Nostalgia served with a side of whimsical at Mumbai’s Aamchee

Aamchee, a Mumbai-themed vegetarian café by Pinky Dixit, offers nostalgic comfort food in a charming heritage bungalow setting.

For most eateries, the inspiration for the décor comes from the cuisine they are offering. In the case of Aamchee, the vegetarian café by Pinky Chandan Dixit of Soam, it was the charming heritage bungalow which was the starting point of their Mumbai-themed dishes. Situated across Wilson College near Girgaum Chowpatty, the cafe’s high ceilings, intricately patterned tiles, coloured window panes and whitewashed brick walls transport you to hillside colonial bungalows.

Pinky fell in love with the bungalow when she set her eyes on it last year. The restaurateur spent her childhood in hill stations such as Panchgani and Mahabaleshwar where such heritage bungalows were a common sight back then. “This space has an old-world charm about it and the potential and ambiance to make it look like a gymkhana,” she says. Divided into three dining spaces including a Private Dining Room (PDR) with large windows overlooking the Arabian sea, it also includes a small bakery section with pastries, pies and breads.

Home-style comfort cooking has been the hallmark of Soam with its traditional Gujarati food for its two decades and Aamchee too, follows in the footsteps of its predecessor. Crafted by Anuradha Medhora of Charoli Foods LLP, the menu reflects Bombay’s culinary journey from its British colonial past to its current cosmopolitan avatar.

A glance at the menu is enough for an average Mumbaikar to get nostalgic about their city with its myriad histories, communities and flavours. Local favourites such as bun maska, thalipeeth, thecha and dabeli make an appearance. Although they are familiar flavours, the fun lies in the way they have been reimagined for the customer looking for comfort in the familiar yet also open to some amount of play.

A spicy pomegranate paloma kickstarts our culinary journey before we hop on to the vada pav sliders. These were bite-sized snacks paired with four different chutneys — chilli mustard, garlic chutney, green thetcha and curry leaf podi — each with a smattering of creamy white butter which cut down on the spice. An ode to the chutney sandwiches of Mumbai, the Parsi chutney bombs are fried potato balls with a spicy green chilly chutney stuffing. The Aamchee onion rings are crisp, chatpata and finger-licking good.

Moving on to the mains - a section titled ‘Mumbai Specials’ as it celebrates the city’s diversity — we call for the Khar Sindhi sai bhaji meal and Babulnath MMM parathas. The former boasts of a caramelised onion pulao with chura papad and crispy tikki which works well on its own and really does not need the slightly bland spinach and chana dal served with it. You would think that a methi malai matar in a rich, creamy gravy would be a task to digest but this one is light on the tummy and paired with masala parathas, makes for a good way to end the meal. But if you still crave something sweet, the IC Colony serradura has layers of orange marmalade, whipped cream and ginger crumble biscuits that will have you digging in for more.

Aamchee is at Soni Building 46, Pandita Ramabai Road, Opp Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, Girgaon Chowpatty, Mumbai 400007. Here a meal for two costs ₹1,400.