It�s not easy finding a truly eclectic stand-alone restaurant in Bombay where you may go, eat and come away genuinely satiated. Busaba is that kind of an eatery. Here the primary accent is on food. And for that matter, the secondary one too! And that�s thanks to the passion and commitment of its young, proprietor-chef, Nikhil Chib.

There is a certain sense of ease about Nikhil which permeates into almost every aspect of his restaurant. The food, the d�cor, the pace. Busaba really pleases. It�s a no-fuss place, there is nothing forced about, no pretensions of any sort, it�s almost as if it says ignore me, just eat my food, will you please.

But before I come to Nikhil and what he rustles up, let me tell you what I love about Busaba�s physical attributes. Its location, a leafy by-lane of Colaba Causeway, delightfully and neatly tucked up on the first floor of an old cottage. You could easily be sitting in an airy attic. It sits pretty, confident and secure right next to Bombay�s big Daddy, Indigo � Rahul Akerkar�s can�t-be-missed-even-if-in-Bombay-for-one-evening restaurant.

Busaba is charming. The noisy bar, with its blood red mood lights, is on the ground floor, where the youngish crowd spills onto the foyer on week-ends. This is what you leave behind even as you take the red carpeted wooden stairs, with it�s French polished balustrade, and an overhanging crystal chandelier. The atmosphere is very reminiscent of the Paris of yesteryears. Once upstairs peace descends and you have the option of choosing a table from among ten odd tables or so. I like the ones in the far end, partitioned within a glass area. Sitting here at lunch you look out at a couple of beautiful huge trees and even some windows of the neighbouring apartment. But that is a typical Bombay characteristic, everything is so cheek-by-jowl!

Busaba opened six years ago. Its look and feel then was very bohemian. Loud techno-trance music, informal, rustic, a come and go or stay if you please kind of place. Very Nikhil. As he was then. Just having returned from Goa where he ran an extremely successful �joint� called Busabong at Baga Beach, it was very popular with trendy models of the time, working as bartenders � Nina Manuel and Ujwala Raut. Here you could expect to find Madhu Sapre or Meher Jessia hanging out. It was a haunt for the fashion fraternity. Where a thousand people cramped in a place meant to hold just 300 and where just one CD kept playing the whole day and night, nobody noticed or cared!

Incidently in Thai language Busabong means a tree and Busaba, a flower. It follows, therefore � Nikhil first planted a tree and then it flowered. Well, while Busaba was working pretty well as Busabong reincarnate, two years ago Nikhil got restless and took off into the world and went wandering around in pursuit of good food. He was in Southeast Asia which he loves so much. Vietnam, Hong Kong, Thailand. Then in Dubai and finally New York, the food mecca. While there, he got an opportunity to enroll at Ecole Superieure de Cuisine Francaise, so he jumped on a Paris bound flight to go learn some more about cooking. �I love to learn, I want to keep learning about food and cooking. That�s my calling,� says Nikhil, disarmingly.

Armed with new skills, he returned eight months ago to take charge of the Busaba reins once again. He closed down the place for two months and with a little bit of help from architect Sapna Thanawala and stylist Ritu Nanda, changed the look, feel and character and re-opened his restaurant on January 1st this year, to a startling transformation. I feel Chibs restaurants always reflect his station in life. Yup, he is all set to marry. The date has been set.

Gourmets of India admire this Chefs cooking. His momos and kaukswe, the Burmese influence in his life are thanks to his Bengali grandmother who lived in Burma. This is what established Nikhil, right from the days he was restaurant-less and only a young caterer to Bombay�s swish set, Singhanias, Birlas, Goenkas, Godrejs, top corporates like, Merill Lynch, JP Morgan, Jardin Flemming, banks such as HSBC, Citibank, BNP Paribas. All this thanks to the grandmother he dotes on, who passed him her special recipes, which he subsequently incorporated into the Busaba menu. To this date that�s his claim to fame and are all favourites with his diners.

With all his accumulated experience working in kitchens worldwide, Nikhil has fine-tuned his menu down to limited fare. An endless listing is not his scene. So what are these core strength items. Well, in my opinion they are all the ones I decided to shoot. Sizzling fish, Steamed tiger prawns, the Morning Glori, Spring Rolls, both hot and cold, Filet of Beef and Goats Cheese Souffle.

The fish has to be Busaba�s signature dish. Steamed and sizzling, the Baiki, a fresh water fish, comes to the table in a fish shaped aluminium platter, soaked in lime, chilli and garlic. It is at once sharp and tangy and yet delicate. The tiger prawns come on an unusual bed of crushed lemon grass shoots. Seasoned only just about with rock salt, black pepper and green chilli. How it should be. As for the kaukswe, and momos, I won�t elaborate, you go and try them yourself.