Where to eat this June... in Mumbai

Comforting, chaotic, ambitious, and eccentric, Mumbai’s new restaurants and menus this month are a bit like the city itself. With the monsoon rolling in, some places are serving up big helpings of nostalgia, while others are busy turning dinner into drama. June brings plenty, from Bengaluru-style darshinis to a luxury mithai studio, Goan thalis, and Sindhi comfort food. There are also truffle-packed tasting menus, afterwork specials, a listening room, and big-plate Italian in a gorgeous brand-new hotel, K-pop kids’ meals, and even an Irish seafood dish that’s somehow washed up in Chembur. Here’s what we’re eating this month in Mumbai. Come, pull up a chair.

Openings

Zaro, Bandra

Bandra’s newest bakehouse is both a gifting studio and a spot to enjoy pie and cake. The menu focuses on comfort. Savoury options include leek and mushroom pie, butter chicken pie, creamy chicken pie, and a spinach-and-corn pie. It’s the sort of food we’re bookmarking for soon-to-arrive wet-weather days. Desserts range from classic European pastries to indulgent treats, such as caramel tres leches, Viennese sachertorte, praline pastries, Ispahan entremets with rose and raspberry, and a Godiva chocolate cheesecake. Next to the bakery, there’s a gifting section with small-batch pantry items, cookies, pickles, garlic chutney, and hampers.

Namah, Andheri West

Another day, another south Indian restaurant (or QSR, or darshini). It feels like Mumbai is on a nonstop dosa run. Namah says it is trying to offer something different: the feel of a Bengaluru darshini, recreated with great attention to detail. This new place in Four Bungalows draws on Karnataka’s everyday food culture, where breakfast and filter coffee are daily must-haves. The menu is full of regional favourites: soft and fluffy mallige idlis; thatte idlis served with or without ghee podi, but always with neer chutney; and ghee podi mini idlis with lots of chutney and sambar. We’ll also find Mangaluru buns with vegetable khorma, goli baje with neer chutney, khara pongal, paniyaram, shavige bhaat, and khara bhaat—dishes that aren’t usually seen together in Mumbai. Desserts also stick to southern classics. Obbattu is served with almond milk, and we can finish our meal with ada pradhaman, pineapple bhaat, Mysore pak, or palm jaggery wheat halwa. Filter coffee is the star. It’s available hot or iced, as a milkshake or even as a soft serve. Tender coconut, spiced buttermilk, and guava-chilli soft serves complete the menu.

Ikai, Bandra West

Ikai has opened in Bandra with plans to treat Indian mithai with the same care and style that luxury brands give to chocolate, perfume or jewellery. The space combines a sweet shop, a gifting studio, and a live dessert counter. Ikai’s menu features classics like kaju katli, nolen gur peda, mohanthal, and other regional favourites, but each is presented as a jewel in a luxury store. They also promise it’s all good through and through. Mithai is made with A2 cow ghee, and the chaat and savoury counters use olive oil. A highlight is the live dessert studio, where guests can watch laddoos, Bengali sweets, and shrikhand being made fresh and, if they are lucky, even get them customised. Guests are encouraged to sample, not just shop.

District 11, Bandra

District 11 has opened in Bandra and is the perfect spot for the indecisive eater. As encapsulated in the mural by Abhay Sehgal, featuring autorickshaws beside the queen’s guards, an izakaya stall, and an American taxicab, District 11’s menu takes inspiration from a global range of cuisines and takes joy in bringing them together. The Izakaya Lotus Chips and Coorg Jungle Chicken are unexpectedly well-suited first acts to La Merced Esquites, where alu tuk meets Barcelona bar snack. The Halal Cart Bowl is a balanced, faithful take on the NYC classic, and the Wanchai Charsui Chicken is a no-brainer for anyone who likes a burnt-garlic noodle. Their cocktails, with names like Golden Hour on Carter Road, are served in over-the-top receptacles, such as a temperature-sensitive glass, and add a little theatricality to your meal.

But District 11 goes one step further for the indecisive, not simply offering wide-ranging global cuisine but also assisting its diner in what to pick. A “find your meal” survey considers appetite, texture, mood—ranging from celebratory, to comfort, to nostalgic—and, of course, dietary preferences to curate the top picks for your meal. All you have to do is enjoy. - Saniya Jaffer

Koliwada Cocktail Club

Koliwada Cocktail Club, inside Slink & Bardot, is a schoolnight bar within a bar that offers a six-course savoury cocktail tasting menu with a narrative arc. The drinks progressively build in texture and flavour, and each is matched with plates that marry perfectly with their tipples. To kick things off and get a good sense of what KCC is all about, there is a watermelon, goat’s cheese, and nori sushi cocktail. Next, there is a refreshing, light gazpacho cocktail, with a tomato tart on the side. Further drinks are inspired by tamales and som tam. A morel-infused cocktail comes with miso-stuffed mushrooms. Dessert is Rocky Road as a cocktail, chocolate-y, toasty and creamy. With only 25 seats behind its velvet curtains, Koliwada Cocktail Club is tucked away, intimate, and a happy escape in a city where most bars are too loud, and cocktails lean too sweet.

