Colaba Social, Apollo Bunder, Mumbai: Some work and lots of play

We’ve all heard the phrase ‘All Work and No Play makes Jack a Dull Boy’.

Increasingly, I’ve found that many of us ‘Jack’s and ‘Jill’s’ are becoming quite dull spending as we do almost the entire day staring at our laptops on email, social media or whatever classifies as ‘work’. An unfortunate side effect is that we spend fewer minutes of the day actually talking to other people – something that always opens up interesting doors both on a personal and professional basis.

This is one of the reasons why I love shared offices.

Social at Colaba, is the newest entrant in Mumbai’s shared office space and I was quite stoked to have the opportunity to check out the space when they launched a couple of weeks ago.

The Mumbai branch of Social is quite interesting because it is like a superhero – an office by day and a cocktail bar by evenings and nights. In essence, what it tries to do is entice us freelancers and creative types out of the many Bandra café’s into a more formal yet casual setup.

While the dark interiors and exposed brick walls don’t quite inspire a day of productivity, my curiosity was piqued with their monthly rental offering where members basically don’t pay any rent but agree to a INR 5,000/month food and beverage credit. Any fellow cafe-freelancer will agree with me that this is a great deal to pass up as most of us spend that much on coffees in any case and for this fee Social also offers office facilities like a printer, scanner and in-house swing to while away the time ‘brainstorming’.

Coming to the food, Social has quite a large menu with the best part being that they serve breakfast all the way until 7pm at night!

There are some interesting twists in the menu like a Cheese Burger Salad and the carb-laden Banofee Cronut, which are a must-try. The Awesamosas – a gourmet version of the Samosa filled with mushroom, chunda and green apple chutney – and the Chocolate Blood Bath also piqued my curiosity but I was let down by my filled-to-bursting tummy. I was also quite happy to see my favourite Dhansak featured on the menu though am not sure how much work one would get done after scoffing down a plate of that.

When I visited we tried the Prawn Sesame Toast, which was quite addictive. My friends found it a bit oily but I enjoyed it as there was a generous amount of prawns on them and they reminded me of many childhood weekends scoffing these down at the old ‘Symphony’ restaurant in town.  I also liked the Mexican Chilli Poutine which is basically a bowl of fried topped with mildly spiced Mexican flavoured mince and lots of melted cheese. I mean really, what’s not to love about that?

My favourite bites however were the Sexy Sautéed Tenderloin Chunks and the Cheese Burger Salad as both of them featured some really delicious well-cooked meat. Also, technically it’s a salad and the meat is sautéed so you don’t have to feel too guilty!

Mumbai Social is quite experimental when it comes to the drinks, especially to the presentation. I enjoyed the ‘Cocktail Kitchen’ inspired bar and could happily spend an hour seeing the bar chefs in action.

My Screw Social Driver was a refreshing mix of Vodka, Orange Juice and Orange Bitter and call me kitschy but I loved the fact that the stirrer was an actual screwdriver. The Earl of Gin, which is made with Gin, Earl Grey tea and Tang also comes in a kettle and was something a bit different. Fans of the Long Island Iced Tea can rejoice as Social serves an extra large version labeled the Longest Long Island Iced Tea. The hit for the night however was the shot of Dawa Daaru served in a tiny glass bottle one would get at the local pharmacy.

Overall, Social seems like a great addition to Mumbai’s ever-growing bar scene. I plan on returning in the daytime to further explore the shared office space and urge all my fellow freelancers to check it out too.

Ratings (Out of 5)

Food: 3.0 | Drinks: 3.5 | Ambience: 4.0 | Service: 3.0 | Overall: 3.5

Meal for Two (with 1 drink): Rs. 2000 | Credit Cards: Yes| Hours:  9am – 1.30am| Wheelchair Access: No

Address: 24, Ground Floor Glen Rose Building, B. K. Boman Behram Marg, Apollo Bunder, Colaba, Mumbai – 400001

Number: 02222828484