The day we ditched coffee for breakfast

We went OOO for a quick team breakfast at Paashh, a restaurant in Mumbai crafted by Amoeba Design

10 Dec 2025

ELLE DECOR

Bandra on a weekday and Bandra on a weekend present two starkly different realities. No endless heads bob up and down on Carter Road. No traffic jams ensure you miss your dinner reservation. The iconic Mumbai neighbourhood hums gently, moves more slowly, and becomes completely contrary to its chaotic, metropolitan whole. It was on one such misty-eyed Tuesday when Team ELLE DECOR India chose to swap their office in Prabhadevi’s concrete jungle for a quick breakfast in Bandra’s bylanes. Our destination? A rustic, 2,000 sq ft Portuguese bungalow, housing a restaurant called Paashh.

Conceptualised in pristine whites and earthy browns, one half of the double-storey facade is entirely shrouded by lush potters and greens — a deliberate choice, as Satyajeet Patwardhan and Pashmin Shah, co-founders of Amoeba Design, tell us. “Our intent was to turn the bungalow into an urban jungle: one that disconnects you from the city’s chaos and immerses you in a serene space. The design avoids any sense of posturing,” emphasise the duo, adding, “It quietly draws you in, encouraging you to leave your chaos behind and immerse yourself in the true experience of nature: not just around you, but also on your plate.”

True to Satyajeet and Pashmin’s words, Paashh’s ‘soil to soul’ philosophy is evident across both the exterior and the interiors. The menu, we’re told, is seasonal — aligning with the shifting hues of the greens that bedeck the facade. Driven by Founder Vaishali Karad’s vision, the space doesn’t just preach conscious living: it practices, embodies, and teaches the same.

Setting the table

An arched porch greets us at the outset, shaded and clad with brick-hued tiles. Unlike a majority of Bandra cafes which begin and end as soon as you enter, there’s plenty of space here: the lower floor is the place to be for caffeine addicts, complete with checkered flooring, textured walls and a green, fluted bar counter pouring your daily fix. On most mornings in the office, you’re more likely to find us lining up for the coffee machine than at our desks. But at Paashh, our shared curiosity to see the entire space had magically eclipsed our collective want for a cup of joe.

Little pockets of sunlight guide us upstairs, filtering through tiny glass squares fitted amidst the Mangalorean tiled roof. This material intervention, as Pashmin and Satyajeet tell us, is in response to Mumbai’s incessant monsoons. “Rather than treating the rain as something to keep out, we wanted it to become part of the experience. Watching droplets gather and fall across those glass inserts makes the rain feel like a living element of the design,” they affirm.

Shop, eat, repeat!

The sun follows us from the stairs right to the first floor, filtering in through the tiled roof. Exposed, pearl-hued rafters add scale and character to the space. On our left, an elongated windowside counter equipped with high chairs offers those with laptops to both people-watch and check off their to-do list. On our right, surprisingly enough, are clothing racks and shelves filled with ceramics, adorable stuffed animals, and clothing that feels like butter to the touch — a sustainable curation, we’re told, crafted in-house by Paashh.

The next half hour is filled with us alternating between sifting through the objects on display, perusing the menu, and placing orders. Soon enough, the laptops on our table have been replaced with platefuls of food. We’re generous with our pickings — from sweet options like flaky, melt-in-your-mouth croissants and pain au chocolats, to savoury options like multigrain thalipeeths and ragi crepes — we take bites, pass plates, and indulge. Needless to say, we returned to our desks energised, recharged, and most importantly, well-fed!