Mumbai's Best Street Food: Will Bowlby's Insider Picks
Mumbai is one of the world’s great street food cities; a place where the best eating happens not in restaurants, but at roadside stalls, hole-in-the-wall canteens, and late-night kerb-side spots that have been doing the same thing, brilliantly, for decades. From chaat centres in Matunga East to butter garlic crab in Kala Ghoda, the city’s food culture is as diverse as its neighbourhoods. Kricket co-founder Will Bowlby has spent years eating his way through Mumbai, and these are the places he returns to again and again – the spots that have shaped the way he thinks about Indian food, and that continue to inform the cooking at Kricket.
Mumbai is one of those cities that gets under your skin. The food is relentless: loud, generous, and completely uncompromising. I've eaten my way around it more times than I can count, and these are the places I keep going back to.
Will Bowlby
Gupta Chaat Centre, Matunga East
Go hungry. Seriously. Gupta is a chaat centre in the truest sense: a sprawling, gloriously chaotic spread of vegetarian snacks that will test your self-control and your stomach. The pani puri and bhel puri are the highlights for me, but the menu is vast enough that you’ll want to work your way through as much of it as possible. Don’t rush it.
Worli Rane Vadapav, Worli
Unapologetic, roadside, and ferociously spicy. This is vada pav as it should be: no frills, no fuss. Get a pair, pile on the dry garlic chutney, and eat standing up. That’s the point.
Ekadashi Uphargruha, Dadar West
A tiny restaurant that punches well above its size. The focus here is seasonal Maharashtrian street food, and the owner knows his menu inside out: he’ll guide you through it, and you should let him. Get as many dishes as the table will hold, but make sure the misal pav and the kothambir wadi are among them. Both are exceptional.
Shree Thaker Bhojanalay, Marine Lines
Arguably my favourite restaurant in the city. Walking in here feels like being welcomed into someone’s home: the owner greets you, looks after you, and feeds you extraordinarily well. The menu changes constantly, seasonal and always exciting, and the value for money is almost absurd. I have a particular fondness for this place. When Modi demonetised the country and I found myself down to my last ₹500 with cash machines out of action, they offered to feed me anyway. That’s the kind of place it is.
Bademiya, Colaba
There is no better late-night kerb-side kebab spot in Mumbai, or at least none that carries quite the same weight of nostalgia. Bademiya is a city institution and deservedly so. The kebabs come wrapped in roomalis made fresh to order, and if you’re feeling brave, you should try the bheja masala. Pair the whole thing with cold beers from the dive bar opposite. Near-perfect.
Trishna, Kala Ghoda
I’ll hold my hands up: this is not a hidden gem and I’m not pretending otherwise. Trishna is well-known for good reason. Their butter garlic pepper crab, eaten with roomali, a squeeze of lime, and a very cold beer, is one of the greatest combinations I’ve encountered anywhere. Everyone I’ve sent there has come back and told me I was right. Get the crab.
The Bombay Canteen, Lower Parel
These guys do something genuinely brilliant: they take regional and seasonal Indian food and have real fun with it, on their own terms. The cooking is inventive without being showy, and it changes with the seasons. Worth a visit every time.
Sardar Pav Bhaji, Tardeo
Rich, buttery, and completely over the top. The pav bhaji here is the real thing: deeply flavoured and laden with enough butter to render you horizontal for the rest of the afternoon. Don’t fight it. Lean in.
Soam, near Chowpatty Beach
A calm and considered spot serving vegetarian homestyle cooking from both Maharashtra and Gujarat. The dishes are interesting and carefully made: a quieter side of Mumbai’s food scene, and a very good one.
