Dishoom Carnaby

Dishoom pays loving homage to the Irani cafés that were once part of the fabric of life in Bombay. Opened early last century by Zoroastrian immigrants from Iran, there were almost four hundred of these cafés at their peak in the 1960s. Now fewer than thirty remain.

Dishoom | Bombay Café

The Old Irani Cafés of Bombay have almost all disappeared.

Bentwood chairs were reflected in stained mirrors, next to sepia family portraits.

Families dined.

Opened early last century by Zoroastrian immigrants from Iran, there were almost four hundred cafés at their peak in the 1960s.

http://www.dishoom.com

Dishoom — Carnaby, London – Britpakgirl

There's No Place Like Home | Dishoom Carnaby, London

It’s no coincidence that it was around the same time that we started We Love Food.

We’ve visited over 500 restaurants since that point but when we’re asked what our favourite London restaurant is (which is practically every time we meet a fellow food lover), Dishoom is always up there, yet we can never remember the last restaurant we visited.

We’ve never set foot on Indian soil (we will one day…) but it somehow feels like coming home every time we visit, even if it’s a new branch like Carnaby.

Keith and I both asked for a Ginger Pig Bacon naan roll (£5.50) sans cream cheese (again, thanks to Esther for reminding us it comes with the dreaded stuff).

Meanwhile, Ade was falling in love with his Kejriwal (£4.90) – two fried eggs on chilli cheese toast, which has become his new breakfast favourite.

Noble Russell | Dishoom, Carnaby

Dishoom Carnaby is the latest restaurant in the popular Bombay-style café chain that Noble Russell have been involved with.

Once again interior architecture and design studio Macaulay Sinclair commissioned Noble Russell to manufacture seventy-five bespoke table tops to fill the new 7000 sq ft restaurant.

The bespoke tables have been designed to complement this exciting eclectic interior by Macaulay Sinclair.

Noble Russell manufactured several types of table tops including solid Sapele with a routed coach line border and fine Carrara, Rosso Alicante, Chocolate Brown and Wild West Green marble all edged with Sapele.

Dishoom Carnaby opened in October 2015 and immediately had queues outside its doors; waiting to eat delicious Indian food on Noble Russel’s bespoke tables!

Restaurant Review: Dishoom, Carnaby Street - Candid Magazine

If you don’t typically crave Indian food the moment you wake up, then you probably haven’t been to Dishoom for breakfast.

Each of Dishoom’s restaurants takes a cue from its location, and this particular outpost sees monochrome checkered terrazzo floors, Bombay Progressives art prints and a battered jukebox straight from Chor Bazaar come together courtesy of interior designer Macaulay Sinclair.

Eager to trial the signature dish, we went straight for the celebrated bacon naan roll – an unlikely but delectable marriage between a British bacon butty and Indian streetfood.

It’s no surprise that Dishoom often has queues around the block – breakfast reservations are undoubtably the easiest of the bunch.

Evening reservations are only confirmed for six diners or more, making Dishoom the perfect place for a party.

Dishoom

Dishoom pays loving homage to the Irani cafés that were once part of the fabric of life in Bombay.

Rich businessmen, courting couples and sweaty taxi-wallas all frequented the cafés.

But now as the city rushes towards modernity, these beautiful old cafés are disappearing, mourned by Bombayites, and fading into memory.

Dishoom work with Magic Breakfast charity.

For every breakfast you eat at Dishoom, the restaurant will donate a 'magic' breakfast to a school in London.

Dishoom Carnaby: A Bombay blockbuster | London Evening Standard

If Dishoom has taught us anything in recent years, it’s that when someone says “Bacon naan roll?”

London is curry house aplenty, and has an increasing array of fabulous Indian fine-dining restaurants – Dishoom is a bit of both and chic as hell with it.

Dishoom has blended a menu of delicately spiced yet satisfying dishes with carefully conceived yet necessarily casual settings – think a cross between a European grand café and a particularly tidy souk.

Dishoom’s menu is a smorgasbord of Indian delicacies, of which you’re encouraged to try as many as your belt buckle will allow: spicy lamb chops are marinated in lime juice and jaggery, warming dark spices with ginger and garlic and the house black daal holds its own as a signature dish, cooked for over 24 hours.

A few years ago, an Indian restaurant may not have been your first choice for brunch, but one bite of the now legendary bacon naan (bread cooked fresh to order and bacon supplied by The Ginger Pig butchers) and you’ll never look at a sarnie in the same way again.

Dishoom | Restaurants in Soho, London

The newest branch of this immensely popular Indian chain.

If Time Out had a ratings system where we gave marks for every aspect of the ‘dining experience’, we could then rate this new branch of Dishoom as follows: decor and ambience: five; service: five, food: three.

Here, just off Carnaby Street – once the epicentre of the swinging ’60s – we’re talking retro Indian (that is, surprisingly Western).

But service is thoroughly 2015 – in a good way – with a disappointing dish (more on this later) struck from the bill and a perfectly decent side of rice also removed, purely because we hadn’t had time to try it: a nice touch.

A dish of sali boti (a classic Persian lamb stew), was perfectly decent, if nothing to set the world alight.

Dishoom Carnaby - Indian Restaurant - visitlondon.com

Finally made it to Dishoom for a bit more Indian in the UK after failing to endure a 45-minute wait for dinner on a Sunday night.

But the breakfast--a rarity, particularly for Indian--was pretty disappointing.

I was really hoping to maximize eating Indian while in the UK, and Dishoom's breakfast just wasn't up to par.