Leopold Café, Colaba

Situated on the Colaba Causeway, Leopold Café is a Mumbai institution and a staple for every traveler coming through India. The food isn’t particularly great, nor is the service, but you can’t beat the atmosphere.

Founded by Iranian immigrants, Leopold was originally a wholesaler for cooking oil before it became a pharmacy then a restaurant. A long-time favorite of Western backpackers, the café was made particularly famous by Gregory David Roberts’s novel, Shantaram. It was also one of the places shot during the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Despite the violence, Leopold Café became even more popular and still stands as a fixture of Colaba.

Leopold is best experienced with friends, preferably with one of the beer towers on the table, which are containers standing three feet tall, with a little spout at the bottom to pour your own pints. They also have an interesting variety of cocktails and mixed shots, as well as a large menu of mocktails. The restaurant offers Indian, Chinese and continental cuisines. We knew the Western dishes would not have measured up to back home, but we were excited for the Chinese fare. While it lacks authenticity, Indian Chinese food has become its own culinary specialty in India, so we ordered chili chicken to share, in addition to a few kebab plates, hakka noodles and American chop suey.

After downing a few glasses, our food arrived quickly with little fanfare from the staff, but that was alright as we were having a good time enjoying the atmosphere. Our seekh, hazari and reshmi kebabs were sizzling and flavorful, though we thought the portions could have been bigger. Our order of plain hakka noodles was quite large and mixed well with the spicy chili chicken. Despite its popularity in India, I could not stand the taste of the American chop suey, especially after finding out the “American” part is just ketchup topping the noodles.

Our meal was wrapped up with a mango lassi, a kind of Indian milkshake with a thick and creamy texture. While the main course could have been better, we enjoyed our time at Leopold’s, the perfect end to a day in Colaba.

Leopold Café

S.B. Singh Road

Colaba Causeway, Mumbai

022 2282 8185

leopoldcafe.com