Mumbai 2025 [Maharashtra, India]

Regional Dining Discussions Asia Pacific
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Am starting some super early planning for a trip to Mumbai in November this year. I have never visited Mumbai properly - the only times I’ve been have been passing through on the way to Kolkata or Goa. We have dedicated some time to properly get to see this great city, so we’re excited! I’ve done some preliminary research by reading the very informative posts on HO from @Saregama and @klyeoh. I also found a blog online called My Annoying Opinions, which seems pretty good:

I am now making lists and trying to improve my knowledge of the city’s geography by looking at Google Maps. I have previously tried to make a bespoke eating map for Kuala Lumpur and failed miserably - I’m just not that savvy with that sort of thing. Paper and pen ended up being the main method of mapping out plans.

Our trip is slightly unusual in that we need to attend a wedding in Nashik (several hours drive from Mumbai). So we arrive at 2:30am on a Friday morning in Mumbai and the very next day, at some unknown time, we will have to get to a meeting point to join the wedding entourage to head to Nashik. The wedding takes place over the weekend and after breakfast on Monday, wedding guests are expected to depart. This is when we head back to Mumbai for 4 more nights, to decompress from the Indian family dramas that seem to accompany all weddings (the wedding is in November and I have already ended up embroiled in multiple dramas and I am not even a main player in this event :joy:).

At the moment, I am planning on relation to the first short stint in Mumbai before the wedding. I think we might try and stay somewhere near the airport, maybe in Juhu as it’s for one night. The three restaurants I’ve shortlisted for this bit are:

Mahesh Lunch Home (Juhu Tara Rd, Next to J.W.Marriott, Uditi Tarang Housing Colony, Juhu Tara, Juhu, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400049, India)

Chaitanya Assal Malvani Bhojangruh (33, Raobahadur SK Bole Rd, Dadar West)

Highway Gomantak (44/2179, Pranav CHSL, Service Rd, near Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, Gandhi Nagar, Bandra East, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400051, India)

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How exciting!!

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I know someone I can ask for reccs. Sandeep, who owns our favourite Mumbai street food restaurant is from the city.

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Family weddings are such fun, even with the drama! Outstation ones were my favorites as a kid, because you got to hang out with everyone the whole time, instead of just at events. My cousin got married in Nashik a few years ago, and my uncle a couple of decades ago.

It’s actually a lovely journey from Mumbai to Nashik too, not sure if you are flying or taking the train (we flew for my cousin’s, but my dad wanted to drive for my uncle’s, and it was one of the best roadtrips of my life). There are a couple of don’t miss sights in Nashik and on the way too.

Are you planning any wedding shopping for the first day, or will that cut it too fine? (Lots of boutiques for readymades now if you are, including ones that ship abroad.)

Juhu is a traffic nightmare, suggest avoiding it. Lots of lovely hotels near the airport, and with excellent food (as you know, 5 stars in India have some excellent restaurants – eg ITC Grand Maratha has amazing kababs, Leela or Taj have fab Chinese among other things).

Or find out the meeting point for leaving for Nashik, and locate yourself close to that.

Suggest no seafood for the arrival days, so as not to throw off tummies before the wedding. You can eat as much of it as you want on the second stretch!

For the second part, suggest staying “in town” ie South Bombay. That will put you in a good location to sightsee as well as eat widely. The original Mahesh is in that part of town too (though Mahesh would not be my choice for peak seafood in Bombay, it’s largely a tourist spot these days, as also Trishna).

Lots of different styles of food you can explore in Mumbai that you may or may not have easy access to, and also some pretty good Bengali food if you want to scratch that itch.

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I am so excited for you!

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This sounds like an amazing trip, cannot wait to follow along.

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Thanks @Harters, am on an information gathering mission!

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Thanks for these insights @Saregama. I was thinking would there be anywhere open for breakfast by the time we emerge from the airport - by the time we clear immigration (fingers crossed, my appointment for an OCI card is later this month) and collect our cases, I expect it will be around 5 am. We might try and dump our cases at a hotel and scope out somewhere for a leisurely Indian style savoury breakfast.

I’ve read traffic is horrendous. I expect it’s like that 24/7? When we went to Bangalore several years ago, I was surprised to find the traffic was as chaotic at 2am in the morning as it was at 2pm in the afternoon (and impressed with the way my 19 year old niece with her newly minted driving licence was driving us around in said manic traffic at 2am in the morning). But that’s modern Indian cities for you. My hometown Kolkata is very sedate and old fashioned in comparison, unless it is during Durga Puja.

Hmmm. Might look at the options nearer the airport then and play it safe before the wedding. I think my uncle is arranging cars to drive guests from Mumbai to Nashik. It looks like the main highway from Mumbai to Nashik exits Mumbai near the airport, so maybe they could even pick us up on the way. I’ll check in a few weeks. I’m currently lying low after the latest drama :joy:!

I’m planning on doing wedding shopping in Kolkata in September. My personal trainer is trying to inspire me to use the wedding as a goal to get an impressive look and show off some muscles but I’m not sure she understands the Indian Aunty Mentality. Another one of my nieces, in her early 20s, is a professional rifle shooter (is that what you call them?) and works out a lot. She has a great physique but at any family event the aunties all mourn her ‘shoulders and arms like a man’s’.

