The Bombay Canteen: Thomas Zacharias Then and Now

The Bombay Canteen is a modern regional Indian restaurant in Kamala Mills, Lower Parel, Mumbai. It opened in 2015 with Thomas Zacharias as co-founder and first executive chef, but he no longer runs the kitchen: Hussain Shahzad, once his sous chef, has led it since the post-pandemic reopening. There is no burger on the menu. The burger connection is Mumbai’s pav, the soft bun of vada pav, the snack locals call the “Bombay burger”. Want an actual burger? Start with my guide to the best burgers in Mumbai.

I wrote this profile as a correction. Hotel listings, aggregator pages and chef bios still name Zacharias as The Bombay Canteen’s executive chef, years after he handed over the kitchen. That matters if you book a table expecting his cooking. What follows is a dated timeline of the handover, the details you need to book, what to order, and the sourced story of why a potato fritter in a bun gets called a burger. I checked every fact against the restaurant’s official site and menu, and against the press sources named in each section, on 30 October 2026.

The Bombay Canteen Mumbai at a glance

The Bombay Canteen is a restaurant in Lower Parel that serves modern food from India’s regions. It was founded by Floyd Cardoz, Yash Bhanage, Sameer Seth and Thomas Zacharias under Hunger Inc. Hospitality (Restaurant Times, Outlook Traveller).

The Bombay Canteen Mumbai at a glance: address, hours (12 pm to 1:30 am daily), reservations, cuisine, executive chef Hussain Shahzad, founders, Hunger Inc. group, no burgers on the menu, tasting menu ₹3,754 or ₹3,292 vegetarian (April 2024) (Table: Burger Breton, original work, CC BY 4.0, data from thebombaycanteen.com, The Infatuation and Elite Traveler (checked 2026-10-30))

The address comes from The Infatuation and Elite Traveler. Elite Traveler also lists a split schedule on Thursdays. I give the hours from the official site, which is the more authoritative source, but check it before you go.

Map of Lower Parel, Mumbai: The Bombay Canteen at Unit-1, Process House, S.B. Road, inside the Kamala Mills compound, a short walk from Lower Parel station (Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL, https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright. Iframe embed with explicit width and height and loading=“lazy”; a local static poster still needs to be generated)

Who is Thomas Zacharias, the chef behind The Bombay Canteen?

Thomas Zacharias is a Kerala-raised chef who co-founded The Bombay Canteen and was its executive chef from 2014 until around 2020–21. He learned to cook in his grandmother’s kitchen in Kerala (PRI/The World, 14 Sep 2015).

Training at Manipal, the CIA and Le Bernardin

Zacharias trained at the Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration in Manipal and at the Culinary Institute of America, where he graduated as valedictorian. He then cooked at Le Bernardin, the three-Michelin-star seafood restaurant in New York, and worked with the Olive Group in India (Entrepreneur India, 17 May 2024).

Executive chef of The Bombay Canteen, 2014 to 2020–21

Zacharias became executive chef of The Bombay Canteen in 2014, before it opened, according to his CIA bio. The same bio records that he was named Chef of the Year at the 2018 Condé Nast Traveller India Top Restaurant Awards. Floyd Cardoz, the New York-based Indian chef, was the restaurant’s culinary director.

Floyd Cardoz, co-founder and culinary director of The Bombay Canteen, at a cooking demonstration of Indian cuisine in October 2011, before the Mumbai restaurant opened (3648×2736 px) (Photo: Gary Stevens, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Floyd\_Cardoz\_demonstrating\_Indian\_cuisine.jpg. No licensed portrait of Thomas Zacharias or Hussain Shahzad was found; an original photo or press-kit portrait is still needed for both)

Why Thomas Zacharias left the restaurant

Zacharias says he chose to leave well before COVID-19, and not for money. He told his business partner about 18 months before the pandemic, and he called the decision “not a financial one at all” (inkl). He stepped down as executive chef around the 2020–21 reopening. The exact year depends on who you read: Slurrp and Scroll tie it to the reopening after the COVID closure, Homegrown and inkl say 2021, and Restaurant Times says 2022. I could not find whether he still holds equity or an advisory role at Hunger Inc., so I do not call him a current owner.

The Locavore: what Zacharias does now

Thomas Zacharias now runs The Locavore, a platform he founded for local and sustainable Indian food. Outlook Traveller covered its second anniversary, and Entrepreneur India profiled him in May 2024 as a “vocally local” hero. Sources give 2021 or 2022 as the founding year, so I leave the exact date out.

Who is the chef at The Bombay Canteen now?

Hussain Shahzad is the executive chef of The Bombay Canteen. He was Zacharias’s sous chef and had been running O Pedro, Hunger Inc.’s Goan restaurant, before he took over the kitchen (Slurrp).

