Mumbai Food Guide

The vada pav stall outside Kirti College in Dadar that locals consistently vote the city's best. A spiced potato fritter in a soft pav (bread roll) — Bombay's working-class lunch since the 1960s, now branded internationally as the 'Bombay burger'. Costs ₹30 ($0.40) and feeds you for an hour.

Open since 1966 and the consensus pick for Mumbai's best pav bhaji — a spiced mashed-vegetable curry served with two butter-toasted bread rolls. The butter-to-vegetable ratio here is genuinely indecent, which is exactly why it works.

The Bandra pani-puri counter widely considered the cleanest in the city — important, because pani puri (crisp hollow shells filled with spiced tamarind water and chickpeas) is exactly the street snack where hygiene matters. Operates as a proper restaurant rather than a street cart.

Mumbai's most famous late-night kebab counter, operating from a Colaba side-lane since 1946. Originally a street stand behind the Taj — now spread over the lane with plastic-stool seating that comes out after 19:00. The bhuna boti and baida roti are the orders.

A vegetarian Gujarati-Rajasthani thali institution running since 1945. Unlimited refills of 25+ items — dal, kadhi, three sabzis, rice, rotli, farsan, sweet — served on a steel plate at communal tables. Lunch is the meal locals come for.

Open since 1871 and the most recognizable café in Colaba. The Persian-Iranian founders set up a refrigerated bar that drew British and Parsi clientele; the place still trades on that long lineage, with the original mosaic floor and slow ceiling fans intact. Survived the 2008 attacks and reopened within four days — the bullet holes in the wall are left visible.

A Colaba institution since 1932, famous for the Mario Miranda wall murals and the working Wurlitzer jukebox by the door. The menu is broad Indian-Continental — sizzlers, Goan sausages, sausage hot dogs — but the real draw is the casual, mid-priced bar atmosphere that's harder to find this close to the Gateway of India.

Founded in 1923 by a Parsi family who brought the recipe for berry pulao — rice cooked with Iranian zereshk (barberries) — directly from Iran. It's still the city's most authentic Parsi café, and the late Boman Kohinoor (who passed in 2019 at age 97) ran it personally until his last year. Lunch only, weekdays mostly.

The Bandra restaurant that essentially launched the neighbourhood's modern-European scene in the late 2000s. Set in a converted Goan-Portuguese bungalow with a leafy courtyard — the kind of garden-table dinner that's nearly impossible to find in dense South Mumbai.

Bandra's long-running Mediterranean restaurant and one of the city's most reliable celebrity-sightings spots (Shah Rukh Khan and a long list of Bollywood regulars). The Thursday-evening crowd is the giveaway — book ahead or expect to lose the courtyard seats.

Co-owned by Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty and one of the hardest tables to land in the city. Seafood-led pan-Asian and a serious cocktail program. Sister venue Bastian at the Top (Worli) opened later with sunset rooftop views.

Mumbai's most consistently celebrated seafood restaurant — open since 1965 and the Indian benchmark for South Indian–style coastal cooking. The crab Hyderabadi and butter pepper garlic prawns are the dishes that pull repeat regulars from across the city.

Chef Masaharu Morimoto's flagship Japanese room inside the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. Opened 2004 and consistently in the country's top fine-dining lists. The fish is air-flown from Tsukiji several times a week and the omakase is the play — about $120 for 9-10 courses.

Helmed by Vineet Bhatia, the first Indian chef to earn a Michelin star (London, 2001). Ziya is his modern-Indian flagship at the Oberoi — a tasting-menu room with the best Arabian Sea view of any fine-dining seat in the city.

A franchise of the Delhi original — the Northwest Frontier tandoor-and-grill room ranked among Asia's 50 Best Restaurants for over a decade. No cutlery is set; you eat with hands and naan. The dal Bukhara, slow-cooked overnight, is the dish everyone orders at least once.