I was also thinking Copper Chimney (Juhu Tara Road, Next Juhu Residency Hotel, opp, HSBC, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400049) for the time before the wedding?

https://www.copperchimney.in/juhu.php

I’m using this thread as a planning tool, so I’m including the addresses and websites for easy reference later.

Will rethink Mahesh Lunch Home. I was looking at the menu online and it did seem touristy.

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I was looking at this article for ideas on what to do during our 4 nights in Mumbai after the wedding. As @Saregama suggested, I’ll book a hotel in South Mumbai for this part of the trip.

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I haven’t been for a very long time, so I have nothing useful to offer, but may I say only that you take this blog seriously? I’ve a prickly relationship with the writer – with whom do I not? – but he’s very knowledgeable. Also, the founder of the greatest subcontinental discussion group of all time, for food and beyond, anothersubcontinent.com, now sadly defunct.

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Here’s what I suggested for a few close friends who visited in the past 2 years:
1 day - 1 of the museums (the main one for your first visit probably, and you can walk around kala ghoda & colaba the same day)
1 day - walking architectural & food tour(s) – several small companies specialize in this
1 day - smaller things (eg Mani Bhavan, temples, neighborhoods) or an excursion
1 day - open, fill in later

Get a car & driver from the hotel (or I can send you some references closer to the date).

The hotel will be able to connect you with a certified guide which may be useful for a day or 2.

ETA: If you plan on Mani Bhavan (which I highly recommend), try to watch Gandhi with your kid before the trip (if you haven’t already).

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Thanks very much. Sounds like booking a car and driver is preferable to using Uber/Ola? This sort of information is very helpful. I’ve never really traveled in an Indian city without extended family around to assist. I will make a note to myself to request the references from you nearer the time.

And thanks for the sensible suggestion to avoid seafood on the first leg of the trip to minimise chances of tummy upset before the wedding. It’ll just have to be delayed gratification on that front.

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You mean you’re unable to make custom google maps lists?

They are quite easy to make. Go to any place on google maps and click ‘save’. It will then show a few standard lists you can save these under, eg ‘favourites’. Once you get the hang of it, you can create your own custom lists. I have many lists for many cities and places filled with restaurants! Not Mumbai though…

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Wow, you know the blogger? I started reading the blog for its reviews of some Kolkata restaurants as it’s hard to find good reviews for that city’s restaurants generally.

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I was trying to make the list on my laptop, but for the life of me I couldn’t really get the same version on my phone! I’ll give it another go.

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He is also sometimes on the FTC discussion board when he looks for recommendations for places in LA. You could connect there directly with him

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Ola has never worked for me. Uber works, but drivers drop rides a lot (they just passed a law that will charge drivers for canceling rides, that’s how bad it can be). You can rent an Uber for the day, but it’s safer to get a car and driver from a known service (such as the hotel would use, or someone known uses). That way you can also request a driver who speaks or understands English (assume you don’t speak Hindi), and knows the sights / locations to navigate efficiently.

Re seafood, the only thing I have ever gotten sick from is seafood – actually one single bad shrimp the morning of a wedding in Goa, and I knew it as it went down (just as well that I ate it and not the bride or groom whom I shared all the food with, or they would have missed their own wedding, instead of me :rofl:).

(And avoid any urge to eat raw salad and cut fruit anywhere other than at your hotel, if there even. Plenty of cooked veg to fulfill any health cravings.)

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Immigration etc shouldn’t take that long. If you are starving, there are decent snack options right at the exit hall to tide you over (south indian, vada pav, frankie, sandwiches, and more). Otherwise most of the 5-stars have 24h “coffee shops” that are full restaurants, so you can eat as soon as you get to the hotel (or soon after – even if not 24h, something will open early).

Bombay traffic is not like Bangalore traffic (which might be the worst in India), but avoid evening rush hour (say 5:30-8:30). You could go back to your hotel or one nearby for dinner (that stretch of hotels has great restaurants) after spending the day exploring (Bandra might be good that first day, both for lunch and for putzing about before you lose steam).

I love Copper Chimney (the original in Worli, which might actually be equidistant now given the Sea Link and Coastal Road), but Peshawri and Dum Pukht at the ITC Maratha by the airport are equivalent if not better.

(Suggest you make two wish lists for sights/exploring and for cuisines/dishes, and then you can align the latter with the former, because there will be something good near whatever location you find yourself in. Think about it like London or New York: there’s good food everywhere, and only a few things for which you might want to target a very specific spot.)

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Only through the Internet, especially through the anothersubcontinent site I mentioned above. But, I know who he is, and I’m friends with friends of his, sometimes ex-. Aah, life!

That aside, I’d take seriously much of what he says.

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And thereby hangs a tale.

Go to any place on google maps, you say.

OK so I googled “google maps”. A map appeared. I then scrolled around till I found Lincoln Center, then clicked on it. Where is there an option to “click `save’”?

Yes, I’ve made maps for myself, but making them is tedious, with many steps, and nowhere near as easy as this suggests.