THIS is a bacon naan roll – smoked streaky bacon dry-cured for five days with rock salt and Demerara sugar then cold-smoked over oak chips, then fried and served on the classic oven-baked Indian flatbread. It’s the signature dish of Dishoom and it’s coming to Bridge Street.
The London-based Indian café and restaurant group has applied to open a new site in Manchester Hall, (the expensively revamped Freemasons Hall), where its culinary neighbours will be the events centre/food hub’s own now open Masons Restaurant and, scheduled for the New Year Pintxuras (Spanish small plates) and Fable (pan-Asian).
None of which will be serving a menu inspired by the Irani cafes of Mumbai with egg dishes inspired by images of Parsi bodybuilders or a breakfast cocktail, ‘The Dhoble’ named for the notorious party-pooping Assistant Commissioner of Police of Bombay, Vasant Dhoble.
ToM, no stranger to that city’s street food wallahs, is itching to try that combo of fresh orange juice, Colombo gin, maraschino liqueur and a squeeze of lemon, served over cubed ice (£7.50) with that £5.50 naan roll, its porkiness supplied by the acclaimed Ginger Pig rare breed herds in North Yorkshire. Look at the full Dishoom menu here.
The group, whose first restaurant/cafe was opened in 2010 by Amar and Adarsh Radia, now run six in London and one in Edinburgh. Subject to a premises licence being granted, 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 quirky neo-colonial fit-out, which looks a good match for the much-panelled Manchester Hall.
