Dishoom
London
London W
United Kingdom

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Dishoom
Address 12 Upper St. Martin’s Lane
London
London W
WC2H 9FB
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Phone 020 7420 9320
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Website

About Dishoom

The original Bombay Cafés have almost disappeared.

Their faded elegance welcomed all – rich businessmen, sweaty taxi-wallahs and courting couples. Fans turned slowly. Bentwood chairs were reflected in stained mirrors, next to sepia family portraits. Students had breakfast. Families dined. Lawyers read briefs. Writers found their characters.

Opened early last century by Persian immigrants, there were almost four hundred cafés at their peak in the 1960s. Now, fewer than thirty remain. Their loss is much mourned by Bombayites.

Dishoom draws upon the heritage and tradition of these cafés, with our all-day menu paying homage to the food of Bombay. Next to us a pair of posh ladies take tea. They talk in the refined English of upper class Bombay. On our other side is a table of students taking a very late breakfast. They are eating hot buttered toast and drinking chai. They manage to devour their food hungrily and chatter loudly at the same time. On another table are a pair of earnest backpackers, who have probably read about us in their dog-eared guide. They look excited to be here.

So are we!
Dishoom, Upper St. Martin’s Lane, London WC2
 

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salop avatar
Silver Reviewer
5 reviews
3 helpful votes
Male age 40-49 from Shropshire
Review of Dishoom - London - London W written
Rating stars
The place is undoubtedly a crowd-puller, open from breakfast (for egg, bacon or sausage nan rolls with chilli jam), straight through to lunch and dinner, with soups, salads, grills and curries

We had some vada pau (potato croquettes with sharp chutney in a fluffy Portuguese-style bun) and bhel (crunchy puffed rice with sharp tamarind chutney and pomegranate seeds), which were great (much nicer than your average kebabs and curries!)

I'm told queues are common in the evening (reservations are taken for breakfast and lunch, but only for groups of six or more in the evenings); however, there's a bar downstairs, so waiting is no hardship.
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attitude avatar
Reviewer
4 reviews
1 helpful vote
Female age 30-39 from Lincoln
Review of Dishoom - London - London W written
Rating stars
Dishoom, with its open kitchen and bustling, young, mostly non-Indian waiters, has a jolly buzz. The chicken biryani, cooked in a pastry-sealed pot, was terrific on the aromatics, the waft of cardamom, clove and turmeric hitting my olfactory bulb before a mouthful met the tongue, though it was a little dry. Their dark, pungent sticky lamb chops rubbed with black pepper and chillies were very good indeed, the outside deeply charred, the meat still pink. I would come back here for a plate of these. Or perhaps two, maybe three with a friend.
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