Name: Pav bhaji (Mumbai style)
Prep time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped (500g); 1 medium cauliflower, chopped (300g); 200g green peas; 2 medium capsicum, chopped; 4 medium tomatoes, chopped fine; 2 medium onions, chopped fine; 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste; 3 tablespoons pav bhaji masala (Everest or MDH brand); 1 teaspoon red chilli powder; 1 teaspoon turmeric powder; 100g butter plus extra for serving; 8 white pavs; Salt to taste; Lime wedges and chopped onion for serving

A spiced mash of mixed vegetables (potato, cauliflower, capsicum, peas) served with buttered white pav rolls. Mid-1800s Mumbai mill-worker lunch invention.

Pav bhaji emerged in 1850s Mumbai when textile mill workers needed cheap, quick lunches between shifts. Vendors near the Girangaon mills mashed leftover vegetables with butter and spice, then served the mash with the Portuguese-introduced pav. By the 1950s Sardar Pav Bhaji in Tardeo had become the canonical city version, and Mumbai still treats the dish as its working-class symbol.

3 editor picks for Pav bhaji in Mumbai, ranked by editorial score. All Mumbai signature dishes · Pav bhaji across every city.

Sardar Pav Bhaji ★ 4.6

Street food

tardeo · 166-A Tardeo Main Road Junction, Tardeo, Mumbai 400034

Sardar at the Tardeo bus depot has been the Mumbai pav bhaji benchmark for decades. Butter swims on the griddle; the masala is hot and the pav is buttered.

Cream Centre ★ 4.2

Indian

chowpatty · 25/B Chowpatty Seaface, Chowpatty, Girgaon, Mumbai 400007

Cream Centre opened at Chowpatty Seaface in 1958 as a vegetarian sweets and snacks counter. The channa bhatura is the canonical dish; the hot fudge sundae.

Sukh Sagar ★ 4.0

Indian

chowpatty · Ground Floor, Marina Mansion, SVP Road, Chowpatty, Mumbai 400007

Sukh Sagar at Chowpatty has run a pure-veg multicuisine menu for four decades. Pav bhaji, sandwiches, dosas and the South Indian counter run all day.

Learn to cook it, or eat it with a guide

Pav bhaji makes more sense with someone from Mumbai explaining it. These are the classes and tours we have checked, with booking links.

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