15 Best Street Food in Mumbai

What to eat in Bombay? The city is peppered with a plethora of food joints, local eateries and fancy restaurants and offers an array of choices to foodies. In the last decade, fast food joints have mushroomed in the city at a much faster pace. Some food items you do not miss – Momos, chowmein, Manchurian, chopsy, fried rice, etc.

Munchies are not only easily available in every nook and corner of the city, but they are also one of the best items to take back home. Delectable and crispy, they can be easily found in any chips shop. Here you have some of the typical dishes, recipes and food that you have to try in Bombay.

Along with the Italian and the French, Indian cuisine is considered by many to be one of the best in the world. Its secret is the variety of ingredients, spices and traditions belonging to the many cultures that coexist on the subcontinent.

The recipes and preparations have been stratified and enriched over 5,000 years of history. And Mumbai, a vast metropolis and cradle of the Indian melting pot, is an ideal place to enjoy this kaleidoscope of flavors. A gastronomic experience that is difficult to experience elsewhere is made up of desert cuisine, originating from the neighboring states of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Breakfast in Mumbai is salty and the lentil is the host. Together with the inevitable chai that accompanies all meals (Indian tea with milk, sugar and spices), idli (steamed meatballs made of rice flour and lentil flour) are eaten, go (savory fritters made with lentils) and dosa (soft rice and lentil crêpes with spices).

These goodies can be accompanied by sambhar sauce (a soup with lentils, peas, carrots, tomatoes, tamarind, curcuma and chilli) or chutney, a sweet and sour sauce made with fresh coconut , chilli and black mustard seeds. Of course there is no lack of English breakfast, a legacy of a century of British rule.

Between Punjabi, Kashmiri, Mughlai, Bengali and Persian cuisine - just to name a few - in Mumbai there is an assortment of choice. A typical dish, the basis of Hindu food and brought to India by Persian merchants, is the biryani, that is basmati rice prepared with yogurt and spices (ginger, paprika, curcuma, chilli) and combined with vegetables, meat or fish.

It is served with chapati bread, light, slightly salted and cooked without yeast. Fanciful are also the batata vada, potato balls mixed with garlic, ginger, green chillies, lime juice, turmeric and fresh coriander and then fried in a batter of besan (chickpea flour) strung between two slices of pav (a soft sandwich), are also the basis of the Indian hamburger.

India is the quintessential country of street food. Almost everything can be bought and consumed in kiosks and street vendors, always paying attention to the freshness of the ingredients and the hygienic conditions in which they are cooked.

Mumbai has its street dishes that are full of flavor! I leave a list of things that should be tried when one visits India in general, but if you are in Mumbai, try them without a doubt.

1. Vada Pav

From a top businessman to a regular laborer, this amazing delicacy of Mumbai suits everybody’s palate. The Vada Pav filling consists of mashed potatoes and some other spices. You cannot leave Mumbai without trying it’s Vada Pav! It’s advisable to google a few top locations as to where to try this wonderful delicacy from.

Pav is a simple Indian roll, which usually accompanies most street dishes and in general, if one wants bread, they give it a pav. The pav is usually served with butter soaked (and the butter has to be of the Amul brand). Vada Pav is a bun filled with an Batata vada or aloo tikki; it is served with spicy chutney. Vada Pav is savored in mainly Maharashtra area.

It is easily available, affordable, calorie rich dish. Vada Pav has a mashed potato of spherical shape, fried and served inside a Pav with spicy green sauce and tamarind sauce.

Samosa Pav is a triangular shaped dumpling filled with potato and peas or other vegetables cooked and seasoned with curry served inside a Pav with spicy green sauce and tamarind sauce. Bhajia Pav has sliced ​​chips or pieces covered in flour and semolina served inside a Pav with spicy green sauce and tamarind sauce.

Having Medu Vada without Sambhar (the medium spicy dip) is a sin, both go hand in hand.

2. Misal Pav

Another Mumbai must have! It’s yum. A much-loved Maharashtrian dish that is a fiery medley of potatoes, freshly made spice paste and sprouted beans. Goes best with pav (savory bun), it is usually served at the breakfast table but also makes for a light meal in itself.

