19 Best Restaurants in Mumbai, India

Badshah does one thing and one thing very well: the falooda, a felicitous coupling of silky vermicelli noodles with ice cream and black basil seeds, all of which is steeped in a colorful bath of rose and khus syrup. The décor is nothing to write home about, but if you can, make a beeline for the air-conditioned section upstairs.

The charming former owner of this old, dingy, and terribly atmospheric Irani restaurant had an obsession with the British royal family and thus pictures of royalty grace the restaurant's peeling walls. Unfortunately, the old gentleman has since passed away, but the restaurant has retained its charm as well as its fantastic chicken or mutton berry pulao, with rice, gravy, and dried fruit.

You'll have to drive a bit to reach Buddi Galli (a lane selling a bunch of local, meat-forward street food), but once you reach it, your taste buds will thank you. Try the naankhaliya, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar's slow-cooked beef or mutton curry, fried tikki kebabs, and if you come during Ramzan, the harees (a hearty meat and lentil stew). If you can, go after sunset, when the lane truly comes alive.

Always packed, Mondy is a great place to grab an ice-cold Kingfisher draft and watch the crowds roll in—though unlike nearby Leo's, Mondy's doesn't have a full liquor license. Avoid the characterless air-conditioned room and instead post up at one of the cramped tables in the main space, where the jukebox plays at full blast and the walls are covered with cartoon murals of Mumbai life.

Classic no-frills North Indian food draws many Middle Eastern vacationers to this eatery; it also has outlets throughout the United Arab Emirates, though this one's the flagship. It's loud and bustling—not the place for a romantic dinner—but the real reason to come is the top-quality chicken and mutton.

For decades the food stalls in front of Elco Market have been serving some of the best—and cleanest—vegetarian street food Mumbai has to offer, and they were doing so well that the owners were able to open this two-floor restaurant inside the market, offering essentially the same food. One of Mumbai's most iconic experiences is standing by the pani puri vendor, as he stuffs boiled potato, sprouts, mint-fresh water, and sweet chutney into an eggshell-thin sphere of fried flour and hands it to you in a plate woven together with leaves.

A convenient place to stop for a cold drink and a hot samosa. The outdoor patio has fruit trees (home to many monkeys) and pink bougainvillea flowers. The restaurant closes before the caves do.

Inexpensive, shabby, and frankly a bit of a hole-in-the-wall, Hotel Deluxe (neither a hotel nor deluxe) has long been the default choice of eatery for homesick Keralites. The menu is vast, but tunnel your vision towards the special section; anything on there is bound to be excellent.

Walk straight out of Kailasa Cave (number 16), past the umpteen souvenir stalls on your right, and you'll see the Hotel Kailas with its attached restaurant, Kailas: it's a simple cafeteria-style restaurant serving basic vegetarian Indian food until 9:30 pm. The food isn't great, but it's a hygienic spot, and a bit nicer than the Ellora Restaurant.

Once bustling Lalbaug was the beating heart of Mumbai's mill lands and center of its radical leftist political culture. The mills have since folded, but the area is still home to a clot of eateries serving excellent Maharashtrian cooking, and among the best is Ladu Samrat, an unfussy, eminently affordable, but rather threadbare restaurant serving homey vegetarian Maharashtrian snacks.

Serving the best fruit-flavored ice-cream in town, Natural—milky, creamy—seems to be everywhere. All of the ice cream is made with fresh fruit or nuts, and contains no preservatives; highly recommended are the tender coconut, roasted almond, or seasonal Indian fruit flavors like cinnamon-tinged chikoo (a caramel-flavored fruit also known as sapodilla), custard apple, or mango.

This no-frills eating establishment used to sit across a tank (Gibbet’s Pond) which was once the stage for the city’s grisliest public hangings. The fifth-generation owners believe it to be one of Mumbai’s earliest eating establishments, but whether it is or isn’t, their trademark dish---puri bhaji (spiced vegetables scooped up with fried bread)---has certainly stayed consistently tasty over the decades. Its clientele includes everyone from Uber drivers to powerful city politicians.

Under the same ownership as Woodside Inn, this restaurant dispenses with the pubby atmosphere to focus on simple, rustic cuisine using local ingredients. The food is excellent and reasonably priced considering how refined it is, and although it'd be nice if it had a wine license—the white interiors, open kitchen, and general atmosphere all scream "wine bar"—the excellent baked goods and mains more than make up for the lack of booze.

With its whitewashed walls and bright blue decorative highlights, Parsi Dairy Farm is eminently Instagramable and influencer-friendly, but you should go for its creamy kulfis, its candy floss–esque sutarfeni, and its adorable milk mithai, fashioned into the shape of fish. It’s also more than a century old, and run by four generations of the same family—in short, it’s a Mumbai icon.