South (Colaba)

Colaba is, of course, home to the Taj, the Oberoi and Leopold’s. All made more famous by the attacks of November 2008. They’re all open again and life continues as before, but a little reverance and appreciation by visitors can only help.

Indigo Restaurant
+91 22 5636 8999
Mandlik Road, Colaba, Mumbai
Indigo has endured with constant popularity for a good long while in a city that sees restaurants come and go. It’s a powerhouse of Mumbai socialites, good food and drink. On the right evening you’ll find it packed with the beautiful and connected. There’s the downstairs bar and restaurant and a terrace and snug bar upstairs and, on a Sunday they do an all-in brunch. Fantastic food and booze to stuff yourself silly with.

Busaba
4,Mandlik Road, Colaba, Mumbai, 400001
+91 22 2204 3769, +91 22 2204 3772 or +91 22 2204 3779
Right next to Indigo, it’s not nearly as cool but it is more relaxed, less pretentious and less rammed. Having said that, it’s a great little place with music and dancing. It’s more bar than restaurant but does good snacks.

Voodoo Discotheque
2/5 Kamaal Mansion, AB Road, Colaba, Mumbai
+91 22 2284 1959
Don’t go to Voodoo unless you want to collect a whore and a disease for the night. A very underground place best approached with caution and in company. Worth a quick drink if you’re in the area, just to see that Indians can and do have sex… Or, put your beer goggles away and just go for a good dance.

Gordon House Hotel, noodle restaurant and Poly Esther’s night club
+91 22 2287 1122
www.ghhotel.com
5 Battery Street, Appolo Bunder, Colaba, Mumbai
Good boutique hotel and I fancy the night-club but have never been. No pool but I believe you can buy your way into the Taj Hotel’s pool round the corner.

The Sealounge at the Taj
Colaba
Unfortunately, Wasabi, the world class Japanese restaurant at the Taj has not reopened since the attacks. However, the sealounge is due to soon (at time of writing 11 July 09). It’s a hotel bar really, but they have a good happy hour(s) before 9pm and a nice clean outdoor space.

Leopold’s Café
Colaba Causeway, Colaba
+91 22 2287 3362
It’s a very famous and charmingly crap café in the middle of back-packer-ville. Worth a visit if you’re passing. You have to pay for your beers up-front and the food afterwards. I believe they’ve left the bullet holes in the bar as a memorial.

Woodside
Opp Regal Cinema Wodehouse Road, Colaba
+91 022 22025525
Woodside’s a proper little bar. Well proportioned, tidy and run. Decked out a bit like a sauna it is, if anything, slightly over air-conditioned. As long as you keep ordering, the potato crisps keep coming and the alchol selection is adequate for the unpretentious. There is a restaurant upstairs but it only seems to be there to have something to walk through on the way to the toilets. A top tip for boozers.

India Jones Restaurant
The Oberoi, Nariman Point, Colaba
+91 22 2232 6210
I’m not sure if it’s reopened post machine gun trauma, I hadn’t been before but I think it’s got some good Indian food and is a bit of a laugh.

Trishna Birla Mansion
Sai Baba Marg (next to Commerce House), Kala Ghoda, Fort
+91 22 2270 3213 or +91 22 2270 3214
Famous for it’s garlic crab and seafood (which is excellent), Trishna makes little effort nor pretence to anything else. Which is good. However, it’s booth seating is a little too cramped and it’s customers a little too fat; although not unhygenic, it could do with a good clean; and it’s waiters a little too… too… friendly? You know – chummy, over familiar, liable to overcharge?