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Inside Papa’s Bombay: The Exclusive Dinner Party Celebrities Can’t Get Enough Of
The 12-seater speakeasy in Bandra is the no-fuss fine-dining experience that both Indian and international stars are flocking to.
“Drinks on me,” wrote AP Dhillon on Instagram, giving a glimpse into his evening at Papa’s Bombay last December. The exclusive 12-seater turned into Mumbai’s coolest party spot as the Indo-Canadian rapper played bartender for the night. Stepping behind the counter, he jammed to his hit song “Bora Bora”, signed plates, mixed cocktails — and even dropped his emerald Patek Philippe into one.
But Dhillon isn’t the only one making headlines at Hunger Inc.’s speakeasy-style restaurant — just weeks earlier, pop sensation Dua Lipa was spotted dining here with actor Callum Turner.
Amid a frenzy of paparazzi videos swarming the internet — The Hollywood Reporter India sits down with executive chef Hussain Shahzad in a cosy nook at Papa’s Bombay. While his sandwich shop, Veronica’s, is buzzing with activity downstairs, and his team is setting up for the night ahead, he shares the inside scoop on his homely, almost clandestine dinner parties — and why they’re drawing in the likes of Dhillon and Lipa. Not to mention actors Alia Bhatt, Ranbir Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Anushka Sharma, director-producer Karan Johar, cricketer Virat Kohli, Zaheer Khan and singer Saba Azad — who’ve already sat around this chef’s table.
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Located in Bandra’s Ranwar Village, it sits where Jude Bakery once stood — as a nod to its roots, the latter’s original signboard has “Papa’s” scrawled across it today. “This place was built like a Singaporean shop house, downstairs is my sandwich shop and upstairs is my home — one where I throw a dinner party four nights a week.”
And that he does, together with his team (who are also behind The Bombay Canteen, O’Pedro, Veronica’s): cofounders, CEO Sameer Seth, COO Yash Bhanage and general manager Madhusudhan Kashyap.
Celebrity Sightings
Chef Hussain is quite the celebrity himself — Food Superstars by Culinary Culture recently crowned him as number one among India’s top 30 chefs.
“Do I get papped? No, but if I hang out with Dua Lipa, I do!” he says with a laugh, recalling the mob of paparazzi from the night before. “And I got papped last night because I was carrying her bags!” The chef recounts how the singer’s team had reserved the seats months in advance.
Since it’s a communal dinner, he made sure to check if Lipa would be comfortable with the format. But she had no airs about herself as she came in right on time. Chef Hussain adds, “Some celebrities choose to make it private, and if we have the ability to be able to do so, we do. If we don’t, we say no.” There’s no special treatment here, he tells THR. “Dua Lipa [and Callum Turner] had a wonderful time. Like we do with everybody else, we went down to drop them.”
As for the frenzy outside, “It’s just a regular day in service for us,” he admits, though acknowledging the inconvenience it must cause the neighbours.
Unlike most restaurants, celebrity sightings don’t necessarily boost reservations and revenue at Papa’s Bombay. “Because we have a limited inventory of 190 seats. There aren’t enough seats to accommodate all of Mumbai, though we would love to,” he says. “We are overwhelmed with love; our reservations get sold out in two minutes.”
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The Legacy
Having worked at Eleven Madison Park in New York, in the past, chef Hussain returned to India when his mentor, the late chef Floyd Cardoz, opened The Bombay Canteen in Mumbai in 2015. He reminisces about how the latter became a father figure in his life, adding, “I [along with both his cofounders] would lovingly call him Papaji, old man, Papi, as one does in an Indian household, right?”
And that’s how the place came to be known as Papa’s Bombay.
Chef Floyd was the one who taught him the difference between being a chef and a cook, which is the ability to lead, manage, and inspire.
After mulling on the idea for nine long years, Jude Bakery came up on the market right after they lost Chef Floyd to Covid-19. “His two big loves were bread and fine dining, so this space was just perfect to celebrate both,” adds chef Hussain. “And he grew up 100 meters away from here, where his mom still lives.” While Papa’s Bombay isn’t a shrine, the Hunger Inc. team shoulders the responsibility of taking their mentor’s legacy forward, with two of Chef Floyd’s books, Flavorwalla and One Spice, Two Spice, sitting atop a table in the corridor.
