Eat Out London!Bombay Bustle
Bombay Bustle restaurant Maddox street Mayfair London
Bombay Bustle restaurant Maddox street Mayfair London | Bombay Bustle Restaurant
Inspired by the tiffin tin carriers, the institution of men who use Mumbai's famed local railway to deliver home cooked meals across the city, Bombay Bustle pays homage to the culture and people, whose expanse of origins from across India have influenced its culinary history.
The menu sees re-creations of some of the city's most loved dishes alongside family recipes, inspired by Mumbai's diverse flavours, and home style cooking.
Reviews and related sites
Bombay Bustle review: We do a Working Lunch at the new ...
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The set menus are inspired by Mumbai’s tiffin tin carriers, who use India’s railways to deliver home-cooked food.
Park up in one of the booths designed to look like a colonial-era train carriage, and choose from one of two menus, a veggie one at £16 per person and a meaty one at £19, comprising a starter, main and a side, all of which arrive at the same time, stacked atop each other in a tasty tiffin tower.
They’re not part of the tiffin deal, but they’re available on a separate menu.
No fussy amuse bouches, all the food arrives at the same time and it’s easily packaged up if you need to dash.
Surroundings are smart, and the food is decent without being fussy, served in a way that’s perfect for social dining.
New Openings: Bombay Bustle
The Jamavar team celebrates Mumbai’s "dabbawalas" at its new Mayfair site, Bombay Bustle What’s new?
Tiffin and cocktails get acquainted at what was Hibiscus, now magically transformed, on Maddox Street Behind the scenes: Samyukta Nair and Rohit Ghai, Jamavar co-founder and executive chef respectively, fresh from celebrating Jamavar’s shiny new star in the Michelin Guide.
The concept: Mumbai’s labyrinthine network of lunch delivery guys – think of it as India’s no-tech precursor to UberEats – has inspired novels, films and business case studies.
Designers Fabled Studio (Jamavar, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay etc) have focused on the suburban train network that supports the dabbawalas – the tiffin tin carriers – as seen in such perfect details as the nifty hat rack-cum-mirror and overhead luggage racks and cut-glass screens reminiscent of railway "retiring rooms".
London Reviews: Bombay Bustle – The Foodie Diaries
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On a particularly benevolent day, Cookie might have packed misal pav – a spicy curry brimming with potatoes and sprouted beans, to be ladled onto buttery chunks of pav.
As for Bombay’s Bustle – well it practically bounces off the the eclectic menu, reflecting the rich melting pot of cultures and sub-cultures characteristic of a city that has historically attracted people from all over India.
There are several nods to Bombay’s signature street foods too – such as the Bambaiya Ragda and Misal Pao, which I alluded to at the start.
Of course, the burgeoning mix of people, passions and professions inherent in Bombay’s Bustle will find close parallels in the dynamic environs of London too.
Mumbai is the city, but Bombay an emotion evocative of timeless traditions, moving with a modern train of thought.
review of London Indian restaurant Bombay Bustle by Andy Hayler ...
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Back in the restaurant, Bombay Bustle has a downstairs room too, its décor continuing the same theme and based on a Bombay railway lounge, though a rather smarter one than I can recall from the real railway station.
Less good was an Indian take on fish and mushy peas, in this case Amritsari beer-battered fish with masala green peas and Gurkha (tomato) chutney.
Also excellent was tandoori lamb chop, a Hampshire lamb chop prepared with pickling spices and garnished with a little pickled onion, the meat having lovely flavour and cooked very well, the lamb enhanced by the spices (14/20).
Nonetheless the best dishes were very good indeed, and the overall standard was still reasonably high.
If the restaurant can iron out the early inconsistencies that I found then it will prosper, as the best dishes here were very good indeed.
Bombay Bustle Mayfair | London Restaurant Reviews | DesignMyNight
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Inspired by the men who use Mumbai’s local railway to deliver home cooked meals across the city, Samyukta Nair and Rohit Ghai, Co-Founder and Executive Chef of Mayfair’s Michelin-starred Jamavar, launched Bombay Bustle in homage to the city and its people.
Rohit Ghai has put together a menu inspired by Mumbai and the surrounding area, such as Kolhapuri spiced spit roasted chicken, Seabass and scallop Tawa Pulao, and a sweet double ka meetha with tutti fruity masala milk and almonds.
Split over two levels, the restaurant interiors take inspiration from various aspects of the city.
The ground floor dining room is separated into two distinct areas, the first designed to evoke the feel of an old first class railway coach, while the second draws on Mumbai's art deco architecture.
The lower ground floor, which features large booths and a dessert bar, is intended to replicate the retiring rooms found at Indian railway stations.
Bombay Bustle Review
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And so it is here, where they offer a menu so comprehensively attractive; dishes a giddy mix of familiar names and enticing new discoveries, that choosing just a few to try of an evening becomes a genuine dilemma.
But we’re nothing if not determined, here at Just Opened, so although what you’re about to read about constitutes barely a quarter of the full capabilities of the Bombay Bustle kitchen, we hope it’s enough to persuade that this dynamic new Mayfair restaurant (completely unrecognisable from its earlier incarnation as Claude Bosi’s Hibiscus) is, following its sister Jamavar, another giant leap forward for Indian fine dining in the capital, and you’d have to be entirely devoid of joy and taste not to be utterly smitten with it.
Two dishes made the most of Bombay Bustle’s brilliance with keema.
Overall, though, Bombay Bustle is a joy.
JOL was invited to review Bombay Bustle on a complimentary basis.
Bombay Bustle: A Mumbai-style curry restaurant with class | London ...
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Mayfair is well-served when it comes to excellent Indian restaurants, with no fewer than four in the area boasting Michelin stars.
It takes its inspiration from the Dabbawalas of Mumbai – men who traditionally used the city’s railway network to deliver home-cooked meals – and indeed was going to be named after them too, until legal reasons necessitated otherwise.
The decor remains strongly on theme, with booth seating mirroring an old first-class railway coach on the Mumbai train network, and station-style signage to differentiate between the bar and dining areas.
For a curry restaurant that has as much class and conviviality as its food has complexity and allure, Bombay Bustle is hard to beat.
See more of the Best Restaurants in Mayfair, and our guide to London's best Indian restaurants.
New Openings: Bombay Bustle
The Jamavar team celebrates Mumbai’s "dabbawalas" at its new Mayfair site, Bombay Bustle What’s new?
Tiffin and cocktails get acquainted at what was Hibiscus, now magically transformed, on Maddox Street Behind the scenes: Samyukta Nair and Rohit Ghai, Jamavar co-founder and executive chef respectively, fresh from celebrating Jamavar’s shiny new star in the Michelin Guide.
The concept: Mumbai’s labyrinthine network of lunch delivery guys – think of it as India’s no-tech precursor to UberEats – has inspired novels, films and business case studies.
Designers Fabled Studio (Jamavar, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay etc) have focused on the suburban train network that supports the dabbawalas – the tiffin tin carriers – as seen in such perfect details as the nifty hat rack-cum-mirror and overhead luggage racks and cut-glass screens reminiscent of railway "retiring rooms".