The entrance to Haji Lane is so narrow, we would have missed it had it not been for the crowd gathered in the narrow lane between two colourful walls. A closer look revealed a startling number of selfie sticks; an even closer look justified it.
The walls aren’t just painted in vibrant colours but adorned with pro level street art. You can’t help but go strike a pose with the characters on the walls. After we were done with our rendezvous, we moved further inside the lane.
The first half of the lane is dotted with cafes; our first pit stop was at Selfie Coffee to get a cuppa joe with our face on it. We ordered ourselves a Salted Caramel Frappuccino. The selfie printed atop the whipped cream was flawless and although it was slightly odd to be sipping on this, the novelty of it and its sheer Instagram-worthiness kept us at it.
Our second stop was a Sesame Street dream come true- a cookie shop! Al’s Frank does flourless cookies in a bunch of yummy flavours: The Oatmeal Macademia Nut is the most popular choice here but we also developed a liking for the Earl Grey Oatmeal. We also spotted {and bookmarked, for later} a burger place called Berg’s Gourmet Burger which looked super promising and even opens for breakfast.
Now that we were all fuelled, we geared up for some retail therapy {kudos to the strategic placements}. Haji Lane houses a line of boutiques filled with designer clothes, shoes, jewellery, accessories and perfumes. It’s mildly reminiscent of Shahpur Jat {minus all the lehngas} and here’s where you head when you’re looking for one-of-a-kind pieces of anything.
We started our card swiping expedition with a little accessory shop called The Last Piece. The concept of the store is that everything is available in only one piece so you can get your hands on something really exclusive. They’re all about quirky sunglasses and dainty rings and bracelets and with trinkets priced as low as $10 {around INR 500}, it’s worth at least a look-see.
Other stores which we’re likely to go back to on our next visit include August Swimwear {tankinis FTW}, Victoria Jomo for quirky banana printed socks and ganjis, Luca and Vic for ice cream print loafers for the wee ones in our lives and XX Simplicity. The latter keeps miniature versions of our favourite perfumes complete with nozzle et al {we saw variants of Dior, Armani, Bulgari, Carolina Herrera to name a few} along with some cutesy fridge magnets and women’s blouses.
Don’t forget to check out ORO just in case you’re looking to score a hat for your next tea party with Alice. We ended up with sweeping clean a small vintage-y store- Dulcet Fig reminded us a little of House of Blondie back home.
Whereas we’ve clearly established our favourites here, we’d urge you to explore and discover your own- every nook and corner holds something interesting.
After we were all tired out, we found ourselves at the Blu Jaz Café. Offering some excellent bruschetta, mezze platters and live jazz music, we can’t think of a better end to a shopping spree.
Follow this up with a brisk walk down to the Sultan Mosque for a Disney-esque experience because it looks exactly like Jasmine’s palace! We’d recommend prepping up that magic carpet right about now.
Little Black Book’s little directory of Haji Lane favourites:
Selfie Coffee: 11 Haji Lane; +6563417212
Al’s Frank: 12 Haji Lane; +6596675147
Blu Jaz Cafe: 3 Haji Lane; +6562923800, +6598239059
The Last Piece: 21 Haji Lane; +6590226286
Victoria Jomo: 47 Haji Lane; victoriajomo@hotmail.com
Luca and Vic: 29 Haji Lane; +6562911642
XX Simplicity: 50 Haji Lane; +6562933350
ORO: 52 Haji Lane; +6562933350
Dulcet Fig: 41 Haji Lane; +6563965648