Dishoom Carnaby Street Review

Dishoom has grown rapidly in the last few years since they first opened their doors in 2010. With a unique twist of Indian and Iranian food, Dishoom definitely stands out. A very important thing to note is that the food is Halal so it caters to a wider community too.

I went for a lunch at the Carnaby Street branch a while back during their soft launch and we hadn’t booked a table. Although the queue looked very long we were inside in 35 minutes. Whilst a bunch of us were waiting in the cold they brought out some of their lovely signature spicy chai to keep us warm.

The interior is quite similar to the other branches with dimmed lighting, wooden decor and generally very welcoming. There’s definitely a touch of India and Iran. The food is served on a preparation basis and just comes as it’s ready. This wasn’t a problem at all as we shared everything anyway. 

For starters we ordered Calamari (£5.90) and this was hands down one of my favorite dishes. Perfectly crispy and generous on the actual fish. They went great with the 3 dips provided. For the mains we ordered the Black Daal (£5.90), Chicken Tikka (£7.90), Lamb Sheekh Kabab (£8.20) and the Chicken Ruby Curry (£8.50). The curry was quite nice and contained chicken in a rich makhani sauce (tomatoes, ginger, garlic, red chili powder and cream). Note that it doesn’t have any hint of sweetness which is something I usually look for in a curry. I wasn’t a big fan of the Daal but I believe that’s due to person preference because others seem to really love this. The Sheekh kebab was great as it wasn’t too oily and had lots of flavor. Similarly the Chicken Tikka was well made, tender and full of flavour. Having said this, I am a big fan of sauces and would have liked something extra with the dish. On the side we ordered some classic bread and rice (£2.20 each). I have to say the bread was disappointing as it arrived cold and quite stale. They made up for this by removing the item off the bill at the end. The Pistachio Kulfi (£3.20) dessert was amazing, mouthwatering in fact! Rich and creamy in texture and perfect in flavor. Imagine a condensed milk pistachio ice cream, that’s exactly what it was.

SUMMARY
The service was friendly and the food was served quickly. The food is very clean and well executed, i.e. not in the style of your overly greasy Indian takeway. It’s minimal yet tasty. I’d definitely recommend Dishoom as a great place in central to grab good Halal Indian food. The full menu can be viewed here.

As we attended the 50% off soft launch the bill came to around £18 each.

3.5/5

22 Kingly Street
London W1B 5QP
Tel: 0207 420 9322