Mumbai · ice cream
Taj Ice Cream
A single-shop, sixth-generation hand-churned ice cream maker using a three-ingredient recipe and a named nineteenth-century method, still working from the same Bhendi Bazaar address — the strongest documented churned counterpoint to the kulfi tradition this city exists to test.
What to order
Mango and guava, named as the writer's picks in the Local Samosa piece; sitafal named separately as the flavour NRI customers carry abroad
What we know
- Milk, sugar and fruit only, no colours or preservatives, per the current owner's description of the recipe used since founding
- Hand-churned for about three hours per flavour in a copper sancha inherited from the founder's time, set in a wooden barrel — a named, specific method rather than a general craft claim
- Sixth generation of the same family (Valilji Jalaji to Aamir Icecreamwala) still running the single Bhendi Bazaar shop
- Ingredients sourced locally from Bhendi Bazaar and Vashi market vendors rather than a centralised supply chain
- Customers from Kuwait, London and Paris carry sitafal back with them, per the owner, evidence of a diaspora following rather than a tourist-only draw
- Status
- open
- Address
- Shop No. 1, SBUT Transit Cluster, D Kharat Chimna Butcher Street, Bohri Mohalla, Bhendi Bazaar, Mumbai
- Maker
- Aamir Icecreamwala, sixth-generation owner, per his own account to The Better India
- Opened
- 1887
- Last checked
- 2026-08-21
Something wrong here? Tell us.