Mutton Keema Pav is goat or lamb mince keema served with pav, a Mumbai counter staple that pairs a wet, spiced mince with soft bread rolls. The angle is the gravy: unlike the dry minced fillings inside rolls and cutlets, keema here is deliberately loose and saucy, a stew you tear bread into and mop up rather than a unit you wrap. The pav is the tool, soft, slightly sweet, pull-apart rolls used to soak and scoop. It is served from tava counters and small eateries, plated and warm, eaten with the hands by tearing the bread and dragging it through the mince.
The build is two parallel components brought together at the end. Goat or lamb mince is cooked down with onion, ginger, garlic, tomato, green chili and a warm masala until the fat renders and the mince sits in a thick, oily, brick-red gravy, often loosened with a little water and finished with fresh coriander and a squeeze of lime. The pav is split and griddled cut-side down on a hot tava with a film of butter until the faces are golden and crisp at the edges while the crumb stays soft. The two arrive side by side: a bowl or mound of keema, the toasted pav alongside, raw onion and lime to cut the richness. Good execution shows in mince that is well-browned and deeply spiced with a distinct goat or lamb flavor, a gravy with body rather than a thin watery slick, and pav that is buttered and crisped fresh so it holds up to dunking without disintegrating. Sloppy versions serve a greasy, under-seasoned mince, a gravy that is either dry and tight or thin and bland, or cold untoasted bread that goes to paste on contact.
Variation runs along richness and heat. A heavier butter hand on both the keema and the pav makes it indulgent; cutting the butter and pushing the chili and onion makes it sharper and leaner-tasting. Some counters fold a boiled egg or peas into the mince; others keep it strictly meat and gravy. The wet, scoopable keema is exactly what distinguishes this from the dry mince packed into a frankie or roll, where the filling has to stay contained. The closely related fried, layered potato-and-pea mix served the same way, pav with a dry-spiced filling, deserves its own article rather than being crowded in here. The defining gesture of keema pav is the dunk: soft buttered bread driven into a rich goat or lamb gravy, again and again, until both are gone.