What does a working afternoon cost me?

Mumbai cafes under ₹500 a session

Working from cafes is a recurring cost, not a one-off. At five sessions a week the difference between a ₹300 cafe and a ₹900 one is roughly a rent payment a year. These are the cheaper end.

16 cafes · ranked by overall score

1. 1Bombay Coffee HouseWaterfield Road · Bandra4.0Typically ₹250–500 a headBuilt for people with laptops, and honest about it. The best odds in Bandra of a table, a plug and three quiet hours.
2. 2Taj Mahal Tea HouseSt John Baptist Road · Bandra3.4Typically ₹250–500 a headForty teas, eighty seats and soft light in a Bandra bungalow. Does dates and deadlines equally well.
3. 3The Yoga HouseSherly Rajan Road · Bandra3.4Typically ₹250–500 a headThe quietest room in Bandra, in a bungalow behind Carter Road. Vegetarian, ayurvedic, genuinely calm.
4. 4Kala Ghoda CafeKala Ghoda · South Bombay3.4Typically ₹250–500 a headWhite walls, enormous glass doors, and the calm that Kala Ghoda's lanes are supposed to have.
5. 5Blue Tokai — New ExcelsiorFort · South Bombay3.4Typically ₹250–500 a headSpecialty coffee inside a 1930s cinema, with a terrace. The best-value work cafe in Fort.
6. 6Blue Tokai — Nariman PointNariman Point · South Bombay3.4Typically ₹250–500 a headThe closest decent coffee to Marine Drive, and the nearest thing Nariman Point has to a third place.
7. 7Kitchen Garden by SuzetteSt John Street · Bandra3.2Typically ₹250–500 a headFast wifi and a real salad, until the brunch crowd arrives at one and takes the quiet with them.
8. 8Third Wave Coffee — ChurchgateChurchgate · South Bombay3.2Typically ₹250–500 a headTwo minutes from Churchgate station and open absurdly late. The commuter's coffee.
9. 9Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters — Perry RoadPerry Road · Bandra3.1Typically ₹250–500 a headSmall, functional, reliably good — the cafe you go to when you need the coffee to just be right.
10. 10CandiesPali Hill · Bandra2.7Typically ₹250–500 a headFour decades of Bandra on several floors and a terrace. Closed Mondays, crowded weekends, worth both.
11. 11MokaiPali Naka · Bandra1.4Typically ₹250–500 a headMatcha, curved beige everything, and a queue of people photographing it. Better than that description suggests.
12. 12Ideal CornerFort · South Bombay0.9Typically ₹100–250 a headA twelve-table Parsi lunch room with a menu that changes by the day of the week. Get there by one.
13. 13Kyani & Co.Marine Lines · South Bombay0.7Typically ₹100–250 a head1904. Marble tables, slow fans, bun maska. The oldest room on this map and the least interested in changing.
14. 14Cafe MilitaryFort · South Bombay0.4Typically ₹100–250 a headOne of the last real Irani cafes in Fort. Berry pulao, bare walls, no concessions.
15. 15Yazdani BakeryFort · South Bombay0.4Typically ₹100–250 a headDiesel-oven brun maska since 1953, in a building that started life as a Japanese bank.
16. 16Poetry by Love and Cheesecake24th Road · Bandra–Typically ₹250–500 a headA patisserie that lets you sit down until midnight. Underrated for exactly that.