They've certainly garnered support over the past year, not to mention another permanent location, this one next to Shoreditch House, threateningly close to the street flyer Kessel Run of Brick Lane.
The food is pretty good, if not entirely quite there. The 'Ruby Murray' is good, and obviously well cooked with decent quality chicken but it's a little too 'mellow' for me. Keema Pau, a bland minced lamb served with English muffins has little to say for itself sadly. The house black dhal was admittedly lovely, the one dish I'd come back for, braised into a sauce rich and deep enough to feel meat infused, it had flavour to spare. The squid was over fried and the lamb chops a pale grey copy of those at Lahore or Tayyabs. It's all been done worse than this at a thousand curry places around the capital, but it's being done a whole load better at a critically acclaimed handful. On my evidence Dishoom isn't close to that Premier league.
With its amiably geezerish descriptors, the menu feels like it could been written by a Chowpatty Jamie Oliver, the spiritual brother of their next door neighbour. And like their next door neighbour, it feels like it's ripe for rollout. The all day 'cafe-vibe' schtick a shoe-in for shopping centre supremacy.
The service is shopping centre suitable too. Fast, well trained and entirely impersonal, operating on efficient pre-scripted rails from the moment you're sat down.
There are just too many really decent Indian, Pakistani and Bengali restaurants I'd go to for a pre-planned curry trip and too many other restaurants in Covent Garden that get my attention for a walk up. Both of which are a slight shame, as it's really not that bad.
PR photo from restaurant website
Ahem, isn't the new Dishoom closer to the Rainbow Sports Bar rather than Shoreditch House?
ReplyDeleteJoking aside, I bloody hate the auto-pilot pre-scripted service in places like these. Many a time I've had a conversation interrupted by a badly timed 'is everything all right, sir?'. And when you do want them to actually do something, they forget. At least in America, they provide decent service behind the cherry facade.
And yeah, the dhal and imho the roti are the only dishes that mark out Dishoom.
@ Mr Noodles - it is, but then so is Pizza East, depending which way you walk ;) That being said, couldn't be bothered trying, given that if I'm in the area and fancy a curry, there are one or two places I'd rather be. The sort of place you could take your parents, and I'm not saying that to be overly positive.
ReplyDeleteRich