Where to find the best freshly-baked breads in Mumbai

We didn’t think healthy and bread could be used in the same sentence, until this wholesome alternative was introduced by owner and head baker-chef Jeremie Sabbagh. With a crunchy crust and a moist inside, this bread uses ingredients like buckwheat, sunflower seeds and almond powder to make it nutrient-rich. It’s somewhere between a cake and a bread, and is probably more flavourful than your regular loaf, courtesy buckwheat. Remember though, since it’s free of any preservatives, consume it fresh on the same day as you purchase it, or slice it up and freeze it for later use. PS. It takes almost 30 hours to create a batch of their gluten-free bread, which only makes it all the more worthy of consumption.

Your search for authentic wholewheat bread minus the faux-brown colour ends at this iconic Mumbai eatery. The vintage Irani café is one of the few remaining wonders of Mumbai’s old-school culinary delights, and apart from their simple khari biscuits (which are impossible eat just one of) and mawa cake, their chai and bun maska make for great treats.

If you like to explore your options before picking the one, stop over at Foodhall at Palladium. Sugarfree sourdough, sundried tomato and feta baguette, wholewheat burger buns, quinoa bread, rolled oats bread are just few of the varieties in their list of over fifty kinds of breads.

Over a 100 years old, you might as well name them bread-baking veterans of Mumbai. The recipes have been passed down by generations, and you can devour everything from cream rolls and whole wheat and honey to rustic oats and rye breads.

You can sign up for a monthly subscription online with Danz, so your bread basket is will always have options of multigrain, whole wheat and quinoa breads to butter for brekky.

Hearth-baked rustic breads, crusty baguettes, five-grain with flax seeds, rolled oats, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, and dense rye loaves comprise the bread family here. They use a natural sourdough starter to give their breads lift.

It’s made of oats and super seeds. The gluten-free loaf has a loyal following too.

Head chef and founder Sanjana made her own cultures to bake bread, to suit Indian temperatures, and her secret ingredient, liquid levain, is what makes her loaves flavourful, crusty but also mellow, so they can make for the perfect base for tartines and sandwiches. They have healthy variants like amaranth, buckwheat and quinoa, but you can also indulge in potato and rosemary or dark rye walnut and fig breads.

Early every morning at 7am, a truck loaded with freshly baked bread leaves the Magazine Street Kitchen and reaches restaurants like Le15, Woodside Inn and Kaboom. Now, you can get your loaf directly from the source, at their first outlet in Khar. Their baskets are brimming with sourdough loaves, ciabatta and baguettes, and you can try their cruffins—a croissant-muffin hybrid) from their Viennoiserie.

This artisanal bakery has on display an extensive variety, ranging from brioches and ragi breads, to banana bread and wholewheat pizza base.

Apart from probably the best hot chocolate in the neighbourhood, Birdsong also bakes breads in-house, including their organic gluten-free bread made from amaranth, and the usual suspects—multigrain and whole wheat.

It’s a simple, healthy, delicious loaf: no grain, no gluten, no dairy, no yeast.