Shahzad took charge when the restaurant reopened after an eight-month closure during the pandemic. The reopening menu had about 20 new dishes, including Floyd’s Kulcha Club, named after Cardoz. In an interview with Scroll, Shahzad says everything he learned, he learned from Floyd Cardoz. You can read that on the menu: the kulcha named for his mentor was still there in August 2025.

Shahzad also leads Papa’s, a 12-seat Hunger Inc. restaurant opened in honour of Cardoz. Papa’s placed No. 66 on the 51–100 list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026 (IBTimes India).

The Bombay Canteen timeline, 2014 to 2026

This timeline sets out who founded The Bombay Canteen, who ran it and when the kitchen changed hands. I have not found these dates together on any other page.

The Bombay Canteen timeline, 2014 to 2026: Thomas Zacharias hired in 2014, opening in late February 2015, Chef of the Year in 2018, Floyd Cardoz’s death on 25 March 2020, Hussain Shahzad takes over in 2020–21, Best Indian Restaurant 2024, ten-year menu in August 2025, Papa’s No. 66 in 2026 (Table: Burger Breton, original work, CC BY 4.0, data from the CIA bio, PRI/The World, inkl, The Week, Slurrp, Scroll, Outlook Traveller, Restaurant Times, the official menu and IBTimes India (checked 2026-10-30))

Cardoz’s death is reported by The Week (25 Mar 2020). At the World Culinary Awards 2024, The Bombay Canteen finished ahead of Indian Accent, Masque and Masala Library (Outlook Traveller). I left out a “No. 91 in 2025” Asia’s 50 Best ranking that aggregators repeat, because I found no primary source for it.

Thomas Zacharias then and now: horizontal timeline of The Bombay Canteen’s chefs and awards from 2014 to 2026, with the 2020–21 handover to Hussain Shahzad marked as a range (Chart: Burger Breton, original work, CC BY 4.0, data from the CIA bio, inkl, The Week, Slurrp, Scroll, Outlook Traveller and IBTimes India (checked 2026-10-30). Horizontal on desktop, stacked vertically on mobile; to generate)

The Bombay Canteen menu: what to order

Order Eggs Kejriwal, the restaurant’s signature dish: a single fried egg with melted cheese and green chilli chutney. It is on the official monsoon menu dated 6 August 2025, titled “Breaking Borders & Bread”, which marks ten years with the tagline “Eat your way through India” (menu PDF).

Small plates (“Chhotas”)

The “Chhotas” open the menu, and they are where I would build a first order: several small plates shared across the table rather than one main each. Next to Eggs Kejriwal, the August 2025 menu lists:

• Chettinad Prawns “Ali-Yolio”
• Pork Birria Taco on jowar bhakri
• Ragda Pattice with carrot tikki
• Duck Momos

Bread dishes: Floyd’s Kulcha Club and the Prawn Toastie

The closest things to a sandwich at The Bombay Canteen are its breads. Floyd’s Kulcha Club comes as Pindi Chole Kulcha or Butter Garlic Crab Kulcha. The Prawn Toastie and the rolls sit in “Canteen Munchies”, served Monday to Thursday from 12 to 7 pm.

Weekday lunch: the Canteen Tiffin Box

The Canteen Tiffin Box is the weekday lunch option, served Monday to Thursday from 12 to 3:30 pm. It comes with bread or rice, salad and dessert.

What to order at The Bombay Canteen, from the 6 August 2025 “Breaking Borders & Bread” monsoon menu: Eggs Kejriwal, Chettinad Prawns “Ali-Yolio”, Pork Birria Taco, Ragda Pattice, Duck Momos, Floyd’s Kulcha Club, Prawn Toastie and the Canteen Tiffin Box (Table: Burger Breton, original work, CC BY 4.0, data from The Bombay Canteen’s official menu dated 2025-08-06. No licensed photo of Eggs Kejriwal or Floyd’s Kulcha Club exists; an original photo from a visit is still needed)

Tasting menu and prices

The only price I could source dates from April 2024. The Infatuation priced “The Canteen Experience”, an eight-course menu, at ₹3,754, or ₹3,292 for the vegetarian version (The Infatuation, 24 Apr 2024). The official menu PDF shows no prices. Treat these figures as a 2024 benchmark and confirm the current price when you book.

Price of The Bombay Canteen’s eight-course “Canteen Experience” in April 2024: ₹3,754 standard vs ₹3,292 vegetarian (about US$45 and US$39 at the time; a benchmark, not a current price) (Chart: Burger Breton, original work, CC BY 4.0, data from The Infatuation (2024-04-24). Two-bar chart; to generate)

Does The Bombay Canteen serve burgers?

No. The August 2025 menu has no burger, slider or vada pav, and I found no burger on any earlier menu either. Search results for a “Bombay Canteen” butter chicken burger, or for branches in a Galleria Mall, London or Newcastle, belong to unrelated businesses that share the name.

If burgers are the reason you are in Mumbai, read my ranking of the best burger restaurants in Mumbai. It covers the city’s smash burgers, buffalo patties and chicken burgers, with prices in rupees and the date I checked them. The Mumbai city hub gathers every guide we publish on the city.

