This guide is built from the live tour page of Mumbai Food Tour on A Chef’s Tour — price, start time, group size, tastings and dietary notes come straight from the operator, never invented.

What the Mumbai Food Tour Is

A Chef’s Tour runs small-group food tours in around 80 cities, led by cooks, chefs and local foodies. In Mumbai it runs one route at US$45 per person, with 15+ tastings, a maximum of eight guests (the page also offers private tours on request) and a host described as “one of our superb Mumbai food hosts”. The time is listed as 16h00 to 20h00, so four hours from a late-afternoon start.

The headline detail is the transport: train plus walking. The page says you will “wind your way through two distinct districts, both by foot and by train”, starting from what it calls the grand colonial heart of Bombay. For a visitor, a guided train ride is a big part of the appeal; Mumbai’s suburban rail network is one of the city’s signature experiences, and doing it with a host rather than alone takes much of the stress out of it.

How we wrote this: we are Joona and Alla, a family who travel and write from Rovaniemi, Finland. We have not taken this tour. Everything below comes from A Chef’s Tour’s own live page, and where the page is silent — the meeting point, the child price — we say so rather than guess.

The Route and the Dishes the Page Names

The page is shorter than most A Chef’s Tour listings, but it names enough to sketch the evening:

• Local chaat snacks to open — Mumbai’s crunchy, tangy street snacks.
• Buttery aubergine curry and slow-cooked curries.
• A Parsi district, where you explore what the page calls the flavours of the city’s historic Irani community.
• The khau galli alleyways of Zaveri Bazaar, where the page promises “legendary street food” — it says in the South of India, which we read as a nod to the South Indian snacks on the menu rather than a change of city.
• Crispy masala papads, chutney-spiked pudla (a savoury gram-flour pancake), cheese-dripping dosas and creamy moongdal halwa.

The page’s advice is “skip lunch”, and it means it: 15+ tastings across two districts is dinner. The mix of Parsi and South Indian snacks with Zaveri Bazaar street food makes this a more regional-cuisine tour than a single street-food category — good for curious eaters, less good for anyone who wants a deep dive into one Mumbai dish.

Why the Train Matters

Transport is where this tour differs most from the other A Chef’s Tour city pages we have written about, most of which are walking tours or tuk-tuk hops. A Chef’s Tour says you travel between the two districts by train, and that is all it says. The page does not state which line, which station, how long the ride is or what time of day it falls in.

That matters because commuter trains in Mumbai are famously busy at rush hour. A 4:00pm start puts parts of the evening in the build-up to the evening commute; whether the group avoids peak crowding is something we can’t tell from the page. It is a sensible question for the operator (info@achefstour.com), especially if you travel with children, a pushchair, a mobility issue or a bad back.

Our read: the train is a feature, not a flaw, and the main reason to book a guided tour here rather than an independent evening of eating. But it does mean fitness and tolerance for crowds matter more than on a seated or tuk-tuk tour.

Price, What's Included and the Child Policy

The tour costs US$45 per person. According to the live page it includes:

• 15+ tastings
• Bottled water
• A local Mumbai food host
• A group of no more than eight guests

Not included: getting to the meeting point; the page says guests come from all over the city and so there is one meeting point for everyone. The page also says your guide can help you find transport back at the end. Whether the train fares are included is not stated — ask.

Children: the Mumbai page lists no child policy. Other A Chef’s Tour pages give children aged 3–12 half price, but we won’t assume it applies — email info@achefstour.com before booking for children.

Value check: 15+ tastings replaces dinner, and a guided evening that handles trains and Zaveri Bazaar’s alleys is, in our view, worth US$45 to a first-time visitor. It is weaker value for vegetarians, light eaters or anyone who dislikes crowds.

Dietary Needs: What A Chef's Tour Actually Says

The Mumbai page carries a single dietary line. Quoted from the operator:

• Pescatarian: “Tastings are limited for strict pescatarian diets, as meat is present in 5-6 savoury tastings (out of 15 total) with no alternatives available”.

Read it carefully: strict pescatarians are warned that meat is in 5–6 savoury tastings with no alternatives, which is more than the 2–4 tastings listed for many other cities. That is a larger gap than it first sounds, because 15 tastings includes desserts, snacks and drinks.

What the page does not say:

• Vegetarian or vegan: A Chef’s Tour doesn’t list this — ask before booking (info@achefstour.com). The named dishes (chaat, papads, pudla, dosas, halwa) are vegetarian-leaning, but the page does not confirm a vegetarian route.
• Halal, beef-free, pork-free, gluten, dairy or nut allergies: not listed — ask.

Severe allergies: street kitchens share oil, pans and sauces, and no street-food tour can guarantee an allergen-free dish. With a severe allergy, email the operator before you book.

Heat, Crowds and Travelling With Children

What to know before bringing the family:

• Start and finish: 16h00 to 20h00 is a four-hour evening, which is late for under-sixes.
• Trains and crowds: see above. Keep small children close and consider a carrier rather than a buggy.
• Heat and humidity: Mumbai is warm for much of the year. Water is included; bring a hat, shoes you can walk in and a small bag you can wear in front of you.
• Spice: the page doesn’t rate the tastings for heat. Tell the host if your children dislike spice.
• Child price: not listed — ask.
• Meeting point: not on the public page — it comes with your booking confirmation.

Our judgement: confident teenagers and older children who like trying things will enjoy it; toddlers and anyone nervous about trains and crowds probably won’t. A Chef’s Tour also sells private tours on request, which would let you set the pace.

Mumbai vs the Other India Food Tours

If your trip covers western India, the Mumbai tour is the clear pick. If you only have time for one India tour and are hitting the Golden Triangle, the Delhi Food Tour is cheaper and more central to most itineraries. We haven’t written up Kolkata yet; the Kolkata Food Tour is US$35 per person with 14 tastings, and we will cover it separately.

How to Book the Mumbai Food Tour

You book directly with A Chef’s Tour on achefstour.com — we never take payment. Open the Mumbai Food Tour page, choose a date on the live calendar, add guests and pay. Confirmation is instant, and the meeting point arrives in your booking confirmation.

• Book early — groups cap at eight.
• Skip lunch, as the page itself advises.
• Ask about diets, children, train fares and allergies at info@achefstour.com before paying.
• Nine or more, or a private tour? Contact the operator.

Cancellation: the page says “Cancel any time up to 48 hours before your tour and receive a full refund”.

We are an A Chef’s Tour affiliate and earn a commission on bookings made through our links — it does not change the price you pay.

FAQ

Our Honest Final Word

Is the Mumbai food tour by A Chef’s Tour worth it? For adults who eat meat and enjoy a little chaos, yes. US$45 per person buys 15+ tastings across two districts, a guided train ride and an evening with a group of eight at most. The trade-offs: a short page with one dietary line, no child policy, no listed meeting point or train details, a four-hour evening and a 48-hour cancellation cut-off. We haven’t taken it ourselves — we send readers to it because the route and the price add up.

Book the Mumbai Food Tour for the west coast, the Delhi Food Tour for Old Delhi’s alleys, or the Colombo Food Tour if you are continuing to Sri Lanka.