20 Best Bars in Mumbai, India

This candlelit nightspot draws Mumbai's who's who for bites of top-notch antipasti, risotto, seafood salad, and sips of caipiroskas (the cousin of caipirinha).

Even the most dour diner will succumb to the charms of this cheerful, well-lit Spanish restaurant with a well-curated wine list and delicious cocktails---the Negroni and the carambola (star fruit) margarita that are crowd favorites. The murals of powerful women on the walls are an homage to Chef Manuel Olveira's mother who defied tradition to open a restaurant in her town.

The rooftop club at the Four Seasons is one of the most popular—and most expensive—bars in town, but it offers stunning views of the city in all directions.

Restaurateur Riyaaz Amlani and Chef Gresham Fernandes’ suburban Bandra stalwart, Salt Water Café, has been uprooted to make place for BandraBorn, a noisier, darker, edgier restaurant with graffiti scrawled across the walls. The same team still steers the kitchen, although this time round, Chef Fernandes’ clever cooking is an homage to the suburb’s culinary influences. There’s East Indian–inspired crab with croissant-pao and kheema (mincemeat) pao with tomato oil, paan, and long pepper---in short, cooking that is hidebound by nostalgia. The drinks mirror this sentiment, with the tequila-based Pali Hill Paloma named for a street in Bandra, and Danda Green, with its sluice of coconut, harking to Khar Danda's fishing village origins. The old-school hip-hop playlist is just the cherry on top.

Stay long enough in Mumbai, and the words "cold beer on tap" start to sound like some distant faraway dream. This bar's founder, Greg Kroitzsh, a transplant from Vermont, decided to quit whining about India's headache-inducing bottles of Kingfisher Strong, and make the dream real. The Barking Deer brews its own pale ale, as well as Bombay Blonde, a tasty lager, and the Belgian Wit, a crisp wheat beer. Kroitzsh keeps on hand a nice sampling of imported bottled beers, and the pub fare, like the eggplant Parm sandwich, is well regarded. Weekend nights tend to become overcrowded with partyers, but afternoons present a quiet opportunity to relax and reflect on your trip. The best part? Happy hour (4–8) is two beers for the price of one. There's free Wi-Fi, too.

With some of the best views of the city, the open-air Dome attracts a young, good-looking crowd who sit, amid candlelight, on plush white sofas and chairs. It's one of the best sunset-drink spots in the city, and the fact that the menu includes a selection from the excellent Kebab Korner only sweetens the deal. Drinks are fairly expensive, but if you're on a budget, grab a Kingfisher for ₹450. That's hardly a steal, but you're paying for the view.

Facing the Arabian Sea, this bar known for its live performances is dark and brooding and has the added advantage of a leafy alfresco section; although if you are short, the low seating may hinder you from enjoying the view fully.

A relatively staid yuppie crowd likes to hang out in the clubby (in the British sense) setting here, but it's also one of the few bars with enough TVs to accommodate a big sporting event like Wimbledon or the World Cup.

This is among the most legendary dives in the entire city, complete with a pair of beat-up pool tables, black light, and a psychedelic mural of Jim Morrison. Expect swathes of college students on weeknights drinking very cheap beer.

Spanning two whole floors, GIGI has exposed bricks, winding stairways and chandeliers, a somewhat intriguing collusion between European and Japanese cooking, and lots of crowd-pleasing cocktails.

The safest destination to test out one of Mumbai's infamous permit rooms offers a no-frills, dingy atmosphere—this is the kind of place you want to hit up for supercheap drinks (we're talking nearly retail prices per bottle, which you can order to your table) before you head to the club, or for a late-night drink post-clubbing, if the owners have paid the cops enough to stay open past bar time that night. The food is average, at best, but nobody goes there to eat.  The air-conditioned section is slightly more expensive but worth it in the sultry summers.

Koyla is a rooftop hangout with hookahs, Arabian music, a good breeze, and decent North Indian–style food. No alcohol is served, but the view of the ocean by starlight is quite spectacular.

Set up in a large heritage bungalow in Colaba, Neuma is the place to go if you want to spot a Bollywood celebrity or two while sipping Mumbai-inspired cocktails. The décor is a pastiche, fashioned so that you can drink in the room you feel most comfortable in. Choices include a garden café, a porch, the private dining area Verde, a nautical room, a jungle-inspired Safari room, and a bar swathed in torrid red neon lights. 

Rebranded from Not Just Jazz by the Bay, this had been one of Mumbai's few jazz venues, but with the name change went the music that had been the joint's hallmark. Still, while the music can sometimes be meh, the pizza is among the city's better pies, its location by the sea is beautiful, and it stays open until 1:30 am.

This trendy spot draws the city's well-heeled set for its inventive cocktail concoctions, but also for Chef Aliakbar Baldivala's cuisine-agnostic menu (dinner only).

This two-headed beast---a collaborative (although noisy) workspace by day that transforms into a buzzing gastropub by night---has pop and EDM streams from the speakers at full volume (so don't visit if you want a peaceful conversation).

Loud, chaotic, crowded Toto's (named for the owner Ashok Totlani) is a Bandra institution, and especially popular with students. Go if swilling a beer to retro music is your thing. (Mumbaikars are torn—we either love it desperately or despise it.)

This brewpub currently stands as a reminder of how tricky it is to get government permission to brew beer in Mumbai. Huge brass tankers have sat unattended behind the clean, inviting black-and-white checkered bar since its opening. Bottles of imported ales, stouts, and lagers are served instead; the atmosphere, pub food, and bar snacks, like hot, tangy sweet-potato-and-chives popcorn, make it well worth the visit. The brewing license is coming, we are told, but in the meantime, there are many reasons to keep coming back.

One of the more stylish bars in South Mumbai, Wink is on the spendy side, as is common with bars in high-end hotels. The main draw is its chill house music.