Mumbaikar at Bloor — Restaurant in Toronto

Being a hardcore Mumbaikar, I was thrilled to come across a restaurant on Bloor Street named Mumbaikar. The name alone brought a smile to my face — finally, a place that seemed to represent the street food culture and flavors of Mumbai and Maharashtra. I got excited when I saw they had dishes like pav bhaji, vada pav, and kanda bhaji on the menu. I’ve tried pav bhaji at other restaurants in Canada, but none of them came close to what we get back home. So this time, I had high hopes that maybe this place would finally hit the spot.

When I entered, I was welcomed by that familiar strong Indian food aroma — which is expected in such a place — but sadly, the smell wasn’t pleasant. It didn’t smell clean or fresh. It had more of a musty, not-well-maintained vibe. A touch of incense or some fresh aroma would’ve made a huge difference in creating a welcoming environment.

The restaurant is small but has cute decor with pictures and touches that reflect the spirit of Mumbai and Maharashtra, which I appreciated. However, the customer service didn’t leave a great impression. There were hardly any people when we arrived. The person attending to us seemed uninterested and was not helpful even when we asked for recommendations.

I knew I wanted to try their pav bhaji, so I ordered that along with their “Mumbaikar Tacos” (paneer roast) and pistachio tres leches for dessert. The pav bhaji arrived quickly, within 10 minutes, but the portion shocked me. For around $17, they served bhaji in a tiny bowl with two small pavs — not even enough for one person, let alone two. The pavs were so tiny that each one was barely two bites.

As for the taste — a huge disappointment. The bhaji was overwhelmed with garam masala, and that’s all I could smell and taste. Despite specifically asking for it not to be spicy, the dish was just a punch of spice with no balance or authenticity. The texture was decent, but the flavor was way off. The pavs were slathered in butter (maybe that’s what they were charging for?), but given the size, it just didn’t make sense. Pav bhaji is supposed to be comforting, rich, and balanced — this was none of that.

Next up were the Mumbaikar tacos. Again, I had asked for non-spicy, but they were packed with whole red chilies and an overload of spices. The flavors were confusing, and the actual taste of paneer or the veggies was completely lost in the mix of masala. It felt like everything was just dumped together.

Finally, the dessert — pistachio tres leches — one of their signature offerings. Unfortunately, this too was underwhelming. It tasted overly artificial, as if a pistachio syrup had been added to regular milk. The cake was dry and did not soak the milk well at all. Tres leches is supposed to be light, soft, and melt-in-the-mouth. This was far from it.

To top it all off, while I was still eating my taco, we asked for the check, and the server just took away my half-eaten plate without asking. That was the last straw.

As someone from Mumbai, I walked in with hope and walked out completely disappointed. I’d give them two stars — only for the cute decor — but I wouldn’t return. This place needs serious improvement in taste, service, and...

I have been a regular at Mumbaikar Bloor West, both dine-in and take out. And each time I’ve come to dine-in, the service has gotten worse and worse.

Firstly, their food is not cheap. So one would expect complimenting service but honestly, my latest visit forced me to delete my earlier review of 5 stars and now write this one with just 2 stars. These two stars are for the food, which never fails the quality, the service of staff - either the staff need better training, but they need better staff. Here’s my latest experience:

At the time of ordering, the items I wanted (veg kolhapuri, bharli vangi, sabudana vada) were all not available. So I settled for cheese pav bhaji and pina colada. They never bothered to ask me if I wanted alcoholic or virgin (which I found out later when I saw a separate alcoholic section). So I had to go separately near the kitchen to say, I want virgin pina colada.

Then I wanted tissues, and the server conveniently forgot for over 20 minutes, despite reminder. So I had to again go to counter to get tissues.

Thirdly, I wonder if no one trained them that when two people are eating together, you bring out both their foods together. Here my friend’s food was served, and I was dwindling my thumb waiting for my food. It arrived 15 mins later when my friend was done eating.

Fourthly, my beverage came much after my food arrived wherein I had requested my beverage along with my food.

Lastly, I asked for extra pav. Two things - they apparently forgot about it and I had to remind, by then my bhaji was cold anyway. Plus on the bill, they charged me for “upgrade to butter” without even telling me that it would be a separate cost. I had asked for paav, why wasn’t I told that non butter and butter paav are different and differently priced?

Fifth thing, we asked for two separate bills. The server brought one combined bill and then stood there staring at us, as we had to take out our own calculators to calculate who is paying how much. Are you kidding me?! There’s a reason we specifically asked for separate bills. Is that too much to ask?

That’s not it.

She was supposed to get back the change. She brought less money in change. So I had to go back to the counter and ask for remaining change.

I mean, come on!

The food has always been good, so im putting images of food (from this time and from past visits). But honestly, at this place, do not expect decent service, it’s truly not...

My first visit to bloor, I guess the staff was not mentally prepared to serve the guests and they were understaffed with FOH and BOH. There were only two servers at the shift. May be because of one big table of 8. Servers were panicked and didn’t even listen my request. No manager or supervisor was available at the outlet. Secondly, I ordered my food, it was okay not even much worth to the price.

Now, after getting response, here owner is saying that my food was ready in 15 mins, Now answer to your response. dear sir/maam I didn’t put a review for the timing for a food that it was not ready. I put the review mainly for the service of your staff which was not upto the mark. I am also from hospitality industry and I understand the nature of job very well. It’s not the servers problem that they were under staffed both of the server expressions could show how much stress they were due to less or no co worker. It’s a management issue which I addressed here. Secondly, One server came to us and asked if we would like to have something else, we were already done with finishing the food as we were hungry and I don’t like food to be wasted personally. So as I said, Misal pav curry or gravy didn’t have the flavour but pav bhaji was above average. So it’s clear, we were done with our food so why would I order the another food on house. I don’t like that. When your server said that chat items are not for take outs we got the point and totally understand it. Again,I didn’t put the review for this thing.

Yes I agree I took the take out of two order and I think I don’t need to explain you that. So it’s not a big deal, everyone has different palette but being a businessman one should open to accept the feedback in positive as I mentioned you were lacked behind in management and that’s the reason I asked for supervisor that time so I could address the issue. I only wrote the issue because no management personnel was present at during the restaurant hour. And I think if you really wanna grow the business one should be optimistic and have vision, one should also be open to accept the critics no matter...