Mumbai

Mumbai is one of the world’s great architectural collisions. Victorian Gothic landmarks built during the colonial era stand beside one of the largest collections of Art Deco buildings anywhere in the world, particularly around Marine Drive and the Oval Maidan. Indo-Saracenic monuments, apartment blocks, chawls and contemporary towers add further layers to a city that has never stopped rebuilding itself. Mumbai is also India’s great cinema city, with Bollywood, fashion, art and design contributing to a creative culture every bit as important as its architecture. From the historic streets of Colaba to the former textile mills of central Mumbai, reinvention is part of the city’s DNA.

Food and drink reflect both Maharashtra and the millions of people who have made Mumbai home. Street food is essential—vada pav, pav bhaji and countless variations of chaat—while Irani cafés, Parsi cooking, seafood restaurants and old institutions preserve very different chapters of the city’s history. Alongside them, a new generation of chefs is exploring regional Indian cuisines and local ingredients in increasingly ambitious restaurants. Cocktail bars, specialty coffee and contemporary bakeries add another layer, but Mumbai remains a city where some of the most memorable things to eat still cost very little and arrive without a reservation.

Mumbai’s most interesting hotels range from legendary grande dames and Art Deco addresses to intimate contemporary properties and new interpretations of Indian luxury. The best provide more than an escape from the intensity outside, using architecture, art, food and local design to connect guests back to the city. At DNA Hotels, we curate the places where design, culture, food and Mumbai’s extraordinary energy come together—hotels that capture a metropolis where glamour and grit, history and reinvention, can exist side by side on the same street.