So when they did finally launch Papa’s Bombay, they had only one focus, “to be fine, but without the fuss”. No gimmicks, no pretence — just a genuine love for delicious food.
“We reimagined what fine dining means for the space and time we are in,” he continued. “For instance, I serve curd rice as a course as part of a menu that’s priced at five or six thousand rupees. It has to be extremely spectacular or could go horribly wrong!” But it comes from a place of love, notes the Chef, who grew up in Chennai, and that’s what makes it work.
When asked to walk us through the rest of the experience, he laughs, asking, “How can I give it all away?”
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Breaking the Rules
It begins with the mood — Wes Anderson-inspired decor, dim, theatrical lighting and 2000s pop hits playing in the background.
As people enter, they typically sit at the bar. “It’s a house party, right? We take people back and forth [between the counter and the bar] in small groups of three or four”. He describes their drinks programme, curated by Pankaj Balachandran from Countertop India, as “pretty epic”, and their drinks as “smashable”, inspired largely by classics.
He continues, “I come from a Bohra Muslim household, so my food choices have always been very distinct and whack. We start our meal with dessert.” Then, they pick two savoury bites from around the country before “hitting people with the 10 courses.” From a spin on samosas, caviar on chhena poda and watermelon rasam with raw trout, they do it all. “It’s Indian food, more in personality and less in soul”, as he puts it.
The chef’s table is where all the action happens. “Some courses are meant to be shared, some to be eaten by a finger, some very fine dining-esque and some that take a dig at what old school fine dining means to us,” he reveals. They end with a biryani and two fun desserts.
“My last dessert is potato chips,” he reveals, refusing to elaborate any further. “The idea is to leave people with a certain sense of mystery, where they understand what they’re getting, but be blown away when they eat it.”
Since he makes this out to be a party at a friend’s place, he doesn’t kick his guests out after dinner. “The option of lingering at the bar exists,” he says. And if he’s not in town, the restaurant remains shut. “I can’t ask people to come home and not be there, right?”
With a focus on the deliciousness of their food and the graciousness of their hospitality, chef Hussain considers feeding his 12 guests a very big responsibility. “And today, people trust me enough to walk up these stairs without asking for a menu, knowing well enough that I’m cooking."
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A Side of Legacy Served With Love
The Hollywood Reporter India spoke to Barkha Cardoz, wife of the late chef Floyd Cardoz — the ‘Papa’ behind Papa’s Bombay.
Have you been to Papa’s Bombay?
When they were doing trials earlier in 2024, I went there with Floyd's mom [Beryl Cardoz]. [Papa’s Bombay is where] Jude's Bakery used to be, and Floyd used to live down that street. My mother-in-law’s an amazing baker, but when they first moved to Bandra, she didn't have an oven. Jude's Bakery would allow people in the community to bring their batter and bake them there. She always told us stories of how she would make Christmas fruit cakes and send one of the kids to drop them off at the bakery. Floyd would also recall his school when he’d go there at 4 a.m. to pick up pav for breakfast after an all-nighter. The fact that Papa’s Bombay got that space — walking distance from where Floyd grew up and also where his ashes lie now, at St. Andrew’s Church — makes us feel like he’s watching over them. We’re proud because it feels like he’s there, but it's hard because he's not. I wish he could sit there like the proud papa he was, saying, “My boys did it.” That’s his home, in a way. And Floyd always had a sweet spot for Hussain — like a parent. He’d always say to me, “Watch this boy — he’s gonna be way better than me.” He was always very proud of him.
What were your favourite dishes?
The Bugs Bunny (a tender charcoal-grilled rabbit marinated in weaver ants). Also, the dessert with blue cheese in it [honey, blue cheese and fig toastie]; my mother-in-law is a small eater now, but the boys [at Papa’s Bombay] adore her, so they kept saying, “Aunty Beryl, you’ve got to try this.” She took a little bite of that dessert, only to finish the whole bowl! Teary-eyed, she said, “My son should have been here, he would’ve been so happy.”
When did you first meet chef Hussain?
When he was interviewing with Floyd for The Bombay Canteen around 2015. After that, when they were looking to start O Pedro, he stayed with us in New Jersey for three weeks. He and Floyd were working on recipes together. I call him my other son because I’ve done his laundry and cooked for him — he’s officially another Cardoz.
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