Big deal for a little bit of Mumbai in London

LONDON: Signboards in Hindi, water served in steel tumblers, classic Hindi film music playing in the background, sepia-tinted family portraits adorning the walls and a menu offering Vada Pau, Bhel, Pau Bhaji and Irani café delicacies such as Sali Boti, Keema Pau and Bun Maska. One could easily believe this to be an unassuming eatery in Mumbai. Not so – it is a swanky Bombay café in the heart of London and one of the most popular restaurant chains in the UK.
At a time when Irani cafés in Mumbai are fast turning into a vestige of the city’s history, Dishoom with its inspiration from Mumbai is rapidly gaining popularity. Notorious for long queues, irrespective of the weather or time of the day, Dishoom cafés are known for their delicious food, affordable pricing and unique décor featuring the Bombay of an era gone by. The Dishoom Café at London’s Covent Garden was named the UK’s best for the second consecutive year in the Yelp Top 100 Places to Eat list for 2016, beating Michelin-starred restaurants such as Dinner by Heston Blumenthal.

“With its very Indian ambience and delicious food, Dishoom has used a knock-on strategy to sell India in London,” said Surabhi Arora, an Indian lawyer working in London. The menu has interesting items such as breakfast offerings known as Kejriwal – two fired eggs on chilli cheese toast – and the Dhoble cocktail. There is Bhang Lassi and Botal Soda.

The Covent Garden Dishoom was the first to be opened in 2010 and the popular response ensured three more outlets opening at King’s Cross, Shoreditch and Carnaby. By the end of this year, a fifth one is set to open in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Shoreditch outlet was 44th on the Yelp list and the King’s Cross branch was at 75.


“Indian food in Britain is synonymous with curry houses. And we consciously avoided being a curry house with a Bollywood theme,” said Shamil Thakrar, the cofounder of the concept restaurant whose grandfather settled in London from India. “Each Dishoom is a love letter to Bombay – taking inspiration from the Irani cafés - the original Bombay Cafés. What we give here is extremely good pricing, good value, very good food, good service, good environment.”

Most Dishoom cafés are furnished with items collected from or inspired by queer places across Mumbai such as Chor Bazaar or government offices. The overall design is inspired by Irani cafes Kayani Bakery, Merwan & Co. and Britannia & Co. There are curios like juke boxes, gleaned from Chor Bazaar, that can belt out Hindi numbers, old table fans, large wall clocks similar to ones at Bombay Central Station and paintings by the Bombay Progressives hanging on the walls. The furniture is quintessentially Bombay, with the juice bar modelled on the ubiquitous Wheeler & Co. newspaper stalls at railway stations, seating inspired by the local train carriage, stitching of seats copied from those at Eros Cinema and the black-and-white checked terrazzo floor similar to those at the Irani cafés. The furnishing is typical of places ranging from government offices, railway berths to tony restaurants such as West End and Trident in South Bombay. Some of the furniture is even numbered in the manner of Indian government institutions.

“My job actually is to have people come in here and have a wonderful time and hopefully be influenced by our values – the breaking down of barriers, increasing tolerance and bringing people together over food,” explained Thakrar. “Hopefully, they have a fantastic meal, enjoy their server and enjoy some of the stuff that we have here and if we can infect them with a bit of our passion, then we have won.”

Dishoom is managed by a team of babus – as they call themselves – led by cousins Shamil and Kavi Thakrar (the head babus or founder wallas) and others like ops-walla and burre chef-walla, chatter-walli (for marketing and social media), daru-walla and manager wallas.

“What makes Dishoom special is their staff, which is friendly and efficient. The employees are welcoming and improve the visitor’s eating experience,” said Kalpesh Shah, a marketing professional working in London and a regular at Dishoom at Carnaby. A 50-page training guide is given to all the staff to explain the various things and references to visitors.

“We have a strong philosophy that our job is all about seva – seva to customers and seva to our team members – helping them be the best they can be so that our customers are delighted,” Thakrar said.

Dishoom’s success has to be seen in the context of the restaurant business that is struggling to improve profitability globally with low-cost venues dominating the popularity charts as against those owned by celebrity chefs or the premium fine-dining venues.

So what is it that Dishoom can improve upon? Addition of dishes is the unanimous demand. “More variety of Indian food or addition of at least the famous dishes of India,” quipped Arora. “There could be inclusion of more dishes and snacks from Mumbai like Sev Puri or Pani Puri with staff wearing traditional clothes during events or special days,” said Shah.