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Dining At Sanjay Dutt's Solaire: Everything Everywhere, All at Once
Sanjay Dutt’s brainchild, Solaire in Mumbai, is a fever dream of cuisines from around the world.
Actor Sanjay Dutt’s entrance into Mumbai’s restaurant scene comes with the kind of ambition you’d expect from someone who announced on social media: “I’ve eaten around the world, now it’s my turn to plate it.” Solaire, which opened in September this year at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai’s Santacruz East neighbourhood, attempts something audacious: an 80-dish menu spanning India, the Mediterranean, Italy, France, and Japan. It’s quite like the culinary equivalent of filling a passport in one sitting.
Dutt recalls the small family-owned restaurant in Marrakesh where he once shared a meal; it changed the way he experienced food and led him on the journey to opening Solaire. “The bread was still warm from the clay oven, the lamb had been slow cooked for hours, and the family served it with so much love that it felt almost sacred. That moment became a guiding force for Solaire,” he says.
“Solaire is where the world comes together on your plate,” says Nelson Nair, co-creator of the restaurant, standing in a dining room whose gold-panelled walls shimmer like the inside of a jewellery box. It’s a bold claim for a city like Mumbai where fusion restaurants open weekly and celebrity ventures tend to fade into distant memory after the initial Instagram buzz.
The question, then, isn’t whether Solaire is ambitious — it clearly is. It’s whether a menu that ranges from miso to mezze, hamachi ceviche to cannelloni, can maintain focus without collapsing under its own weight.
The Everything Menu
The menu reads like a world atlas. There’s asparagus gyoza with warm miso foam, tuna tataki with banana chilli sauce, hamachi ceviche prepared in the traditional Peruvian style, and robata-grilled lamb skewers arrive with chimichurri, tahina, and sriracha, sitting comfortably next to confit tomato soup and creamy potato-leek variations.
Chef Gurudutt handles Indian dishes, while chef Maher Ramzi oversees Mediterranean offerings. “Mr Dutt’s brief for us was simple,” chef Gurudutt says. “Food from everywhere in one place, that can be found nowhere else in Mumbai.”
They certainly seem to have taken the brief seriously. A meal at Solaire should be equal parts appetite for food and an appetite for eclecticism. Nair’s personal favourite, the kimchi fried rice — made with Napa cabbage fermented for 101 days — isn’t just some trendy fusion dish. They check on it daily, recording the development of sweetness and sourness like scientists tracking an experiment. The rice itself is a 75-25 blend of jasmine and Kerala kokum rice, chosen specifically for one’s sticky texture and the other’s umami depth. Taro root adds earthiness, edamame provides crunch, lotus root brings texture, and the whole thing is finished with spring onion-infused oil.
Then there’s the Kerala Fried Chicken, or KFC, as they cheekily call it, served with a pesto made from Indian cheese and red bell peppers. In fact, chef Gurudutt’s contemporary Indian creations are where tradition meets audacity: butter chicken with burrata and Kashmiri khamiri roti. “We like serving it like that,” Gurudutt says matter-of-factly, as if pairing an Italian cheese with India’s most famous curry was the most natural thing in the world.
The Mediterranean offerings aren’t straight imports either. They’re tweaked, spiced, and reimagined for Indian palates. The hummus selection includes an avocado version that’s apparently the star. There are lamb kebabs with Turkish and Jordanian influences, charcoal kibbeh rendered dramatically black with charcoal powder instead of the usual brown, and shawarma balls — not your regular street-side affair, but fried spheres of spiced chicken served with hummus, lavash, and pita.
For future menus, he’s planning even more ambitious dishes, like a rajma kachori with bone marrow.
Straight to the Source
Ingredient sourcing receives serious attention. “We believe in keeping it simple yet flavourful, with the freshest produce,” says Nair. The team maintains a partner farm in Nasik for capsicum, onions and potatoes, uses their Thai connections to source crisp vegetables, and imports mountain chillies from northern China for the Langsian chicken. They make a chutney, preserve it, and deploy it sparingly — each jar a small triumph of supply chain determination.
It took the duo almost eight months to perfect the menu, working with a Michelin-experienced chef to craft what would become the 80-dish celebration of global cuisine. “Three to four months was only tastings,” Nair reveals.
Liquid Poetry
The cocktail programme at Solaire is unique. Every drink tells a story, and here’s the kicker: there’s no direct sugar added to any cocktail. “The sugar in our drinks comes from different kinds of fruits and herbs,” Nair explains. The tamarind picante balances spiciness, saltiness, and sweetness using tamarind from Thailand; a masala salt rim adds another layer of heat.
The cocktail menu moves from spice-forward Indian reinterpretations to bright, citrusy Mediterranean signatures, with Italian aperitifs reimagined through a Solaire lens. The bar also stocks an impressive selection of wines — from Champagne Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé to Spain’s Marqués de Murrieta Dalmau Reserva — to complement its craft beers.
More Than Just Plates
The name itself, meaning “of the sun,” speaks to the restaurant’s — and Dutt’s — ambitions. “I want people walking out of Solaire to feel lighter, like something inside them was refilled,” Dutt says. “Food has that power, music has that power, and a room filled with genuine energy has that power. When guests step back into the world, I want them to leave with a spark they didn’t arrive with.”
Interior designer Malvika Kulkarni Ajgaonkar, of The 24th Studio, helped create a space with terracotta-chic walls and gold panelling meant to reflect Dutt’s “bold and bright” personality. The open kitchen, mosaic-style bar, and carefully calibrated lighting, scent, and acoustics also contribute to the venue’s unique identity.
And that identity shifts post-11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The music transitions from dining-forward tracks to Afro beats, hip-hop, and what Nair calls “not boring, five-star lobby music.” It’s a night-time transformation into a sophisticated party zone — “not a nightclub,” he clarifies.
It’s certainly an ambitious attempt to be all things: fine dining destination, global fusion showcase, and late-night hotspot.
The Celebrity Factor
This isn’t just a vanity project with the Dutt’s face plastered on menus while someone else does the heavy lifting. The actor’s involvement runs deeper. His travels informed the menu, his love for red meats and grilled items shaped the offerings, and his understanding of balanced flavours guided the development process.
“Food at the centre, not the celebrity — that’s a conscious choice,” Dutt says. His favourite aspect of being in the restaurant business, though? “The truth is, it’s the people. I love watching a room full of strangers become a community for a few hours. I love seeing a dish arrive at a table and watching faces change before a single bite is taken. That magic, that connection — that’s my favourite thing about Solaire.”
He’s partnered with hospitality veterans Ishaan Varma, Amit Lakhyani, and Abhishek Chabria, ensuring Solaire has the infrastructure to back its ambitions. Dutt has hinted at expansion plans — “the first of many” — suggesting Solaire could become a brand rather than a one-off.
In a city where new restaurants open with the frequency of Mumbai local trains and celebrity ventures often fizzle after the initial flash, Solaire feels different. And if the packed tables and buzzing bar are any indication, Mumbai is already saying yes to the world on a plate.
Sanjay Dutt’s Top 5
1. Tenderloin, Baba Ghanoush, Chilli Chao Pulled spiced tenderloin and baba ghanoush filled in a brioche bun
2. Kerala Fried Chicken Southern spice marinated fried chicken served with a peanut pesto sauce
3. Bombay Duck Roulettes Crispy bombil fry, served with Goan shrimp recheado, refreshing solkadhi cream
4. Lamb Kebab Robata grilled lamb skewers served with chimichurri sauce, saj bread, tahina, and sriracha
5. Chicken Katsu Loaded Fries Katsu fried chicken, French fries baked with cheese sauce
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