Eating our way around Mumbai
We did a lot of eating in Bombay. Lucky for everyone else, we took loads of PICTURES.
The city is a haven for vegans and the variety of food on offer is fantastic. Mumbai street food is heavenly and along with small local cafes, these are the places to find some of the absolute best grub. We stayed mostly in Fort, so we dropped into a number of local eateries in the area. To be honest, you really can't go wrong. If you see lots of people eating somewhere, it's usually a good sign. We didn't note down the names of all of the local India places we ate, but here are a few snaps.
A couple of favourites....We couldn't not mention these few places.Status VegThis place is in Nariman point. It's quite fancy and very popular. They're especially known for their thalis, but they won me over with their palak dal and these unbelievably delicious idly chips.
Consistently yummy and super fast food at this veggie restaurant in Fort. We ate a lot of dosas at this place.
No photos, but have to give a shout out to Cafe Universal for being a nice place to sit and have a drink, Dakshin Bar and Kitchen for bringing khichiya papads into our lives and Anand Bhuvan for making our lunch, like most days.
As a vegan, it's pretty easy to eat Indian food 3 times a day in Mumbai. Most vegetarian stuff is vegan anyway, as long as you avoid paneer and check it isn't cooked in ghee. As much as we both love the local food, there is always a time and a place for some good non-Indian scran, particularly of the cakey variety! Here are some of our favourite vegan friendly places to eat in Mumbai.
This is a Burmese restaurant and tea room in the Kala Ghoda neighbourhood of Fort, serving amazing food. We went a little bit cray there. The people working there were so friendly and happy to advise about what was animal-free (most stuff). We tried to go back a second time but it was all booked up. Best to make a reservation to guarantee a table.
Couldn't tell you how many times we went here, but I can tell you they do the most delicious salted caramel vegan shakes, made with almond milk. The decor is really sweet. American retro kind of thing. It's also in Kala Ghoda.
As well as lots of salads, they do a lovely scrambled tofu breakfast which comes with nice bread. Not horrid fake burnt stuff.
They also serve upma with raisins and almonds and this dish of oven roasted chimichurri tofu with burgal pilaf.
For pud they do a really yummy beetroot cake
There are also lots of nice juices and smoothies but we mostly went for the milkshakes...
This is a super cute little cafe in the Kala Ghoda region of Fort. It only has about 20 seats and is often packed, so don't go if you're starving because you'll probably have to wait. They have plenty of vegan options. We ate breakfast there one morning and it was delish
Thai BaanThis place is in the Cuffe Parade neighbourhood of Mumbai. Plenty of the veggie stuff on offer was vegan and very tasty!
Le Pan QuotidienYou can find these bakeries all over the world. Most of the tempting baked treats on display in there aren't vegan, but they do make really good carrot cake muffins. The really awesome thing about this place is that they have a special vegan breakfast menu with plenty to choose from. They also have lots of plant-based main courses.
The Bagel ShopIt's actually making my mouth water looking at the photos from this nice and comfy gem in Bandra. They are super vegan-friendly and have loads to choose from, you just may have to ask them to hold the cheese every now and then. We wolfed down our tofu and hummus bagels so fast that we did not have time to snap them. Purely for blogging purposes, we ordered a PB one as well. Oh and a soya chocolate milkshake. We like shakes.
MamagotoThis place is fun and beautiful. There are quite a few branches across Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai. Veganwise, we were spoilt for choice. Everything was scrumptious and the people working there were really friendly,
Tea TrailsTea Trails is a chain of cafes that does a huge selection of teas. There are eleven of them across India. The Mumbai branch is just across from The Pantry in Khala Goda. There wasn't a huge selection of vegan options, but we enjoyed some smokey beans on toast, hummus with pitta bread and some awesome baked sweet potato wedges. Oh and the decor on the walls was cute as.
Birdsong CafeTHIS PLACE IS NEXT LEVEL.There were so many things to choose from that I got a bit giddy. This place even does pizzas with vegan cheese.This was a thick, rich and super creamy coconut milk shake. It was SO chocolatey.
The cafe is in trendy Bandra and everything is totally organic. Unfortunately they do serve meat as well, but, you know. You vote with your pound. Or you rupee.
The cookies and cream ice cream that we had for pudding was honestly the tastiest and creamiest ice cream I've ever tried, including non-vegan ice creams that I had in my (darker) non-vegan days.
We were absolutely stuffed, but not wanting to miss out on CAKE, we took a couple of slices of chocolate and carrot cake home. The verdict was: YES.
This place is a really quirky "modern Asian bistro. Lots of stuff for us to choose from on the menu. The sushi chefs were happy to amend things for as which was great as I love sushi. Their approach is really contemporary, offering wacky things like sushi burgers. It's a bit of a fancy place but you get some seriously good food for your buck. It's located inside the Palladium Mall. We were in a bit of a rush because we went there before heading to the cinema, but would highly recommend this place.
Loco ChinoIn English, this means crazy Chinese. And to be fair, the concept is a little wacky! The menu is an unlikely combination of Chinese and Mexican, with a bit of Thai thrown in for good measure. There are branches all over Mumbai, but we went to the one in Fort. It's all bright and colourful with cute little lampshades that look like sombreros. We didn't try any of the Mexican food on offer, but the noodle bowls were great. They were very generous with the tofu and the portion sizes were huge.So um, we were like really hungry that day and didn't take many photos. But that is surely testament to how good the food is!
Vegan BitesThese guys deliver all kinds of cakes, ice creams and snacks. They even offer a vegan tiffin service. We just went straight in there and ordered this insane gooey chocolate cake. To share with friends, I might add. It was glorious. Next time we head to Mumbai, I'm going to order in advance. I want one of these babies waiting for us....