374. Dishoom.

 

 I first visited, and recorded my impressions of, Dishoom by Chamberlain Square in August 2021 (Blog 171). I think I was swept away by the atmosphere of the place - the bustle and buzz and decor really did conjure up a little picture in my mind’s eye of being seated in an Irani cafe in old Bombay. My ardour was somewhat cooled after a second visit where I was somewhat disappointed by what I had been served but I was still thrilled by the atmosphere of the place. Now quite some time since I had last dined there, I chose to revisit Dishoom and see if I could summon up some more enthusiasm for the place to match the exciting atmosphere atmosphere of the restaurant.

  It was a dark, damp Sunday evening with barely anywhere else in the city centre where one could dine with the expectation of a reasonable meal and the hope of being something special. My experience did not live up to my hope.

  The restaurant again was as busy as I’ve ever seen it - many of the large tables taken, the atmosphere buzzing with the the activity of the waiting staff and the chatter of the happy diners, the dimmed light (which made reading the familiar crowded menu rather difficult) adding to it all.

 Tactful speed of service and rapid table turn around is clearly important but I felt more relaxed here in Dishoom than I had done in Six By Nico where the same policy is clearly high up on the management and front of house staff’s priority list. But that is not to say that the service is not satisfactory - I was served by a charming, professional and patient member of the waiting staff who knew exactly how to deal with their collection of various diners.

  I had not looked at the review of my previous visit to Dishoom but after leaving and rereading it, I was surprised to find how unexciting I must be - I chose to start with an Old Fashioned cocktail which I thoroughly enjoyed and had a ‘small plate’ of lamb pakoras which were satisfactory but never going to set the world on fire. The pastry was crispy enough and the filling had some flavour to it.

  For the main I did opt for something new - a jackfruit biryani. This arrived in a pot with a heavy metal lid which was searing hot and I wasn’t warned about it so when I attempted to remove the lid some transient pain was experienced. Really that was not good enough - the member of the kitchen staff who delivered it to the table should have removed the lid herself perhaps giving it all a piece of theatre but, as she did not have time to do that, then a warning of how hot the pot was should have been expected. Restaurants spend such a lot of time grilling their customers as to whether they have allergies or not and other risks are forgotten about.

 The biryani was probably not a biryani. There was no pastry lid and there was a large pile of admittedly nicely cooked rice with a few sultanas and soft, sweet slices of fried onion and hot green chillis all over a number of cubes of unremarkable jackfruit lying around at the bottom of the pot. This was more rice pilau seated on a collection of pieces of the fruit than a biryani. It was difficult to get the jackfruit out without spilling the rice on the table.  This dish had one or two good points but was generally of limited merit. I ate it with some cucumber raita of which a large dish was served but I gave up only about a quarter of the way into the ‘biryani’ because it was just to boring to continue to eat any more of it.

For dessert I had a pleasant enough pistachio kulfi on a stick similar to those I’ve seen in other restaurants in the city.

Dishoom is worth a visit to see what the place is like and to experience the buzzy atmosphere but the food does not rise above the average and I will not be hurrying back.

Rating:- 🌛