Mumbai gets new restaurants all the time. Some stick around, some disappear before you’ve even managed to book a table. And then there are places like Sorena that arrive with enough confidence to make you notice before opening night. The new restaurant, Sorena from Monarch Liberty Hospitality, the team behind Eve, Que Sera Sera and TAT, has opened across two floors in Bandra’s Mansionz One building on Linking Road. It’s big too.
Sorena Brings Five Cities To Bandra And Somehow Makes It Work
Nearly 11,000 square feet spread over the 11th and 12th floors. A menu inspired by New York, Sicily, Tokyo, Istanbul and Mumbai all living under one roof.
You step out of the elevator onto the 11th floor, and the register is set immediately. Earthy tones, vibrant paintings, artefacts gathered from across the world, and floors that hum with the texture of a busy metropolitan street. Sorena doesn’t ask you to escape Mumbai; it places you at the very centre of it.
The centrepiece is a chandelier crafted from artisanal glass and metal fragments, stretching across the central atrium, with small metal collectables representing cities from around the world hanging from its structure. A curved structural staircase connects the two floors and is is architectural enough to notice and fluid enough to not interrupt the evening. By day, the city stretches beyond the glass. On a rainy evening like ours, the lights of Mumbai dissolved into something almost cinematic.
If You’re Here For The Food, The Menu Doesn’t Stay In One Country For Long
Head Chef Sachin Kadam’s menu doesn’t box dishes into geography. It’s not fusion; it’s more fluid than that. Think of it as a kitchen fluent in five culinary languages, speaking all of them in the same breath.
Salads & Soups
The Sicilian Carrot Agrodolce Burrata Toasted Pistachio salad was the first dish to stop the table mid-conversation. A deeply seasoned carrot purée, sweet, sharp, and earthy all at once, forms the base. On top of it sits crispy phyllo pastry that shatters cleanly when you cut through it, followed by a generous mound of fresh burrata that melts into the warm purée underneath. The toasted pistachios land last. It’s nutty, slightly bitter, and exactly the textural contrast the dish needed. Every element is doing a specific job, and every element delivers.
The Cream Di Porcini Mascarpone Soup is a mushroom soup that takes itself seriously. A thin, airy foam rests on top with more fragrance than substance, and beneath it is a thick, truffle-forward broth built on porcini. The mascarpone rounds out what could otherwise be an overwhelmingly earthy flavour, giving it a creaminess that makes the whole bowl feel considered rather than heavy.
The Chilli Con Carne Soup plays it differently, spicy, meaty, and unapologetically bold. The chilli heat builds slowly rather than hitting all at once, and the beans give it enough body to feel like a proper course rather than a starter. If you have a heat threshold, it’s worth knowing upfront.
Small Plates
The Deccan Kebabs arrive as coin-sized rounds of minced mutton on puff pastry, served with green chutney and a small side salad. The mutton is well-seasoned and tender, the pastry has a good flaky bite, and the chutney is sharp enough to cut through the richness. They disappear fast order two portions if you’re more than three.
The Za’atar Chicken Skewers is charred well on the outside, and the inside stays genuinely juicy, which is harder to achieve than it sounds. The za’atar flavour, though, is subtle to the point of being easy to miss. If you’re coming for that distinctly Middle Eastern herbaceousness, you’ll want to ask for extra on the side.
The Jalapeño Cream Cheese Sushi is a solid vegetarian option; the heat from the jalapeño is present but not aggressive, and the cheese keeps things creamy and well-balanced. A good call if you’re looking for something lighter between courses.
The Mains
The Mutton Rezala, served with glazed naan, is rich, slow-cooked, and deeply spiced, the kind of main that makes you want to mop every last bit off the plate with the bread. The naan itself has a slight sweetness from the glaze that works well against the mild heat of the curry.
The Tonkatsu Ramen was the standout main of the evening. The pork char siu is sliced thick, with a good fat-to-meat ratio that keeps it tender all the way through. The broth is the real story, which was clean on the surface but with layers of depth that suggest it’s been worked on for hours. On a rainy evening in Bandra, it was the right bowl at the right time.
Save Room For Dessert, Seriously!
The Brooklyn Blackout Cake was presented beautifully. A rich dark chocolate cake layered with silky chocolate custard and finished with a chocolate sponge centre surrounded by berry compote, edible grass, and various decorative elements. The mousse is light rather than dense, which stops it from feeling too rich after a full meal, and the berry compote adds an acidity that lifts the whole plate.
But the Lychee Yoghurt is the one you’ll be talking about on the way home. It arrives with a thin, brittle sugar crust on top. Deep pink, almost caramelised, that cracks when your spoon touches it. Underneath is a set yoghurt that’s floral and cold, with a clean lychee flavour that isn’t overdone or syrupy. The contrast between the warm crust and the cool yoghurt beneath it is the kind of detail that tells you the kitchen is thinking carefully about what ends up on the plate.
Even The Drinks Have Their Own Backstories At Sorena, Bandra
At the heart of Sorena sits Atlas, the island bar, and it’s worth arriving early just to sit there. The cocktail programme, helmed by Dimi Lezinska, is built around city personas: the New York dealmaker, the Tokyo purist, and the Bombay raconteur. Each drink is designed to reflect a character rather than just a flavour profile.
Since Sorena hadn’t received its alcohol licence at the time of our visit in Bandra, we worked through the non-alcoholic menu. The Mocha was well-pulled and balanced, not too sweet, with a good espresso base & worth ordering if you’re ending the evening on coffee. The Virgin Toddy was warm, spiced, and exactly what a rainy Bandra evening calls for: a ginger-forward drink. We’re told the Cosmopolitan is the signature once the licence comes through. That’s reason enough to return.
The Verdict
Sorena is the kind of restaurant Bandra has been waiting for: one that matches serious culinary ambition with a space that actually lives up to it. So, come before the city finds out, and we bet that will be sooner than you imagine!
Where: 11th & 12th Floor, Mansionz One, Linking Road, Bandra West, Mumbai
When: Now Open for Dinner
Cost: Approx. ₹3,000–4,000 (without alcohol)
Cover Image Courtesy: Deeplata Garde