Whether it’s warm and gooey chocolate chip for a cosy Sunday afternoon, or crunchy hazelnut and caramel for a sneaky midnight snack, or soft, melt-in-the-mouth cinnamon, cookies are one thing you can’t help but love. From comfort-snacking at home, to scrumptious fine-dining dessert, they make their way into your life in every form, topped off with walnuts and buttery goodness. And while you can try to resist the maddeningly tasty temptation, these 16 magnificent, unique and decadent cookies are going to make it harder than ever.
From a seven-layered cookie delight, to the love child of a cookie and a brownie, we’ve compiled a delicious trail of Mumbai’s most scrumptious cookies for every budget. Experimental sweet-toothed Mumbaikars can bite into the creamy Cookie Sandwich, and for lovers of the classic, we have ginger-flavoured crunchy biscuits. And to invoke that childhood nostalgia, we’ve added two special mention treats that will make you want to rush to the nearest outlet immediately. So scroll on for our latest dessert trail across Mumbai, and bookmark this page for every time you need a pick-me-up.
I. Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich at 145, Kala Ghoda
145’s Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich comes in four flavours: hazelnut, mint milk, brownie, and salted caramel. We can never pick just one so we go in a group and order all. We recommend doing the same.
II. Cookie Pizza at Batter Up Cookies, Matunga
Everybody knows that Matunga is where you go if you want the best south Indian food in the city. However, it’s also where to go if you want some delicious cookies, or rather, a cookie pizza to be exact: a cookie base of either chocolate chip or double chocolate chip cookie dough;the ‘pizza sauce’ is nutella;the ‘toppings’ are chocolate rolls, Ferrero Rocher chocolateand Mars bars. The best option for those who like dessert for dinner.
III. Ebony and Ivory Fudge Cookies at Country of Origin, Malabar Hill/Bandra
Country of Origin’s Ebony and Ivory Fudge cookies take two kinds of chocolate and create the most blissful union. Dark, delicious and sweet.
IV. Chocolate Chunk Walnut Cookies by Heena Punwani, Tiffin Tales
Heena Punwani is the ex-pastry chef at Ellipsis and her Chocolate Chunk Walnut Cookies are to-die-for. They’re crisp on the edges and chewy at the centre, with a mix of melty chocolate chunks and dark chocolate chips, the secret to these toasty cookies is the brown butter. The toasted walnuts provide the perfect crunch and they are finished with flaked sea salt to make sure you’re addicted after the first bite.
V. Salted Caramel Cookies at House of Cookies, Vile Parle
In our opinion, if a cookie doesn’t have chocolate, it had better have salted caramel because that’s the only thing that can possibly make up for its absence. In this respect, House of Cookies doesn’t disappoint. They somehow manage to toe the line between moist/chewy and crispy, and the salted caramel is neither too sweet nor too salty.
VI. Cinnamon Cookies at Icing On Top, Masjid Bunder
Icing on Top’s Cinnamon Cookies aren’t what you think they are. If you’re imagining normal cookies dusted with cinnamon powder or something similar, stop. The cinnamon cookies here are miniature—literally popcorn sized—and are incredibly addictive. They melt in your mouth and that burst of cinnamon as they fall apart on your tongue is wonderful.
VII. Chocolate Chip Cookies at Indigo Deli, Colaba/Lower Parel/Bandra/Andheri
Just when you think this restaurant can’t possibly best itself, it does. These cookies are definitely way up in our top five. First off, each batch is freshly baked. Which means that you need to order it mid-way through your meal to make sure it arrives on your table straight out of the oven, since it takes about 20 minutes from start to finish. While you can order a plate of assorted cookies (one each of peanut butter, plain, chocolate chip and double chocolate) we’re seriously throwing recommiending you order an all-chocolate chip serving, because these cookies are unbelievable—soft, chewy and the chocolate chips burst as you sink your teeth in, flooding your mouth with chocolate.
