Puris and papads off at Rama Nayak’s

The old-world eatery finds itself grappling with the ongoing LPG crisis, which has led to deep-fried puris and papads going off the menu

Perched unobtrusively on the first floor of the municipal market right outside Matunga (Central) station, A Rama Nayak’s Udipi Shri Krishna Boarding — founded in 1942 by the pioneering Udupi restaurateur A Rama Nayak — remains one of Mumbai’s most cherished culinary institutions. Here, a simple, homely South Indian thali, astonishingly affordable even today (between ₹120 and ₹300), continues to draw generations of students, office-goers and families who value its steadfast refusal to abandon its founding ethos: honest, nourishing food served on banana leaves.

Mumbai, India. Mar 16, 2026 - View of Rama Nayak's Udipi Shri Krishna Boarding at Matunga area in Mumbai, India. Mar 16, 2026. (Photo by Raju Shinde/HT Photo) (Raju Shinde)

Now run by his son Satish Rama Nayak, the old-world eatery finds itself grappling with the ongoing LPG crisis, which has led to deep-fried puris and papads—favourites among regulars—going off the menu.

Nayak is installing induction-based fryers only for essential frying, a stopgap forced upon the eatery by uncertainty rather than choice: “The bigger crisis than the shortage itself is the utter lack of clear and assured communication,” he said. “We have cylinder stocks for only two days. We don’t know how we will manage after that.”

Shifting to induction on a commercial scale is not a simple fix either. “Buying large multi-hob induction stoves implies changing utensils and redoing the wiring. And if we invest so much and LPG supply becomes normal again, we will suffer both ways,” said Nayak.

Commercial induction hobs that once sold between ₹12,000 and ₹15,000 are now priced at ₹30,000 or more, he said.

Raising prices is the last option, “as it would hurt our staple customers -- professionals and students -- who are sensitive to any price hike”. It is a principle that dates back to the eatery’s earliest years, when A Rama Nayak fed struggling freedom fighters for free — a legacy that still guides the thali served here eight decades later.