Fi’ilia at Roswyn, Andheri East

Roswyn’s new flagship restaurant has opened in Mumbai to showcase that Italian food is best when it feels like it came from a family’s table. To this end, Fi'lia, led by Chef Matteo Arvonio in its India debut, focuses on recipes that showcase skill and simplicity. We tried some excellent salads, pasta, risotto, and possibly the best four-cheese pizza in the city. Fi’ilia’s bucatini carbonara is made with guanciale, pecorino, and egg yolk. Their pappardelle ragù is slow-cooked and full of flavour. Pizzas also include margherita, diavola, mortadella with pistachio, and a bunch of truffle-topped options. The pasta is handmade, and the dough has been fermented to exacting standards for texture and flavour. In keeping with large family meals, there is also lasagna, meatballs, and roast chicken, along with grilled seabream, veal scallop, whole salt-crusted branzino, seafood cacciucco, and lamb racks. We’ll confirm that the city has yet another incredible tiramisu at Fi’ilia. There are also other classics like cannoli served with affogato, lemon panna cotta. A dessert trolley moves from table to table. The drinks menu is also mostly Italian, with olive oil Negronis, limoncello spritzes, and a good wine selection.

Special menus

Avo’s Kitchen at Bombay Brasserie, Colaba

Bombay Brasserie is kicking off its new Coastal Kissa series by bringing one of Goa’s favourite local spots to Mumbai. For three days in June (12 to 14), Avo’s Kitchen, the well-loved Goan restaurant run by brothers Amey and Gaurish Naik, will serve their signature home-style thali at the Colaba location. Avo’s signature banana-leaf-lined meals are at the heart of the experience. The non-vegetarian thali includes papletache hooman, prawns tawa fry, fish rawa fry, chicken vindaloo, vegetables, rice, pickle, and sol kadi, ending with kangachi nevari (sweet potato dumpling with coconut and jaggery). The vegetarian thali includes mushroom sukke, raw mango curry, dalicho ross, beans chi bhaji, and seasonal vegetables rarely found outside Goan homes. The idea is to keep the collab simple even as it travels, with no tasting menus, modern twists, or chef performances. Avo’s will serve merely a regional meal, as it has for generations. Book your seats on Swiggy Scenes.

Sunday brunch at SoBo20, Marine Drive

After a decade bereft of decadent brunches, south Mumbai is back in the mood for long, lazy, wildly indulgent Sundays. The latest is SoBo 20’s new weekly New Orleans-style brunch, which borrows from Louisiana’s long tradition of stretching this meal into a morning-to-evening affair, pairing southern American comfort food, cocktails, and jazz-house music with Marine Drive’s long, low light streaming in through the windows. The format starts with a grazing table piled up quite architecturally with whipped feta and scallion dip, brown butter cannellini pâté, salads (like SoBo 20’s excellent chicken floss Cobb), artisan breads, and a cheese board. The meal then moves into a steady flow of small plates. Louisiana curry puffs stuffed with pepper jack and mozzarella, Cajun chicken pizzettes, stracciatella crostini, chilli cheese hot dogs, and caviar-topped chicken nuggets keep things busy. Guests can then choose a main, from eggs Benedict and shrimp and grits to (our absolute favourite) citrus sea bass, étouffée rice pilaf, Cajun chicken rice, and a surprisingly summery lemon tagliolini. Desserts include SoBo20’s signature chocolate pâté and banana Foster turnovers. It’s brunch, so cocktails are central to the experience. There is a clarified Bloody Mary that’s got our hearts, but you can also choose from basil smashes, gin palomas, and mango martinis. And with the boozy package, there is that most dangerous brunch ritual: unlimited pours.

