Janata @ Pali Naka

How to get there: Get to Pali Naka, pass the lane for Toto's to your right and the no entry turn for the Pali Vegetable Market on your left. Go up the hill towards Ambedkar Road and about a 100 meters ahead, it's on your left RIGHT. I'm very directionally dyslexic, thanks to eagle eye reader As The Mind Meanders for pointing out my mistake!


If you squish up really close, I can tell you about a place where it's possible to get drunk for under Rs 200. IMPOSSIBLE, you say? Uh, uh, welcome to Janata.

Janata is as much a Bandra institution as, um, the pirated DVD guy outside Toto's, or the export surplus t-shirt stall on Hill Road. The alcohol is cheap, cheap, cheap. There are no frills whatsoever (they used to serve boiled channa with your drinks, but thanks to the word that shall not be mentioned (hint: begins with 'r' ends with 'n' rhymes with obsession) that's not there anymore.) There is an air conditioned space upstairs, but if you're taller than 6 feet you'll have to bend when you walk around. The toilet is unisex and often quite smelly, the water is served in steel glasses, but oh, the alcohol. You can order it by the quarter. This means, you get your little bottle of Smirnoff for the table, plus the mixer or whatever and whee! you're set for the night.

The food at Janata's not bad either, I mean, you've been drinking for a while, I assume, so the food's not really what you're going for. I like the biryani, some people like the chicken lollipops, you know, that sorta thing.

Here's another Janata secret. If it's 2 am, and you've been kicked out of every bar you've been too, you can ORDER IN. Plus food. Isn't that awesome? (Of course, you should also know that nearby Deepak Wines also home delivers till quite late, but they don't do the food.)

Want a place reviewed? Want to review something yourself? Send me an email with the subject line DD review to thecompulsiveconfessorATgmailDOTcom