Dishoom Shoreditch - Bombay Cafe | London Tastin'

Dishoom Shoreditch - Bombay Cafe

“We are not an Indian restaurant, we are a Bombay cafe” - the staff at Dishoom’s new Shoreditch restaurant proudly announced. The precise meaning was perhaps demonstrated by the deliberate attempt to stay away from a curry focused menu (only two on the menu). Instead, we saw small eats like Bhel (puffed rice with pomegranate), samosas, a selection of flamed grills and signatures like a whole leg of lamb raan and the 24 hour marinated black daal, all designed to share for the whole table. It’s open all day, serving from breakfast to late dinners. The soft launch offers 50% off on both drinks and food till 18th October so by 7pm, the queue was already longer than the no. 38 bus.

The new Shoreditch restaurant was incredibly spacious, two floors both capable of serving large parties. Decorated in a retro Bombay style with Bollywood stars’ portraits dotted on the walls. Colours are vibrant, setting a warm yellow tone to the whole restaurant. It’s a really casual place to be with friends, families and for the local IT crowd to relax after work. Booking is taken for breakfast and lunch but not after 5.30pm for dinner.

Everything was designed to share and each person was recommended to order 2 - 3 dishes, which was more than enough.

Vegetable samosas

Bhel - puffed rice salad

Served at room temperature with crunchy puffed rice and refreshingly sweet pomegranate to create a variety of interesting textures. Beautifully served with tomato, lime and tamarind.

Lamb Boti kabab

Marinated with red chilli, garlic and ginger.

Lamb Raan

One of the signatures at Dishoom, a whole leg of lamb so tender it just fell of the bone. Marinated overnight, then flame grilled and dressed with fresh lime. One of those dishes you just can’t stop eating.

House black daal

Another signature at Dishoom and apparently simmered for over 24 hours. The daal has to be eaten with roti to taste the full flavours, that sense of home comfort and heartiness.

Vegetable Biryani

Roti

These rotis were thrown, stretched, then griddled downstairs. Make sure to pop down and check out how they make it!

Cinnamon ice cream

I wasn’t a huge fan of this ice cream, it was too creamy and the cinnamon flavour was barely noticeable.

House chai

Verdict - 4/5

Food (Bombay cafe) - I’m not a huge fan of Indian food but I thoroughly loved all the dishes at Dishoom, especially the lamb raan, roti and black daal. Dessert was slightly disappointing.

Service (packed) - though it was a really spacious restaurant, by 7pm, the queue was longer than the extended red bus. Hopefully it’s temporary for the 50% off soft launch offer, which you can’t book for dinner. Otherwise, service was superb and food came really fast.

Cost (£43pp) - we only paid £64 in total because of the 50% offer, otherwise it would’ve been £129.