Saturday, 13 April 2013

TTN Visits: Dishoom Bombay Cafe, Shoreditch...



Admittedly a tad delayed, this small blog post is all about my visit to Dishoom in Shoreditch about 2 weeks ago.


Dishoom describes itself as a 'Bombay cafe in London' and it first came to my attention a few summers back when I read about its summertime pop up on Southbank and sadly didn’t get to go.... anyway, after 2 failed attempts to get a cheeky un-reserved seat in its Covent Garden site- The Boy and myself decided to try our luck in Shoreditch. (After 6pm you are advised to make a prebooking for tables of 6 or more FYI).

On arrival to the dimly lit but (in my opinion) highly authentic feeling restaurant, we were made to feel really welcome by staff and after 30 minutes of waiting (or should that be drinking at the bar) we were seated and eager to tuck in!




The menu surprised me in that it is made up of small-to-medium plates (I was rather peckish) but I love the concept of ordering lots and sharing with friends. After browsing the small-but-varied menu we decided on a chicken biryani (my personal fave in any curry house), a 'Chicken Ruby', 2 naan breads- one cheese for The Boy and one garlic (yes naughty of me but it’s been a while since I’ve had gluten or wheat) and some samosas.

The food was brought and the smell made my mouth water. Dips were bought to the table as well which was really nice as we hadn’t thought to order chutney.

The Biryani was DIVINE. Soft, perfectly flavoured and fragranced rice with plenty of soft tender chicken hidden in the pot. Then it was topped with fresh pomegranate seeds ... so good! The 'Chicken Ruby' was also a very pleasant surprise - for me it was perfectly spicy but i think The Boy struggled as he emptied the riata dip pot. The sauce was not oily either... (okay I am doing a rubbish job of explaining this aren't I?) basically it was really lovely and I would order again!
 The portion of samosas was slightly disappointing as we were given 2 relatively small ones but the taste was really delicious. The minced lamb was really juicy and seasoned with cumin amongst; I'm sure, other delicious things!

For cocktails I enjoyed a 'Bollywood Bellini' (prossecco with pomegranate and cardamom - SO good!) and a 'Bombay Pimm's' (Saffron gin and Ginger beer, Pimms style- very very tasty).

This restaurant would be an amazing venue for meeting up with a group of friends on a Friday night- a chance to get a bit dressed up, order a few bottles of wine and eat some bloody great food. The staff were super friendly and the service was pretty quick.

The price for our little taster meal was £36... Not including the cocktails we ordered at the bar beforehand - we left satisfied and I am looking forward to my next Dishoom experience!






Lots of love

xxx TTN xxx






1 comment:

  1. I've been dying to go! After reading this I am definitely going ASAP!

    ReplyDelete