Food & culture · 3 min read ·
Mumbai Street Food: Pav Bhaji, Vada Pav, Bhel and More at Home
A guide to Mumbai's most famous street foods, from vada pav and pav bhaji to bhel puri, sev puri and misal pav, with the chutneys, spice mixes and drinks you need to recreate them at home.
Mumbai is a city that eats on the move. Millions of people commute by train every day, and the city’s street food grew up to feed them: fast, cheap, filling and full of flavour. Much of it is vegetarian and built on two things: potatoes and soft bread rolls called pav, a legacy of Portuguese bakers in western India. Here’s what to try, and how to make it at home.
Vada pav: the Mumbai burger
Vada pav is the city’s signature snack: a spiced potato ball, dipped in batter and fried, pressed into a pav with fiery dry garlic chutney and green chutney. It’s sold outside every railway station and costs very little. If you know Karachi’s bun kebab, you’ll understand the appeal.
Pav bhaji: buttery vegetable mash
Pav bhaji was invented to feed the city’s textile mill workers in the 1800s. Vegetables are boiled, then mashed on a giant griddle with tomatoes, butter and , and served with buttery toasted pav, raw onion and lemon. At Juhu Beach and Chowpatty, it’s an evening ritual.
Bhel puri and sev puri: beach chaat
Bhel puri is a quick toss of crunchy puffed rice with potato, onion, tomato, chutneys and fine , eaten from a paper cone before it goes soft. Sev puri is built on flat crisp puris, each topped with potato, chutney and a snowfall of sev. Both are lighter cousins of Pakistani papri chaat and chana chaat.
Misal pav: the spicy one
Misal pav comes from Pune and Kolhapur but is loved in Mumbai too: sprouted beans in a fiery red gravy, topped with crunchy farsan, onion and coriander, eaten with pav. It’s breakfast for people who like their mornings hot.
The building blocks
Most Mumbai street food relies on a few things you can prepare once and use all week:
- Green chutney: mint, coriander, green chilli and lemon. Our green chutney recipe is exactly the same.
- Tamarind chutney: sweet and sour; see imli chutney.
- Dry garlic chutney: toasted coconut, garlic and red chilli, pounded together.
- Sev: fine fried gram flour noodles, sold ready-made.
- Pav: soft dinner rolls or slider buns are a good substitute.
Drinks
Mumbai’s street drinks are just as good. Try a fizzy masala soda, a tangy jaljeera, or for something sweet, mango mastani from nearby Pune.
A street-food party at home
Mumbai street food makes a brilliant party. Make a big pot of pav bhaji, set up a bhel station with bowls of puffed rice, chopped vegetables, chutneys and sev so guests can mix their own, and fry vada pav in batches. Finish with cold drinks. It’s fun, mostly vegetarian, and very easy to scale.
