This is the third of the five-article series of blog posts about Bombay’s Iranian Bakeries and Cafes. If you want to read it in a single, scrollable long-form format, you can access it here.

Bombay is a city obsessed with buns, popularly known as pav in the local languages. The city loves to gorge on pavs of various shapes and size and having different stuffings! You put a vada inside the pav and it becomes a vadapav. There’s also the samosa-pav, the keema-pav, the cutlet-pav, the misal-pav and the usal-pav. Then there’s pav-bhaji and the dabeli. There’s an infinite number of these combinations depending upon how adventurous you are with your food.

However, for those wondering how Bombay got so obsessed with buns, the Irani Cafes might just have a role to play in that! The trend of pav-eating was started in the city by these Iranian bakeries and cafes. In the early 1900s, buns and bread were some of the easiest things to bake, which also offered a high margin of profit. Hence, the Iranian bakeries and cafes began offering various bun-based items. The concept was simple – these are inexpensive items which can be made with ease.

Eventually, more variety was added to the menu. In came Parsi delicacies such as Dhansak, Lagan nu Custard, Sali Boti. Over the years, a number of additions were made to these food items. The berry pulav at Britannia and Co. continues to be one of the most demanded items on the menu. Today, most of these bakeries serve everything from french fries and burgers to sizzlers and noodles. These changes were necessary to keep up with the changing tastes of the consumers, Meherban Kola of the Sassanian Boulangerie tells us.

While the initial idea behind the Irani bakeries and cafes was to offer inexpensive products and food items which have a mass appeal, not all bakeries today stick to that pricing strategy. The most notable exception is Britannia and Co. Located in the Ballard Estate, one of the poshest localities in SoBo (South Bombay), where a Berry Pulav may set you back by anything between Rs. 350-950. One of the most upscale and expensive Iranian cafes, Britannia and Co. offers a premium experience when it comes to Irani bakeries, unlike most other similar establishments.

However, while some bakeries have evolved and introduced a number of new food items, others like the Yazdani Bakery decided to phase out the Parsi food from the menu and stick to their classic offerings: the bakery products – a strategy that has worked out well for them! The sixty-year-old bread-cutting machine at Yazdani continues to chug away as it cuts through hundreds of loaves of bread every day. Their apple-pies continue to sell-out on a daily basis. My personal favourite at Yazdani is their Mawa Cakes, which stand out compared to other Iranian bakeries and cafes of Bombay.

Before I conclude, one cannot talk about Irani Bakeries and Cafes of Bombay without mentioning the all-time favourite! The Irani Chai. A constant presence across almost every Irani Cafe, what sets this tea apart from other varieties of tea that you may drink in the city is the sweet taste that it leaves in your mouth! Mr Tirandaz, who manages the Yazdani Bakery sums it up by saying: “Offering a sweet drink can solve many problems and conflicts. Afterall, who likes bitter things!”

This is the third of the five-article series of blog posts about Bombay’s Iranian Bakeries and Cafes. Up next, we take a look at the men who manage these cafes! Keep reading.

• Introduction: Documenting Bombay’s Irani Bakeries and Cafes
• The Irani Cafe Experience: Bombay’s Iconic Bakeries and Cafes
• The Taste of Iran: Food at the Irani Bakeries and Cafes of Bombay
• Meeting The Showrunners: Men Who Manage Mumbai’s Iranian Bakeries and Cafes
• Curtain Call? The Disappearing Irani Bakeries and Cafes of Bombay