VIII. Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies With Maldon Sea Salt at One Street Over, Bandra
Kelvin Cheung’s One Street Over not only serves delicious food, but also some decadent dessert. The Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies with Maldon Sea Salt are what we crave after a long day. The chocolate is rich and the smokiness of the Maldon Sea Salt is refreshing. A must-try.
IX. Pizookie at Polpo Café, Khar West
Polpo’s pizookie, as the name suggests, is a combination of a pizza and a cookie and the cookie is topped with creamy vanilla ice cream. Choose between your base: classic chocolate chunk, white chocolate macadamia, peanut butter, and oatmeal & raisin. For us, it’s always the classic chocolate chunk.
X. Sea Salt and Nutella Cookie at Sweetish House Mafia, Bandra/Lower Parel/Nariman Point
When the genius Sweetish House Mafia decided to open its brick-and-mortar stores instead of having most of the city run behind its Tata Nano that served cookies out of the backseat, we were delighted (also because the Bandra store is right next to our office). Go inside and take your time checking out the menu if you like, but we’ll tell you it’s futile. Just make a beeline for the Sea Salt and Nutella Cookies, they’re some of the best you’ll ever have.
XI. Seven-Layered Cookie at The Nutcracker, Kala Ghoda
There isn’t much that The Nutcracker doesn’t excel at, and their signature dessert, the Seven-Layered Cookie is no exception: layers of biscuit crumble, gooey Belgian chocolate, butterscotch and almonds. We cannot emphasise enough how unmissable this treat is.
XII. Ginger Cookie at The Pantry, Kala Ghoda
The Pantry’s Ginger Cookie evokes memories of the old-school ginger biscuits our grannies gave us at teatime when we were kids. The cookie, however, is infinitely much tastier and the ginger isn’t overpowering.
XII. Cookie Sandwich at The Rolling Pin, Lower Parel
The Rolling Pin is an artisanal bakery at Lower Parel that feeds some of the area’s hungry office hordes. While the ones with no sweet tooth or spirit of adventure get something savoury, the sweet-toothed ones swear by the Cookie Sandwich. It’s got mousse cream, cream cheese and chunks of chocolate.
XIV. Cooknie at Theobroma, Colaba/Bandra/Powai
We’ve seen a lot of food hybrids in the last few years, particularly in the dessert section, fondly called Frankenpastries. There was the cronut, the donnoli, and lots more. But the only one you need to be concerned with at Theo’s is the Cooknie. This monster cookie is a combination of a cookie and a brownie that’s seriously decadent. If you’re finding it hard to picture what a cooknie could possibly look like, imagine a brownie stuffed into a cookie. Yep, that’s right.
XV. Chocolate Chip Cookies at Toujours, Breach Candy
Toujours is an upscale little patisserie in Mumbai’s plush Breach Candy neighbourhood that has residents swooning over their authentic macarons and petit fours. We’ve tried those too—and think they’re amazing—but what we stop by for are the Chocolate Chip Cookies. Make a pit stop and load up.
XVI. Butter Cookies at Yazdani, Fort
It’s always hard trying to figure out what to order at Yazdani’s, they have so much to offer. But in the biscuit department, it has to be their butter cookies. They’re rich, flaky and almost unhealthily buttery. But that’s how we like it.
—Special Mention—
Domino’s Cookies
You knew this was coming. No feature on cookies can be complete without the mention of these delicious boxed cookies. We’ve all grown up on them and they hold cherished memories. Like when you’d stand on a box to reach the highest shelf where your mother kept them well out of reach, or how you’d always dig in to the box to find the one with the biggest, chunkiest chocolate chips. Nostalgia is a beautiful thing. Go out and buy a couple of boxes and feel like a kid again.
XI. Double Chocolate Cookie at Subway (all branches)
Subway’s Double Chocolate Cookie is a tradition of sorts for us. We pick up our subs and always, always pick up this cookie for dessert. It’s surprisingly good for a fast food cookie, and always satisfying. Here’s a tip though: don’t let them microwave it for you. Instead, ask them to stick it in their giant oven briefly. It warms up much better, and evenly so that you don’t scald your mouth.
If you enjoyed this, we suggest you read