Mumbai Institution · Since 1923
Britannia & Co.
Mumbai, India · Parsi–Irani Café
The story
Britannia & Co. is one of Mumbai’s dwindling Irani cafés, founded in the colonial-era Ballard Estate. Bentwood chairs, checked tablecloths, fading walls and Parsi dishes preserve the democratic café culture once found across Bombay.
Why Britannia & Co. is iconic
A fragile living record of Mumbai’s Persian migration, cosmopolitan history and rapidly disappearing Irani café tradition.
Selected by Ernst Aben · Information reviewed July 2026
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