This beloved Mumbai restaurant has closed its doors – but there's a silver lining

If you've driven or walked past Pali Village in recent weeks, you're likely to have been met with a disheartening sight. Longtime Bandra fixtures Pali Village Café and Pali Bhavan have shut their doors, marking another major loss in Mumbai's up-and-down restaurant landscape.

There's some good and bad news here: while Pali Bhavan has, very quietly, reopened at Eros Cinema in Churchgate, there's been no official confirmation about a reopening of Pali Village Café, which now appears to be closed indefinitely.

Over the years, Pali Village Café had built a reputation as one of Mumbai’s most dependable Italian restaurants – especially for pasta (I'm craving the aglio e olio as I write this), dessert, and seafood. It was a favourite among locals and had survived the city's notoriously unforgiving dining scene for a whopping 15 years (with a previous relocation under its belt, no less). Alas, it served its final meal on December 31, 2025, leaving a Pali Village-shaped hole in our hearts.

It's just one of the many beloved restaurants that have shut shop in recent months – though it is the first of 2026. Last year, Mumbai lost The New Yorker in Chowpatty and B. Merwan, a 111-year-old Irani cafè on Grant Road. What made the flatlining of Pali Village Café particularly brutal, though, was how long it had clung on as a local favourite, with a rare dedication to quality that even some top-notch restaurants – great as they are – just can't match.

Some consolation can, of course, be found in the fact that the restaurant's fraternal twin is now serving out of its new Churchgate location. Opened in 2013, Pali Bhavan had quickly gained popularity for its polished take on North Indian flavours – and while I'm unsure of how a Bandra-named restaurant will fare in new SoBo surroundings, it's a win for loyal customers nonetheless.

If there’s a takeaway here, it’s that Mumbai’s most loved dining institutions are far more fragile than they appear. This is as good a reminder as any to step out, eat local, and support the places you’d hate to see disappear.