Vada pav, the “Bombay burger”

Vada pav is a deep-fried potato fritter served in a soft pav bun, and it comes from Maharashtra. It is widely called the “Bombay burger” (Wikipedia, Frying Pan Adventures). One look explains the nickname. Round bun, round fried patty, chutney, eaten in the hand.

Vada pav, the “Bombay burger”: two pav buns split open to show the deep-fried potato fritter on green coriander-mint chutney and red garlic chutney (3264×2448 px) (Photo: Rainmaker87, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vada\_Pav\_with\_Fresh\_green\_coriander\_and\_mint\_Chutney\_and\_Garlic\_chutney.jpg)

Zacharias has his own pick. In August 2024 he named Ashok Vada Pav, in Dadar near Prabhadevi, “by a long margin one of Mumbai’s best vada pav spots” (Slurrp, 22 Aug 2024). Pair a stop there with a meal at The Bombay Canteen and you get both ends of Mumbai’s bread culture: the street bun and the kulcha.

A vada pav from Ashok Vada Pav in Dadar, near Prabhadevi, the stall Thomas Zacharias calls one of Mumbai’s best, served in a paper cup with green chutney, red chilli powder and fried batter bits (640×1352 px) (Photo: Rudolph.A.furtado, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trademark\_recipe\_%27ASHOK\_VADA\_PAV%27.jpg)

Is The Bombay Canteen worth it for burger lovers?

Go to The Bombay Canteen for modern regional Indian food, not for a burger. A Best Indian Restaurant title in 2024, a menu still built around Floyd Cardoz’s ideas ten years on, and a former sous chef now leading a ranked restaurant of his own: to my mind, that makes it the reference point for modern regional Indian cooking in Mumbai. For a burger lover, my advice is to split it up. Vada pav at Ashok for the bun, dinner at the Canteen for the breads and Eggs Kejriwal, and your burger another night from my ranking.

The rest of India’s burger scene is a short click away. See my guide to the best burgers in New Delhi, my visit to Beyondburg’s smash burgers in Bengaluru, and the profile of the Indian chain Burger Singh.

How I put this profile together

This is a chef and restaurant profile, not a rated review, so it carries no score. I have not reviewed a meal here for this piece, which is why the menu section quotes the official menu rather than my own tasting notes. I built it from The Bombay Canteen’s official site and its August 2025 menu, then from the Indian and international food press linked in each section. Where sources conflict, as with the date Zacharias left and the founding year of The Locavore, I give the range and name the sources. Every fact was checked on 30 October 2026.

FAQ about The Bombay Canteen and Thomas Zacharias

Is Thomas Zacharias still the chef at The Bombay Canteen?

No. Thomas Zacharias co-founded The Bombay Canteen and was its executive chef from 2014. He stepped down around the 2020–21 reopening, and he now runs The Locavore.

Who is the current chef at The Bombay Canteen?

Hussain Shahzad is the executive chef. He was Zacharias’s sous chef, ran O Pedro, and also leads Papa’s, which placed No. 66 on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2026 (51–100).

Who founded The Bombay Canteen and when did it open?

Floyd Cardoz, Yash Bhanage, Sameer Seth and Thomas Zacharias founded it under Hunger Inc. Hospitality. It opened in 2015 in Kamala Mills, Lower Parel; secondary sources place the launch in late February 2015.

What is The Locavore and why did Thomas Zacharias leave?

The Locavore is Zacharias’s platform for local and sustainable Indian food. He says he told his business partner he would leave about 18 months before the pandemic, and that the decision was “not a financial one at all”.

What should I order at The Bombay Canteen?

Start with Eggs Kejriwal, the signature dish. Add Chettinad Prawns “Ali-Yolio”, the Pork Birria Taco on jowar bhakri, or Floyd’s Kulcha Club with Butter Garlic Crab Kulcha (August 2025 menu).

Does The Bombay Canteen serve burgers?

No. Its August 2025 menu has no burger, slider or vada pav. For burgers, see our best burgers in Mumbai ranking.

Why is vada pav called the Bombay burger?

Vada pav puts a deep-fried potato fritter in a soft pav bun, so it looks and eats like a burger. It comes from Maharashtra and is Mumbai’s best-known street snack.

Where is The Bombay Canteen and what are its opening hours?

It is at Unit-1, Process House, S.B. Road, Kamala Mills, Lower Parel, Mumbai 400013. The official site says it is open every day from 12 pm to 1:30 am (checked 30 October 2026).

How much does a meal at The Bombay Canteen cost?

In April 2024, The Infatuation priced the eight-course “Canteen Experience” at ₹3,754, or ₹3,292 vegetarian. The official menu shows no prices, so confirm the current price when you book.

Do I need a reservation at The Bombay Canteen?

Yes, book ahead: it is one of Mumbai’s best-known restaurants. Email reservations@thebombaycanteen.com or use the official site.