noodles, and of course, soup—but that’s for another day. Dessert is a sole mango pudding with cream. “We’re looking to bring back some of our popular desserts from Miss T,” says Devidayal. I’m hoping for the yuzu tart, with its black sesame ice cream, coconut crumble and sesame brittle, but I guess I’ll have to come back for round two to find out.

Mei 13 opens on Saturday, March 7, 2020 and will initially only be open for dinner, 7pm onwards

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