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Masque

Mumbai

• The Best Restaurant in India 2025

Innovative takes on Indian classics in an industrial-chic setting

What makes it special: One of India’s most forward-thinking restaurants, Masque’s raison d’être is to show off the wealth of India’s produce, extracting maximum flavour from local ingredients in a 15-course tasting menu served in a stylish former Mumbai textile mill. With self-taught cook and entrepreneur Aditi Dugar at the helm, Masque has won a string of accolades since opening in 2016, from the One To Watch Award in 2020 to entering Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2021 and achieving The Best Restaurant in India status three times in a row.

On the menu: With vegetarian and non-vegetarian options, Masque’s seasonal degustation takes in dishes such as prickly pear with nagphani (hawthorn) and coconut malai (coconut cream), sunchoke with ghassi (a type of curry) and smoked pork with Kashmiri chilli and poha (spiced flattened rice). Other highlights are the dosa with koji and the burnt ghee with saffron and pear toast.

On the Pass

Varun Totlani

Pastry Chef

Murali Nayak

Changing of the guard:  Varun Totlani, a Mumbai native who studied at the Culinary Academy of India in Hyderabad and the Culinary Institute of America in New York, took over the kitchen in 2022. Totlani has been with Masque since the beginning, joining as a commis chef and rising through the ranks to sous chef in 2021, and head chef in 2022, forming a great partnership with owner Dugar. With a penchant for fire, he loves the grill and is committed to showcasing India’s diverse produce and techniques.

Constant innovation: In 2020, The Masque Lab opened, an R&D laboratory where the team explore how ingredients age, how flavours contrast and how produce can help bridge food cultures. With 12 seats around an open kitchen, the lab doubles up as a private dining room and hosts regular experimental dinners for those who fancy tasting the future of Masque’s culinary potential.

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