WHILE down in London recently ToM had the chance to check out Dishoom, the highly regarded affordable London restaurant group, modelled on the Irani cafes of Mumbai, which is set to open a venue in Manchester Hall on Bridge Street this summer.
Much to our regret we arrived late in the day and so missed their ultimate crossover signature dish, the £5.95 bacon naan roll – smoked streaky bacon dry-cured for five days with rock salt and Demerara sugar, cold-smoked over oak chips, then fried and served on the classic oven-baked Indian flatbread. Dishoom is big on breakfasts (chillies on your egg, sir?)
The porkiness is supplied by the acclaimed Ginger Pig rare breed herds in North Yorkshire, an indication that Dishoom is no ordinary Indian (our own Bundobust are fans – as well as soon to be rivals.
The group, whose first restaurant/cafe was opened in 2010 by Amar and Adarsh Radia, now run six in London and one in Edinburgh. Manchester will be the first new venture since the pair left earlier this year.
We’ve been to the Covent Garden original and loved the quaint neo-colonial fit-out, which looks a good match for the much-panelled Manchester Hall. But his time we ventured north of King’s Cross Station to a very different looking Dishoom branch housed in a former rail transit shed. It could be some godown near Mumbai’s Victoria Terminus, albeit with craft beer and a quirky cocktail list.
Who with that bacon naan could resist a breakfast punch, ‘The Dhoble’ named for the notorious party-pooping Assistant Commissioner of Police of Bombay? It’s combo of fresh orange and lemon, jaggery sugar, Lukosowa vodka, maraschino liqueur and a squeeze of lemon, served over cubed ice (£7.50). Evening drawing in, we shared one as an aperitif before sticking to Beavertown Gamma Ray with our food. Their own house IPA had run out.
The dishes we chose were definitely robust. The house Black Daal (£6.20), a kind of souped up Makhni Dal, had been cooked slowly for 24 hours and felt velvety and earth at the same time, the accompanying naan wolfed swiftly with it.
Better still was a plate of spicy lamb chops (£12.90), easily the equal of those from the charcoal pit at Mughli’s on our Curry Mile. They are similarly blackened by the grill, yet juicy inside but the depth of flavour transcends mere smokiness. Thanks to an overnight marinade of lime juice and jaggery, ginger, garlic and various spices (certainly clove).
Engagingly they confine more obvious trad curry dishes to a small section called ‘Ruby Murray’. Elsewhere on the all-day menus they mix and match Indian and other cuisines without every going down the dreaded fusion route.
The even made that vegan ‘meat texture’ lifeline the jackfruit taste delicious in a delicate saffron rice potted and cooked with mint, coriander and sultanas. An interesting take on the biryani for £9.50 and indeed the menu is full of interest. It will be interesting to see which Dishoom turns up in Manchester – the Covent Garden or the King’s Cross?
