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Busaba
Red walls, framed postcards and old photos give this loungey restaurant-bar a bohemian feel. It's next to Indigo so gets the same trendy crowd, but serves cheaper, more potent cocktails.
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Café Mondegar
Mondegar's nightly traveller-based crowd is as 'colourful' as the wall caricatures by a famous Goan artist, but that could be our beer-goggle glasses talking. Expect to shout your draught beer (around Rs85 ) orders over the popular, non-stop CD jukebox.
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Dome
What may be the swishest hotel bar in town, this white on white on white rooftop drinking lounge has awesome views of Mumbai's curving seafront. Cocktails beckon the hip young things of Mumbai nightly - get out your Bollywood star-spotting logbook.
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Eros
When in Mumbai, it's hard to ignore the fact that you're at the epicentre of the world's biggest film industry. To experience Bollywood blockbusters in situ , the Eros is the place.
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Ghetto
Mumbai's best and only real dive bar, this smoke-filled, graffiti-covered rocker's hangout blares rock nightly to for dedicated set of regulars. International movies are screened (for free) every Monday night.
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Gokul Bar
This classic, 100% male, Indian drinking den is a Mumbai icon and a great place for meeting locals. The upstairs air-con section is usually the haunt of the real boozers (and maybe the odd woman). With decor that is at best spartan, and no music, cocktails, or any other frills, you park yourself in a booth and indulge in cheap beer: end of story.
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Henry Tham's
This super-swanky bar-cum-restaurant features towering ceilings, gratuitous use of space and strategically placed minimalist decor. It's the currently darling of the Mumbai jet set and therefore the place to see and be seen. To find it, look for the monolithic door - thankfully opened by a doorman.
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Insomnia
For Bollywood star-spotting, ultrachic Insomnia remains the place to be seen dropping some serious dough. It doesn't get going till after midnight and the minimum drinks spend is a hefty Rs600 ( Rs1600 on Friday and Saturday).
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Leopold's Café
Drawn like moths to a Kingfisher flame, most tourists end up at this Mumbai traveller's institution at one time or another. Around since 1871, Leopold's has wobbly ceiling fans, open-plan seating and a rambunctious atmosphere conducive to swapping tales with random strangers. Although there's a huge menu, it's the lazy evening beers that are the real draw.
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Metro
Mumbai, as everyone knows, is home to the world's largest film industry. To experience Bollywood blockbusters in their native environment, try the Metro.
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Mocha Bar
This atmospheric, Arabian-styled cafe is often filled to the brim with bohemians and students deep in esoteric conversation, or maybe just the latest Bollywood gossip. Cosy, low-cushioned seating, hookah pipes, exotic coffee varieties and world music add up to longer stays than you expected.
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National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA)
A vast government-sponsored artistic complex on the waterfront at Nariman Point, the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) has a fast-changing schedule of theatre, music and traditional and contemporary performing arts. Look out for English-language plays, performances of Indian classical music and regional dance.
Read more about National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA)
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Nehru Centre
A planetarium, art gallery and cultural centre in one, the Nehru Centr - named for India's first PM - stages occasional dance, music and English-language theatre performances.
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Not Just Jazz By the Bay
This is the best, and frankly the only, jazz club in South Mumbai. True to its name, there are also live pop, blues and rock performers most nights, though Sunday or Monday night karaoke might be best avoided.
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Olive Bar & Kitchen
Hip and snooty, this Mediterranean-style restaurant and bar has light and delicious food, soothing DJ sounds and pure Ibiza décor. Thursdays are packed: they're the new Saturday, though Saturday hasn't heard the news.
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Polly Esther's
Wallowing in a cheesy time-warp of retro pop, rock and disco, the Gordon House Hotel's mirror-plated, groovy nightclub still manages to pull a crowd. It comes complete with a Saturday Night Fever illuminated dance floor and waiters in Afro wigs.
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Prithvi Theatre
At Juhu Beach, the Prithvi Theatre is a good place to see both English-language and Hindi theatre. It also hosts an annual international theatre festival.
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Ra
If you were wondering where the city's beautiful people come to shake their money-makers, wonder no more. Ra's glass roof opens wide to the stars, and your wallet will open even wider to pay for it's top-notch cocktails. It's in the Phoenix Mills shopping complex, 1km (0.6mi) north of Mahalaxmi Racecourse
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Red Light
This very trendy bar is a huge hit with Mumbai's student scene, particularly on Wednesday's when it's thumping hip-hop sessions are on. The fun-house-mirror trip to the loos is not for the faint hearted.
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Regal
Mumbai, the home of India's prolific film industry, is a city in love with celluloid. The Regal is an Art Deco cinema showing brash Bollywood hits and the occasional Hollywood tripe.
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Saltwater Grill
As close as you can get to Mumbai's ocean without swimming in it, this beach bar sits cocooned by its own palm-frond jungle. Right next to H20, it's a prime contender for the title of 'ultimate sundowner cocktail venue.'
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Samovar Café
This intimate place inside the art gallery overlooks the gardens of the Prince of Wales Museum and is a great spot to chill out over a beer, mango lassi (around 50 ) or light meal.
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Sterling
When in the heartland of the prolific Bollywood movie industry, it's almost mandatory to catch a flick or two. The Sterling shows first-run English-language movies.
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Vie Lounge
Right on Juhu Beach is this glamorous party spot (opposite Little Italy restaurant). Call before dragging yourself all the way out here to check there isn't a private Bollywood bash on.
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Voodoo Pub
Famous for hosting Mumbai's only regular gay night (held here each Saturday), this dark and sweaty bar has little going for it on other nights of the week.
