Mani's Lunch Home, Matunga

Mani's Lunch Home rounds off the corner of Mumbai that will forever be Tamil Nadu. The location with the Aayappa stall serving regular South Indian snacks, the Nalli Silks outlet situated right opposite and the typically South Indian temple at 45 degrees from the outlet gives one a picture that would be completely at home in Chennai. Mani's rounds off the picture with a typical Tamilian lunch home serving delightfully well cooked and hygienic vegetarian Tamil meals at incredibly affordable prices. Mani's is however definitely not a fine dining option, it is a small place and believes in community seating. You will most probably have to wait till you get a table and will definitely have to share the table with other ravenous eaters.
Mani's has two meal options the rice plate and the full meal. We were

not at our hungriest and ordered the rice plate. The rice plate consists of unlimited chappati, rice, rasam and sambhar, one bowl full of three standard South Indian Subzis, a bowl of curd and one chhaas. The food is very simple, is served hot and is brilliantly authentic to taste - highly recommended by my Tamil friends. Amazingly the cost of the rice plate is Rs 35/- and you have to buy the coupon before sitting down for the meal from a counter at the shop entrance.
The other option is the full plate which costs Rs 70/-, the full plate is served on Banana leaf instead of the steel plate we were served food on and has some extra bits in sweets and banana chips that we could see from a photo of the dish that we saw. After devouring the rice plate we ended with a little helping of Mysore Pak and the typically Tamil slightly fat and dry Jalebi which we bought from the counter at the entrance of the shop. Great food and definitely recommended if you want a typical vegetarian Tamil meal in Mumbai.
A meal for two at Mani's lunch home without drinks will cost you Rs 100/-
How to get there: Mani's is on Telenga road in Matunga right opposite the Nalli's Saree shop. If you do not know the area you have get to Kings circle. From Kings Circle you have to get on the road leading to Matunga station. From there you have to take the first right to get on to Telenga road. Mani's will fall on your right. It is almost impossible to find parking on that road near Mani's so chances are you might have to walk a bit to get to the lunch home.