Bar Reviews > Mumbai > Leopold's

Colaba Causeway, Bhagat Singh Road
Ph. 22828185
Timings: 8:00 am - 1:00 am

Leopold Cafe‚ (no doubt named for the late lamented King of the Belgians) is located on Colaba Causeway which is actually reclaimed land. So the possibility exists that one day the earth will grow weary of this burden and sink, taking this joint to the hell that it rightly deserves to go to.

Team Tulleeho walked into this joint on a winter’s evening. Please do not conjure up images of fog or biting cold. In Bombay winter means that you sweat slightly less than in summer- unlike Delhi where I’ve known people getting frost-bitten while peeing in the open in December. Nearly all the tables on the ground floor were taken up by foreigners (with the trusty dog-eared Lonely Planet guide at their elbow). The collective hostility of their stare was the most intense that I’ve experienced since I stumbled into the bar at Holiday Inn, Dubai a few years ago when the local Scots community had gathered to celebrate Burns’ Night. Not so many Scots here. Lots of the Chosen People, though. I felt like a Lion in a den of Daniels. Anyway, being looked askance in your own country is a novel experience, for those who are into such esoteric trips. I would advise single women to steer clear of this place on account of the po’ white trash on the pavement outside.

Despite this, we (two men, to say nothing of the woman) doggedly vended our way to the bar upstairs which is supposedly more cosmopolitan ( Indians, provided they are not singles, are not actively discouraged). The bar calls to mind the zenana of the late-Mughal period - basically a closed balcony- but without the fancy filigree work (students of architecture may wish to visit the Jehangirabad Palace in Lucknow to see the real thing). We couldn’t catch too much of the decor since the whole place was very dimly-lit.

We ordered the following fluids:
Bloody Mary- one serving, Green Demon(Vodka, Rum, Melon liqueur) - one serving, Mexican Milk Shake(Tequila, Kahlua, Vodka) - one serving.
What we should have ordered was:
Vodka - three servings, Rum - one serving, Tequila - one serving, Kahlua - one serving, Melon Liq. - one serving, some tomato juice, Tabasco, salt to taste, assorted lemon rinds.

Then, either we could have had cocktails or we could have done our own thing. Instead we got all the above liquids put together in glasses and given to us with a bowl of small salty biscuits. The salty biscuits were not bad. The drinks were so pathetic that one of the Tulleeho crew actually forsook strict operating guidelines and remonstrated with the staff. It was to no avail, of course. Avoid cocktails if you must go to Leopolds.

More than this we cannot say as the bill mentioned articles like Beef Manchurian which is the nom de guerre for a Bloody Mary in Leopold and which we did not consume.

We have all heard of the glorious days of the Raj when lots of places were off-bounds for niggers like us and in a lot of places Indians were only allowed on sufferance. If you want to know what it felt like, Leopolds is willing to give you a very good approximation. Why blame them. Heritage is big business- ask the landed gentry in Rajasthan and points North.