Name: Patra ni machhi (Mumbai style)
Prep time: 25 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 4 pomfret fillets (or any white fish), about 200g each; Juice of 1 lime; Salt to taste; 200g fresh coriander leaves; 100g grated coconut (fresh or frozen); 4 green chillies; 1 inch ginger; 4 garlic cloves; 1 teaspoon cumin seeds; 2 teaspoons sugar; 4 large banana leaves, washed and cut into 25cm squares; String to tie parcels

Pomfret fillets coated in green coconut chutney, wrapped in banana leaf and steamed. The Parsi wedding-table fish dish. Editor's TableJourney pick.

Patra ni machhi is one of the four canonical Parsi wedding-table dishes (alongside sali boti, dhansak, lagan nu custard). The Parsi community brought the steaming-in-leaf technique from Persia; the green chutney is local Bombay coriander, coconut and chilli. Jimmy Boy still cooks it the wedding-table way.

3 editor picks for Patra ni machhi in Mumbai, ranked by editorial score. All Mumbai signature dishes · Patra ni machhi across every city.

Britannia and Co ★ 4.7

Parsi

fort · Wakefield House, 11 Sprott Road, Ballard Estate, Fort, Mumbai 400001

Britannia has poured Iranian zereshk berries over mutton pulao at this Ballard Estate room since 1923, three generations of the Kohinoor family running it.

The Bombay Canteen ★ 4.7

Modern Indian

lower-parel · Unit 1, Process House, Kamala Mills, Senapati Bapat Road, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400013

Floyd Cardoz, Sameer Seth and Yash Bhanage opened The Bombay Canteen in Kamala Mills in 2015 and reframed regional Indian cooking as a tasting-format menu.

Jimmy Boy ★ 4.4

Parsi

fort · Vikas Building, 11 Bank Street, Off Horniman Circle, Fort, Mumbai 400023

Jimmy Boy is a three-generation Parsi room off Horniman Circle, serving the wedding-table dishes daily: patra ni machhi, sali boti, dhansak and lagan nu.

Learn to cook it, or eat it with a guide

Patra ni machhi makes more sense with someone from Mumbai explaining it. These are the classes and tours we have checked, with booking links.

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