Dive into the Streetfood Culture of Mumbai – India

Discover India’s streetfood culture Mumbai with a streetfood walk in Mumbai. I can’t stress it often enough but if you ask me, India has the most delicious food in the whole world! You can’t make me happier with a streetfood walk like this! So when I was in Mumbai, of course I couldn’t resist booking a trip to dive into the streetfood culture of Mumbai.

Dive into the Streetfood Culture, Mumbai – India

Is it safe to eat streetfood in India?

Many times you can eat very good street food in India. Pay attention to whether it is crowded and if there are many other locals eating there. If you can answer yes to this, believe it is good and you will be able to lick your fingers.

Streetfood Culture Mumbai

The street food tour started right at the appointed spot at Churchgate metro station. We were given a sandwich containing a tasty ball, it was vegetarian but it could easily be a minced meat ball…only much better spiced of course! I was right into the street food culture in Mumbai.

Eating this sandwich with ball, we walked to the train, as we were going by train to our first place. Here we were going to try different dishes was explained. We headed towards the beach, lovely! The sun was already setting when we got there and we all took some nice photos of course.

Called Chowpatty Beach, this beach is busy in the evening and is located on Marine Drive, a well-known street where there is a lot of walking and driving.

I did know already that beaches are more busy at night from my visit at Papanasam Beach in Kerala. It is such a different culture then we know in Holland or Europe. My dad and I were here earlier, our favorite coffee shop was across this beach 🙂 Simple but great when it is hot, it’s not a local place but the Cafe Coffee Day and we could cool down at this place with a nice cup of cappuccino 🙂

Chowpatti Beach – Mumbai

We had a delicious meal on this beach. First they explained to us what we were going to eat and we would sit on cloths on the beach but first the pani puri! Ooh how I loved those before. I ate them then in Delhi with my Indian friend Smriti!

Pani Puri is a deep-fried hollow ball that they make a hole in. They then put some vegetables and spices in it and then at the end they fill it with mint water or spicy water. Then you have to put it in your mouth quickly afterwards, whole, and all the flavours are released at once as you bite the dish to pieces. Delicious! If you pay a certain amount you get about 4 or 5.

The streetfood culture Mumbai and in the rest of India is just WONDERFUL!

Pani Puri – Chowpatty Beach – Streetfood culture Mumbai

After this streetfood treat we sat down at the beach. It didn’t took long before more great food came our way. It was a mix of potato, herbs, spices made into balls and chutney and some fried chickpea along the side of it. The combination was delicious! They also had another combination of this kind and they were all great!

It was all great and we eat a lot already and started to get full of all this good streetfood. But before going to the next location we got an ice cream, the local favorite Kulfi.

Discovering the Streetfood culture Mumbai

After this, we moved on. We went by taxi to the part of Mumbai where the Muslim faith is predominant and so there is a very different culture. So here you can get meat dishes. Here we did see goats on the streets, in the market. We walked across a busy market and past a beautiful Jain temple to soon get to Muhamed Ali Road where the tables were on the street and it smelt deliciously of the many foods being made.

So much culture in Mumbai.. Hindu – Muslim – Sikh

We sat down at one of the restaurants and got served from all parts of the street. We got the best of the best of this street in this one restaurant, what a service! It were 7 dishes and we got to taste them first and what we liked we could get more.

We had sausages, meatballs, an omelet and some sort of meatloaf and all kinds of herbs and vegetables. It tasted great! I love the way all the herbs and spices are in the food, typical on Asian food is the multiple spices and flavors combined in one dish. To make it complete you have to have sweet, sour, salt and bitter in it 🙂 I try to make it at home too….but I can’t get that complete taste…

Getting the taste of the streetfood culture in Mumbai

After this we took a small walk to our last stop. We would get a desert also! A good and sweet Indian Icecream. Just like the one before probably, sweet and brightly coloured. That’s so Indian Culture!!

Stress situation.. Also culture 😉

I lost my dad….and another Dutch person of the group. Well…that was exciting! My dad….alone in the big city of Mumbai…without a telephone…without knowing the name of the hotel….maybe? In the end he is more of a traveler then I am..but still… He is almost 75 and walking in a strange city.. I went searching with the guide who was worried as well.. we didn’t find anybody…

I left the group without even thinking on taking a phone with me, it was still with the group. My dad did have his phone with me…he did call me…I didn’t answer… They found the group by walking back the way they came… It seemed that they were talking so much that they didn’t noticed the group stopping. So they just had to go back a couple of minutes. Pfieuw!!

Information Reality Tours

I booked this streetfood tour at Reality Tours. Reality Tours is a organization that tries to make the slums a better place to life. They help the people from the slum by getting better education and helping them get jobs. Reality Tours are mostly active in the Dharavi Slum in Mumbai. The organisatio has sections in other cities as well. 80% of the money they earn is put back in to Reality Gives, the organisation that gives courses and is active in other facilities in the slum too. I also did a Dharavi Slum Tour with Reality Tours, read more about that here

Book your Mumbai Streetfood Walk. I also booked this tour online in advance and was able to pay there too, the instructions were clear and the agreed place was easy to find! The people from the organisation have a recognisable shirt on and so cannot be missed in the sometimes crowded metro station.

I thought it was a super fun and comprehensive streetfood walk. This streetfood Walk in Mumbai took us to different cultures in Mumbai. We even had a trip on the train, how fun? The streetfood walk allowed us to taste food from different backgrounds! Highly recommended!

Costs and duration Mumbai Streetfood Walk

I paid around 20-25 euros for this Streetfood tour per person in 2015. Now, 2024, that has become around 40-45 euros.

This tour took from late in the afternoon till late in the evening. We were busy for at least 5 hours. If you don’t really like to choose food from which you don’t know what to get this is the chance to try and taste anything you would. They will only take you to places that, we tourist, can eat. What is good for our belly, so to speak. And there is a guide to explain what you are getting and eating 🙂

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Want to read some more about my adventures in India?

Going too Local at a Local Cookingclass

5 Highllights of Jaipur – Rajasthan

Rituals, Roasted Rice and Holy Elephants

Puja on the Holy beach of Papanasam – Varkala