Sunny Side Up

Ian Fleming maintained that breakfast was the most delicious meal of the day. Which is why he had James Bond consuming things like double portions of scrambled eggs, hickory-smoked bacon, Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, and thick-cut whole-wheat toast with Cooper's Oxford marmalade at all hours. If Bond visited Mumbai (as indeed he once did, in the short story The Hildebrand Rarity), he would probably enjoy Basilico. They serve a great breakfast, all day.

Our favourites include the poached eggs with smoked salmon on toasted bagel, the pickled-lamb-and-mustard sandwich and the Eggs Benedict (another James Bond favourite). They offer interesting smoothies and juices, like banana-melon, and watermelon-with-green-chilli. Their coffees are good and the Jamaican Blue Mountain is a killer. But avoid the couscous upma at all costs.

At the next table you tend to see people like Jackie Shroff, interesting-looking tourists with tattoos, and on weekends, corporate CEOs with families in tow, unrecognisable in their baggy shorts and flip-flops. Basilico also serves regular lunches and dinners, but it's the breakfast menu that stands out.