Le Cafe’s Lobster Spice Bag, Chembur

Le Cafe is bringing a taste of Ireland to Chembur this month with its limited-edition Lobster Spice Bag, available from June 5. Inspired by the popular Irish takeaway meal, this dish gives the classic spice bag a fancy twist. The main attraction is a generous mix of lobster, crab, scampi, and tiger prawns, all coated in Cajun spices, fried until crisp, and tossed in the restaurant’s special seasoning. It comes with fries, peppers, corn, prawn crackers, chilli, herb butter, lime, and a house sauce that ties everything together. Priced at ₹3,999+, it’s a playful mix of Irish comfort food and Mumbai seafood, designed to be a bit over-the-top.

Via Bombay’s Sindhi feast, Fort

This June, Via Bombay is rolling out the red carpet for Sindhi cuisine with a month-long festival that’s basically an ode to all the dishes that our non-Sindhi friends love when they come to our Sindhi homes for a meal. This is mainly because you’ll rarely spot many of these dishes on restaurant menus. Kicking off on June 5, Sindhi Fest is a parade of comfort food, street eats, and slow-simmered family recipes. Of course, it opens with dal pakwan, then moves on to seyal pav, chola dabal, dal sandwich, bheej ji tikki, and arbi tuk, snacks that make for instant and permanent cravings. Mains is a greatest-hits playlist: sai bhaji with bhugal chawal, tidali dal with dhodho, Sindhi kadhi, seyal machi, pali machi, chicken kofta with kheema, and a house-style teevan, or Sindhi mutton. Thadal (Sindhi thandai) and Sindhi falooda are here to rescue you from the summer heat, and gach with rabdi is the kind of sweet finish that makes Sindhis miss their grandmas. The menu is à la carte, with no reinventions, because the focus is on delicious nostalgia.

Nomikai hours at Supa San, BKC

Enter Nomikai Hours, Supa San’s playful homage to Japan’s after-work drinking rituals. From Wednesday to Friday, between 5 and 8 pm, guests can sip their way through unlimited cocktails and beer for 90 minutes. The menu is filled with plates that are meant to be passed around: tori kari kari, wasabi edamame, gyozas, sushi rolls, robatayaki skewers, and platters. In true nomikai spirit, there are games. Rock-paper-scissors isn’t just for kids here; guests who win a round can snag a coveted Power Card, unlocking perks. A final roll of the dice at the end of your meal could land you a voucher or a discount for your next visit. Of course, this makes sense in BKC, where the transition from boardroom to bar is easier than anywhere else.

Bare’s second menu, Lower Parel

This Worli restaurant calls itself “a chef’s playground” and, fittingly, Bare’s second collaborative menu is called ‘An Invitation to Play’. This time, resident chef Aman Singhal teams up with guest chef Marisha Shukla, who has trained in France, worked in Michelin-starred kitchens, and moves easily between pastry and savoury dishes. The menu is designed to move between cuisines and memories. Small plates feature avocado chaat with a nori cracker, momo with ema datshi, snapper ceviche with citrus and mint, sesame prawn toast with green apple, and a mushroom kulcha topped with truffle burrata. The main courses have lemon ravioli with limoncello, scallion Malabar parotta with summer vegetables or prawns, bibimbap, crab fried rice with omelette, and John Dory cooked in parchment. Desserts are solidly creative, like Shukla’s mango pavlova with burnt lemon and olives, and the yuzu and pistachio olive cake.

Amadeo’s new menu, BKC

Summer truffle season is short, and at Amadeo by Oberoi it lasts for 10 days this month. The Summer Truffle Pop-Up from June 11 to 21 features truffles in several courses. An interesting one is the mushroom-and-truffle khichdi, with braised mushroom khurchan and parmesan-truffle snow. Other dishes include pizza fritta with truffle stracciatella and fresh truffle shavings, and smoked hamachi tartare with corn dashi and sweet potato crisps. For dessert, Black Diamond pairs white chocolate and truffle mousse with Baileys ice cream. Reservations are recommended.

Mirai’s kiddie menu, Bandra

The kids are all into K-dramas, K-pop, and Korean snacks these days, and Mirai seems to have caught on. School’s out for the month, and so the Asian spot in Bandra is aiming for a younger crowd with what it says is Mumbai’s first K-pop-inspired kids’ menu. The Kiddy Menu (₹750++), available until June 15, brings together Korean comfort food, activity sheets, and fun touches from Korean pop culture to keep kids entertained. The menu takes familiar kid-friendly dishes and adds a Korean twist. Kids can choose from cheesy K-corn dog bites, mini bao sliders with fries, kimbap roll-ups, dumpling pockets, Korean-style omelette rice, noodle soup bowls, and cheesy fried rice, all served in smaller portions. For dessert, there are fish-shaped sweet cakes (bungeoppang) and popping candy mochi. These come with activity sheets filled with mazes, word games, drawing activities, and anime-style illustrations.