Nestled on the first floor of the newly restored Eros Cinema in Churchgate, you enter through a handcrafted wooden door fitted with a vintage brass bell, rung to summon a member of the team, who opens it with old-world warmth, smiling, saying, “Come in”. 

Inside, the space unfolds into a circular sprawl, echoing the Art Deco grandeur of the original building.

Where Design Meets Fire: An Intimate Dialogue Between Space and Kitchen

Designed by FKD Workshop under architect Faizan Khatri, Hearth carries the soft patina of heritage. Cement ceilings, once supported by wooden planks, still bear their marks, preserved through a restoration approach rooted in minimal intervention. A warm, earthy palette grounds the space, while an Art Deco-inspired bar catches the eye for the first. 

Tables are arranged intimately, encouraging quiet conversations and unhurried meals. A charred-wood installation adorning the walls hints at Hearth's fire-driven cooking philosophy. The fourth wall of the kitchen is removed, opening to a square sit-out that we call an intimate chef’s table, where guests get an insider look at the chefs at work, moving seamlessly from fire to plate. 

The concept of the chef’s table traces back to an age-old practice of chefs hosting family and friends in the kitchen as they worked. When space permitted, guests gathered around a small table tucked into a quiet corner. Over time, enterprising restaurateurs extended this intimate, behind-the-scenes experience to regular patrons, inviting them beyond the swinging doors for dinner at the heart of the kitchen.

Inside the Hearth Kitchen: Dhriti & Sabby’s Intuitive, Fire-First Cooking

Run by chefs Dhriti and Sabby, co-founders and culinary directors of Hearth, the kitchen is guided by an ethos that refuses to wear a label. Both trained in tasting-menu restaurants—Dhriti, an ex-Masque team member, and Sabby from EKKA - both found that cooking begins with what feels right. “Sometimes it’s Bombay, sometimes a memory, sometimes simply what we love to eat or have grown up eating”, says Dhriti while she took me through the menu. 

Potatoes and parsnips arrive as grilled tapas, layered with a peanut butter glaze, kohlrabi, and herb aioli, set on an almond crumble. Sunchoke and shishito peppers followed, finished with a malted barley glaze and curry-leaf crème fraîche. These bite-sized plates are rich, flavour-packed amuse-bouches, each delivering a surprising burst in a single mouthful.

A Menu That Lingers Beyond the Last Bite

With the first few bites comes that quiet rush of discovery, the same feeling as stepping into a foreign land for the first time. Take chilli chicken, for instance, an Indian’s first introduction to Chinese food. At Hearth, it’s reimagined as chicken and spring onions coated in malt, glazed in barley sauce, paired with bell pepper confit, and finished with crisp onion and garlic. Comforting, yet completely transformed. 

Even the seekh kebab invites a rethink. Here, it’s a delicate blend of shrimp and crab, brushed with a glaze made from crab stock, finished with crab aioli, and lifted with a bright flash of Gondhoraj lime. It challenges the idea that seekh can replace meat with seafood. 

“Fire is our first technique, our most intuitive tool. It caramelises, chars, warms, and deepens,” the chefs explain, and that philosophy is evident across the menu. Sabby points us towards the wood-fired pizzas, beginning with the Nizam’s Pie—topped with chicken seekh sausage and chicken haleem. “ Biga is new in India, everyone knows Napoleon or Romano”. When the biga pizza arrives, made using an Italian pre-fermentation technique that gives the dough its light, airy yet crisp structure, Hearth’s quiet ambition becomes clear. The meats are smoked in-house, using a smoker tucked away in the back kitchen, reinforcing the restaurant’s focus on in-house process over market-bought produce. 

Dhriti’s recommendation, the Hearth stir-fry, redefines what a salad can be. Snap peas, sprouts, and seasonal vegetables are tossed in a thetcha-flavoured dressing and finished with brown butter foam, offering a bold departure from the usual greens-on-a-plate formula. Fire-grilled prawns follow, bathed in chilli garlic herb butter and paired with a fragrant curry-leaf sauce, best scooped up with soft, pillowy poi.

I tried to save room for dessert, having already confessed my weakness for chocolate, but both chefs steered me elsewhere. The Fruit Custard & Jelly arrives as nostalgia, executed with precision: fresh and grilled fruits, mixed berry jelly, custard reimagined as ice cream, all set atop a brown butter crumble. This was an ending that lingers.

The Hearth Chef’s Table Experience: Where Diners Become Part of the Kitchen

The interactive chef’s table at Hearth feels refreshingly different. While many diners, myself included, are drawn to the heat, movement, and controlled chaos of an open kitchen, what unfolds here draws us into the creative process, moving us beyond observers to become tasters within the act itself. With every course, Chef Sabby, Dhriti and the team step forward to present the dish, taking turns explaining the pairings and answering questions. This friendly access feels absolutely exclusive.

“We don’t offer a fixed tasting menu for this experience,” Dhriti explains. “We serve from the main menu, but we keep it playful. A day before the meal, we call guests to understand their preferences and build from there and add a little surprise for them” 

For both chefs, the essence lies in exchange. The main point is interaction. It allows the chefs to share deeper insights into the dishes and pairings, have fun, and even engage in some banter with guests. That adds another layer to the dining experience.  “The design reinforces this intimacy. Instead of a linear counter, the chef’s table is a closed square. “Our designer joked, what if guests want to hug the chefs?” Sabby laughs. The layout, he says, makes that closeness possible. 

Not every day do we find a fine-dining restaurant with intimate tables and bar chairs across the kitchen. At Hearth, the kitchen feels less like a spotlight on the head chefs and more like a shared stage for the entire team. There’s a quiet pride in what they do, and a genuine pleasure in explaining their craft. As diners, we’re invited into that process, privy to what goes into each dish and into the chef’s mind. That sense of access, curiosity, and play is what makes Hearth experience a must-have when in the Maximan city.