Around Town: Inside 64-year-old Jeevan Boarding House in Chembur, where hundreds flock for a South Indian thali at Rs 100

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Written by: Heena Khandelwal4 min readMumbaiUpdated: Apr 18, 2026 09:48 AM IST Naresh Karunakar Shetty, 58, runs Jeevan Boarding House, a 64-year-old eatery in Chembur known for its South Indian thali. (Source: Express Photo) Make us preferred source on Google Whatsapp twitter Facebook Reddit PRINT Every afternoon in Chembur, people step through what looks like the entrance to a construction site — tall blue hoarding sheets on either side, the street noisy and unremarkable. But those who know, know. Behind those sheets is Jeevan Boarding House, a 64-year-old institution that serves a hearty vegetarian South Indian thali at Rs 100, drawing long queues on most days and has become a destination for office-goers, workers and residents of the neighbourhood. The story begins in Udupi. “My father, the late N. Karunakar Shetty, left his village Nandalike, in Karkala Taluk, Udupi District, and came to Mumbai when he was around 12 or 13 years old,” said Naresh Karunakar Shetty, 58, who runs the place today. Like most people who came to Mumbai in those years, his father spent some time working at eateries and climbing the ranks before coming to Chembur in 1959. In 1962, he took over a place called Lucky Restaurant from an Irani gentleman, ran it briefly while continuing its original menu, and then renamed it Jeevan Boarding House and started the thali. “The word boarding, as it was used then, meant a place where people could have both their meals. There were many such places including Mysore Boarding, so he named it Jeevan Boarding following that tradition,” Naresh said. The original thali was simpler. A dry bhaji, a gravy, sambar, rasam, two chapatis, rice, curd and pickle. “Someone once told me it was available for 50 paisa. I’m not certain, it may have been even less,” he said. Naresh, the youngest of his three sons – all engineers, joined the business in 1998 and has not left since. The restaurant then seated 36 and was housed inside an old structure called Patil Chawl. In 2015, they shifted to a new spot in the same premise and expanded to 48 seats. The menu expanded along with it. Today the thali, served on banana leaf, includes “three vegetables, two prepared in coconut gravy in the South Indian style and one in onion gravy for the local palate, alongside two chapatis, rice, sambar, rasam, dal, chutney made with coconut and seasonal vegetables, pickle, payasam, curd and a glass of buttermilk.” Sambar, rasam, dal, chutney and pickle are unlimited. The price is Rs 100. The preparation styles rotate across coastal Karnataka, northern Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Andhra dishes are largely avoided because according to him, they are too spicy for the register this kitchen works in. “The food is very mildly spiced and nutritious. Today’s thali has French beans as the dry vegetable, raw mango in coconut gravy and aloo matar in onion gravy,” Naresh said. Other vegetables in rotation include chole, dal makhani, cabbage, bhindi, ash gourd, moong and tomato. Since 2016, they have been using only cold-pressed coconut oil. “When I learnt that the chemicals used in the refining process stay in the oil and are not good for health, I decided to switch,” he said. There is only one small refrigerator in the kitchen, for curd. Everything else is made fresh, twice a day. “Whatever is prepared in the morning is not served in the evening. The evening vegetables are freshly prepared. Whatever is left over is disposed of.” No recycling, no reheating, no exceptions. How is he serving all of this at Rs 100? The answer, he says, is straightforward. He owns the place, which removes the biggest overhead cost from the equation. The rest is discipline. “I work here 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, controlling wastage and leakage. There is no compromise on quality. We run on volume, and as volume increases, cost per unit comes down. I am always looking for volume rather than price.” The volume, for the record, is 450 to 500 thalis a day across both meals. On weekends and special occasions it goes up to 550 or 600. Where: Omprakash Center Shop No.06, Ground Floor, Chembur East, Chembur, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400071 When: All days, 11 am – 4.30 pm and 7 pm – 11.30 pm Heena Khandelwal is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express, Mumbai. She covers a wide range of subjects from relationship and gender to theatre and food. To get in touch, write to heena.khandelwal@expressindia.com ... Read More Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram