DISHOOM

to celebrate my brother's birthday this year, he wanted to go for a curry - but "not just to the one down the road" - so we had a bit of hunt around the net for inspiration and our searches pointed us in the direction of Dishoom. 

we opted for the branch in covent garden,as it was central for everyone to meet, but there is also a restaurant in Shoreditch. it's billed as a 'bombay cafe in london' with the walls adorned with bollywood inspired posters, trinkets and mirrors which enhance the bombay atmosphere. my personal favourite was the rules which greet you on arrival:

As there were 6 of us so we decided to order a selection of dishes from the menu and share them out between us. we went for 2 lots of vegetable and lamb samosas, 2  keema pau, 2 chicken ruby, 2 rice, a chicken biriyani, 2 classic naan, murgh mala, dishoom chicken tikka, lamb boti kabab, gunpowder potatoes and a portion of the house black daal. sadly the one dish we really wanted to try, the lamb chops, was sold out but I guess that's the perfect excuse to go back again! Now this sounds like a lot of food but we wolfed the whole lot down and it was delicious. The keema pau was a real stand out dish for me, it's a sort of spiced lamb mince which you scoop up using pieces of hot buttered bun - almost street food style! The whole meal came to less than £20 a head which we were all really impressed with and I will definitely be heading back for those lamb chops!

www.dishoom.com/

12 Upper St. Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9FB