I must confess to being a relative newcomer to Indian food. Somehow my mother’s Bengali food didn’t quite suit my English palate, it being largely fried and with lots of bitter mustard seeds. There were a lot of Indian influences in the house though from muri made with rice krispies to Indian sweets bought from local Midlands sweet shops. I find most Indian desserts to be sickly sweet although I do like mangoes. We didn’t frequent the local curry house and almost my only direct exposure to Indian food was an M&S curry.
Sue and I have made our way to a number of recommended Indian cafes and restaurants from Bombay Brasserie, to Porte des Indes, to Masala Zone and Roti Chai. Now Dishoom was high on our to-do list. I now think my palate has now been Indianised and I can tolerate relatively chilli hot food.
Dishoom seems to have got its marketing act together and we had been getting many references to it on Twitter and other media. Attempting to get a table at lunchtime a couple of weeks ago as a walk-in we found there was a 40 minute wait and we baulked at waiting, deciding instead to head to a nearby Masala Zone.
This time we made no mistake by booking a table - but even then we could only get a table outside normal lunch hours. On Upper St Martins Lane next to a number of other restaurants including Jamie’s Kitchen and Cantina Laredo Dishoom was rather crowded as we arrived a little early for our reservation. Nevertheless we were able to sit down almost immediately - at a booth rather than a table.
The furnishings and fittings were intended to mimic a traditional Bombay cafe. Not having been to
Bombay for a while I had no frame of reference - at face value they seemed to have succeeded, complete with photos and old Indian adverts framed on the wall. To a cynic though it might seem slightly contrived and over-designed - including a list 'Rules of the Cafe' on a blackboard near the entrance ['No combing hair' but 'All castes welcome']. It is open all day serving bacon naan rolls for breakfast.
The food menu has a strong focus on starters or street food, with grilled meats and vegetables and frankies – naan parcels – and roomalis – thin stuffed rolls. There are limited traditional curries. We ordered lamb samosas and calamari as starters. For mains murgh malai – grilled chicken – with daal, a paneer roll, a salad, and rice together with lassis. Our waitress was very polished, friendly, efficient and informative, making sure we were aware that the chicken is cooked pink and is dry. The food arrived quickly: the lamb samosas had a good pastry, almost crisp, with a slightly hot filling. The calamari were well cooked but lacking in any overt spicing, rather bland. Of the mains the chicken was as described with the meat pink in the middle. The pastry on the paneer roll or roomali was light and tasty, with a substantial filling. Desserts were mango and malai kulfies rather simply presented.
With a total bill of £56, and no alcohol, I felt the experience was disappointing for rather basic food. It was adequate but there was little subtlety in the food. Maybe my problem was that I expected restaurant type food and this is a cafe. I would have wanted more curries, and not so many grills. Sue wanted to be more upbeat about the place than me - for example they had Thums Up and Limca - a throwback to 80s India. Plus water in stainless steel cups, chai in a glass. Authentic stuff. Sue' s main criticism about the food was that the house dhal seasoning was not quite there and tasted a bit like Heinz tomato soup. I actually thought the dhal was quite good.
I can imagine the same branding or styling being rolled out across a chain of Dishooms in an attempt to standardise and commodify the imagined atmosphere of the old-style Bombay cafe it is trying to emulate. For myself, however, I would describe the food at Masala Zone and my favourite Giftos in Southall as a cut above.
www.dishoom.com
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An archive of the blog posts at indiainlondon.com which is no longer maintained. We hope you enjoy delving back into some of our past musings and thoughts.
Wednesday, 30 April 2014
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