3. Ragda Pattice

The dish is an amalgamation of ragda, spices lentils, onions and much more. You’ll love it! Chickpeas with chopped onion and tamarind sauce accompanied by a fried empanada.

4. Dabeli

It is a sandwich based on potatoes and spices with tomato and onions - something traditional in the street kitchen. It could be grilled or not. Healthier options is to use wheat bread or multi grain bread and adding as many vegetables as you can.You can also use chicken or egg or meat instead of vegetables. It is a protein rich breakfast.

5. Kanda Poha

It has rice crushed with onions - a dish traditionally cooked as breakfast. This one is breakfast food made up of rice flakes. Every Marathi family will have this for breakfast some or other day. It has always remained famous for food offered to guests during talks of marriage!

6. Chole Bhature

Those chickpeas also come in sauce accompanied by bhature - a dough that is prepared just like the pizza but fried.

7. Pav Bhaji

It is a mixture of mashed vegetables cooked in spicy tomato sauce and served with fresh bread. In Pav Bhaji, Pav refers to the soft bread. Basically, it is a fast food dish from Maharashtra, consisting of a thick vegetable curry, fried and served with a soft bread roll. Some of the most popular dishes are cheese pav bhaji, paneer pav bhaji, fried pav bhaji, mushroom pav bhaji etc.

Pav Bhaji is a popular roadside street food that is made on a big aluminium pan placed on a burner. Pav is served as a combination of soft bread whereas Bhaji is served as a thick vegetable curry which is prepared live in front of customers. Freshly cut vegetables are cooked nicely and mashed in the aluminium plate.

Indigenous spices like tumeric powder, black pepper, green chillies, dry mango powder, fennel seeds, coriander seeds etc are used to make bhaji. The soft bread called Pav is delicately heated on the plate after applying sufficient amount of butter and tumeric powder. A full plate pav bhaji is sufficient for a one time meal.

8. Dahi Vada

Each has a donut shape and is prepared with lentils or potatoes. Dahi is Yogurt - consists of a vada dipped in yogurt, with salt, pepper, red pepper and sometimes fried potato bundles. Vada is a snack made from moong dal and are soaked, churned, deep-fried that gives a crispy feel. Moong Dal Vada is served with three different types of chutney - garlic, coriander and tamarind. It is also popularly known as Victoria Vada.

9. Bombay Sandwich

In Mumbai you will find many food stalls that prepare sandwhiches. Bombay sandwhiches are known all over India. The base is usually green sauce with cilantro, cheese and sliced potatoes and usually toast the sandwhich with a generous amount of butter.

10. Bhelpuri

Bhel Puri is made of puffed rice, vegetables and a spicy tamarind sauce that is mixed and put inside a puri. It is an explosion of sweet, salty and spicy flavors with puffed rice, fried noodles, vegetables mixed, a mix of masala and chutney spices. The ideal is to enjoy it on the beach. In addition to naan (leavened bread stuffed with meat or vegetables) found throughout the country, the typical street snack of Mumbai is the bhel puri.

Well, this snack gets a bit soggy if left for too long. But without a doubt it’ll definitely enlighten your taste buds!

11. Chivda

For the Maharashtrians, Chivada generally acts as a welcome snack. This spicy and tasty snack rules over your taste. The crispiness of Chivda is the major reason of its popularity.

12. Kanda Bhajiya

In this dish you have onions fried in a batter mixed with a couple of spices. It’s really very tasty. It’s very cheap for sure.

13. Upma

India's hot-favorite breakfast food. Just like idlis and dosas, it is also originally from South India, and comes with a list of benefits. Rava (semolina), which is used to make upma is rich in protein, vitamin B and iron. Adding veggies to the upma makes it tastier and healthier. Upma is roasted suji with groundnuts. It will keep you full for a long time. It is a good way to kick start your day.

14. Thepla

This is the ultimate go to food for a Gujarati. If you ever see a travelling Gujarati, there is a 99% chance that he is carrying Theplas with him. Theplas are roti-like flat breads, the dough is seasoned with fenugreek leaves, salt, sugar and basic spices. They can last upto 2 months if stored right.

15. Dosa

Dosa is made from the batter of urad dal and rice mixture. Sambhar is rich in protein and keep you full for long time. Coconut chutney adds a succulent taste to this combination.