Bandra’s Nami is the newest bar riding the vinyl-revival wave

What does any hi-fi obsessive with a personal collection of 400-plus records ever dream of? Opening a moody listening bar where the speakers are the crown jewels, for one. Nami, the latest addition to the Mansionz One building in Bandra is one such spot. The project is the brainchild of Sumit Vaswani, a familiar name in Mumbai’s audiophile circles, who brings his love for vinyl to Nami after shaping the music scene at AntiSocial for about a decade and bringing his music curation to Soho House Mumbai.

The city is no stranger to the concept of a dedicated space where the analogue is romanced. Just last year, the phenomenon of vinyl listening rooms, record bars, cafes, and music-led spaces started dominating Mumbai’s after-hours scene. A 10-minute walk down the street from Nami is Idoru, Izumi’s 28-seater music bar. At Kala Ghoda, The Listening Room has the 36-seater vinyl bar The Dimsum Room, and not far from it lies Baroke, another SOBO listening bar, which is inspired by Japan’s jazz kissa. Nami fits right in, and yet it stands out in its design and music experience.

The sound system is the heart of this intimate 25-seater, moody bar above Supa San. Nami recruited Munro Acoustics, Kapil Thirwani’s audio project whose high-fidelity credentials include Khar Social, Idoru, and Nilaya Anthology, to custom-build something special. There’s a multicell horn system, an Indonesian high-fidelity system, vintage Technics turntables (SL-1210 MK2) refurbished by MasterSounds, and a handcrafted Resør rotary mixer, with discrete Class A analogue circuitry, all of which work well to carry the sound across the space remarkably evenly. The bass is incredible. So even as the night progresses in the low-lit, wood-panelled space and the records go from softer jazz fusion to electronica, your conversation decibels don’t need to go up.

A music-first venue, it’s the sort of place where what you hear is as important as what you eat. Their patrons are encouraged not to talk but to listen to resident selector Owlist as he spins vinyls. (‘Stepping into Tomorrow’, Madlib’s homage to Blue Note, and ‘Winelight’ by Grover Washington Jr followed by ‘Wind Parade’ by Donald Byrd was the progression on the night we visited.) Owlist, a hip-hop and lo-fi producer originally from Jaipur, knows a thing or two about letting the evening unfold gradually: early hours open with jazz fusion and spiritual jazz, then move through soul, world disco and trip hop before closing on house and electronica.

On the day I visit, Vaswani is seen hopping between tables—greeting friends, friends of friends, journalists, and reviewers—on one of the many soft launches Nami has held since August before it finally opens doors today. “Nami is intended to transport guests to a portal of frequencies,” Vaswani says. If you ask him nicely, he will even show you Nami’s library of 500-plus records collection, which includes rare gems like a record by Tokyo psych-rock band Kikagaku Moyo (which translates to “geometric patterns”).

If my visit is anything to go by, every evening here can feel like a house party. “I’m passionate about food, music, hospitality, about how someone feels when they get to know me better. Nami is an extension of my personality and my living room,” he explains.

It sure feels like it. The drinks keep coming, each with a potency matching a frequency. The 230 Hz Dreamtime, perfect for lightweights, is a sour, fresh, and a slightly floral gin cocktail that comes with a koala hanging on to the stem of the glass. The 1120 Hz Campfire Stories, in comparison, is smoky and full-bodied, with bourbon, brown butter, and shiro miso, and not one to keep knocking back. The cocktail programme is helmed by Singapore’s Sago House (No 10 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars and No 32 on The World’s 50 Best Bars in 2023), so even familiar cocktails taste kind of special here: there’s Springleaf, Nami’s take on the classic G&T, and High Jungle for those still riding the picante wave.

Nami’s short, two-page menu brings two dishes that patrons can’t seem to stop ordering—misho nido, a soft, airy pizza bread that comes served with miso butter and green herb oil, and chashu crocchette, filled with braised chashu and a 12-hour chicken fondo crema gets a finishing touch of burnt ginger and gari. Then there’s pasta fritto, crisp fried pasta with whipped ricotta, wasabi, chilli honey, and furikake. If you, like me, are big on bar snacks, there’s a satisfying amount of things to order even on the rather concise menu.

Since the bar is centred around a high-quality sound system, music is at the heart of everything here. Vaswani assures me that soon Nami and Supa San’s programming calendars will be synced. “The focus is to programme some incredible musicians there. We’re starting an IP called Alley Tunes two Thursdays a month, and a bar night called Supa Jams on two Saturdays a month,” he adds.

Nami’s calendar is already mapped out for the next three months, with guest spots by Jayesh Veralkar of Vinyl Souk, Dubai; Ani Phoebe from Hong Kong; Mumbai favourites Dreamstates, Sindhi Curry, and Zokhuma; Assam’s disco-jazz artist Jitwam, and Japanese vinyl maestro Que Sakamoto. Now all you have to do is trust the selector.

Address: 15th floor, Mansionz One, Linking Road, Bandra West, Mumbai

Phone: +91 91520 33631; For bookings, DM @namibombay or call

Timings: 7 pm to 1:30 am, Tuesday to Sunday

Price for two: ₹4,000