Mumbai’s food and bar scene thrived in 2025 with regional flavours, clean eating and community spirit

(From left) Beet Chops and Avocado Tiradito at Paashh

Better together

This year was great for Mumbai's food and drink landscape, and for India overall, feels Gresham Fernandes of Bandra Born. "The pool of chef talent is steering clear from the generic commercial menus and taking their passions to the next level. Bandra itself has regional Thai cuisine at Bangg, old-school global hits at Kasper's and Mexican at Mezcalita. A good F&B programme doesn't always mean transformation. Most times, it is about serving a better version without adding something new. Across India, NĀVU Project and Lupa in Bengaluru are speaking the same language," says Fernandes.

Tribal Negroni and Mahua Combo Shot

Bar pop-ups took off. "We hosted a few from Thailand and South East Asia. In turn, it was heartening to see international bar teams raise an interest in our Mahua cocktails. We're pouring Sazarac as well as Last Word, a gin-based cocktail from the Prohibition Era, with the tribal spirit, says a lot," he adds. For Fernandes, the highlight is the camaraderie among chefs, who are extending support and sharing local vendors making kitchen life easy. "We want everyone to do better."

Gresham Fernandes and Rahul Punjabi

The footprint is expanding across the city too. With Rahul Punjabi's Bang Bang! Noodle making the trek to Goregaon, and NESCO turning into an F&B hub, Fernandes also confirms they are looking to open Smoke House Deli in Borivli. "Take Abhishek Tulaskar's The Maratha Kitchen that is serving Maharashtrian, including Kolhapuri, food like never before," he says, adding, "The locavore movement that is bringing in tribal ingredients and foods into different menus will continue to grow. The pie has become smaller, and micro eateries will rule the year."

Clean eating

Cocktails Shiso Sonic and Minus. PICS COURTESY/CHAIYOS

Chef Ajay Chopra, who has partnered with Paashh that focuses on nourishing meals, makes an interesting observation. "Focus on health has become more precise. From being conscious eaters, people have become conscious readers of labels. It is not just about the calorie count anymore. Guests are curious about the origins of their food, use of organic produce and lacto-fermented elements," he shares. This year, regional cooking became global. "It was assumed regional food is for home. But in the last year, we've seen the rise of many restaurants and many pop-ups, and home chefs who are doing their regional food. That was the trend high point that will continue," he says.

Ajay Chopra

At Paashh, they use products from Koji Boy, a Goan fermentary that crafts products using koji. "We enquire about season products here. We also check out Ground-up Chef, Pune's experimental kitchen and fermentary by Gayatri Desai, for her sriracha or strawberry ketchup, and improvise. For summer, I am already fermenting beetroot pickle, which will be ready to use in a carpaccio," says Chopra who calls this an exciting time.

On the bars front

A spread of dim sums

While Gen Z-ers may be drinking more coffee than alcohol, the shift has upped the demand for premium liquors for the want of quality drinks. This, along with zero- proof menus that are striving to identify as anything more than just a mocktail or juice.

Deepthi Nair

Cocktail-driven bars are also on a rise, and bar chefs have realised well-made simple drinks drives in the crowd. Chef Karan Bane has designed a bar programme for Chaiyo bar at Seefah. "Our bar ideology was always to use the kitchen ingredients in cocktails and give them a different taste, while keeping flavours clean. We never add chilli in our cocktails, because our food is already flamboyant with the use of Thai herbs and spices."

A lunch spread at Rameshwaram Café's Bengaluru outlet. PICS COURTESY/@therameshwaramcafe; Wikimedia Commons

Ready-to-eat, elevated

From fermentaries to pickles, our pantries have never been more tempting. All monsoon, a jar of stone ground mango and raw mustard spread by Smallbatch.in accompanied our meals.

Ragi Mudde

Chefs craft gourmet cooking and dipping sauces to help ease and elevate home cooking. Happy Monk made sure our cravings for dimsums were satiated. Founder Deepthi Nair has created 17 variations as a frozen product. "It goes through a natural preservation process without preservatives. We blast-freeze it to -35 degrees. Our clients are well-travelled, and love eating good food at home," says Nair.

Breaking the fourth wall

Gaurav Dabrai, co-founder Eateratti Experiences+ F&b Strategy, is excited to see a rise in patrons being open to different cuisines. "Guests are confident to walk into smaller restaurants, which wasn't the trend earlier," says Dabrai.

Raghavendra Rao and Sushmita Sarmah

"Entertainment has also become a key draw, along with food and service. Food at events has also improved. Earlier people were more concerned about being seen. Organisers are paying attention to food and presentation," says Dabrai, who set up a 100-day bar in collaboration with G5A this July. In summer 2026 he is coming out with a micro eatery and cocktail bar in South Mumbai.

Get set for event-based food experiences, which offers a new way to discover food. Co-founders Sushmita Sarmah and Prasad Ramamurthy of The Gathering that held its first edition in Delhi brings its taste to Mumbai in January. The event partners chefs with artists to curate a food-meets-arts experience. "Chefs are conserving traditions, experimenting with flavours and techniques and therefore making space for what makes them unique. Shared experiences around a table make people be part of a narrative rather than just have a meal."

Simply south

We're all craving South Indian beyond idli-dosa! The wait for Rameshwaram Café to open its doors at Eros this January makes us drool more. Founder Raghavendra Rao says, "South Indian food is no longer restricted to the four states - It has become wholly Indian by demand. Every Indian wants to know more about the dishes, and even globally so. For Mumbai, in addition to the usual suspects, the menu will feature Ragi Mudde (a dense round dumpling), Gongura Rice from Andhra and Telangana, and Avakai Muddapappu from Andhra Pradesh. We'll serve a different rasam every day," says Rao.