Dishoom Birmingham, What We Can Expect
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Who Are Dishoom?
Indian restaurant group Dishoom is coming to Birmingham, but who are Dishoom? Dishoom offers a unique Indian dining experience based on the Irani cafes found in Bombay. With five restaurants in London, one in Manchester, one in Edinburgh Dishoom Birmingham will be the eighth to open.
With India being portrayed in Britain by many outdated cliches Co-founders Kavi & Shamil created Dishoom out of a desire for a more authentic reflection of India & her food.
What Is An Irani Cafe?
Towards the end of the 19th Century start of the 20th Century, Iranis fleeing famine and persecution arrived in Bombay, opening small cafes serving Irani chai & traditional baked snacks.
Dining out in Bombay at the start of the 20th Century was complicated and quite segregated. This was not the case in the Irani cafes, as migrants, they did not care for exclusivity, serving all religions and classes. Irani cafes were for everybody.
The all-inclusive aspect of the original Irani cafes is very much alive at Dishoom. Celebrities and bankers drink vintage champagne and cocktails alongside students drinking bottomless chai and eating buns. All religions are welcome and celebrated at Dishoom, with special events held for Eid, Christmas, Diwali, and Holi.
Dishoom Charity Work
Just as the original Irani cafes were safe spaces for people of all walks of life to sit & break bread, Dishoom also wants to be a space for all. An example of this is their knot of protection event. Inspired by Tagore who in 1905 sought to inspire love & respect between Hindu & Muslim in Bengal, by encouraging them to tie a piece of thread around each other’s wrists in what was a ritual between sister & brother. The message was clear, You can not divide us!
So last year for Raksha Bandhan Dishoom encouraged their customers to tie a rakhi on someone of a different faith, nationality or culture, and donated £7485 to the incredible seeds of peace charity. A charity that takes teenagers from conflict areas such as Palestine & Israel and educates them in an attempt to encourage peace.
Ramadan 2015 Dishoom co-owner Shamil & the groups’ executive chef Naved Nasir decided for their Zakat, they would support two wonderful charities. Magic Breakfast UK and The Akshaya Patra Foundation in India. Dishoom decided to partner with these charities permanently, and regularly hold fundraising events.
The UK based charity Magic Breakfast aims to put an end to hunger being a barrier to education in schools by providing healthy breakfasts to vulnerable children. Indian Akshaya Patra Foundation provides daily school meals to ensure ‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger’.
What To Expect From Dishoom Birmingham?
The Story
Each of the Dishoom restaurants is based on a fictional story. Dishoom King Cross being near the train station tells the story of a young Irani who comes to Bombay with nothing, who starts selling Chai & baked goods from a stall before expanding into one of the coal sheds & dominating the godown. Kensington Dishoom takes influence from a 1940s Bombay obsessed with Art Deco. Which is the setting for the Bombay Roxy, a cafe by day, jazz club at night based in an old cinema building & owned by the charismatic Cyrus Irani.
For Dishoom Birmingham- The City Of A Thousand Trades they took inspiration from the story of Roda Irani. Roda Irani was the daughter of a market trader who embraced her father’s belief in free trade and began selling hearty plates of Akuri, Keema Pau, Omelets and their specialty of crunchy Brun Maska alongside the traditional things sold by her father. When her father passed she took over the shop and under her reigns, it thrived. Now with a daughter of her own who never lived under the British Raj & upset that her father never lived to see Indian independence, Roda decides it’s time to educate her daughter on India’s past, on their past and tells her all about how they won their freedom through a thousand trades.
The Food
Dishoom Birmingham will open all day for breakfast, lunch & dinner and if the other restaurants are anything to go by, it will be popular at all times. The breakfast menu is one of the most original menus in the city with dishes like the Akuri (Irani scrambled eggs), keema per eedu (spiced minced chicken, fried egg & potato) and banana & date porridge. However, it is the incredible breakfast naans that have become notorious, four rashers of thick-cut quality bacon, tomato & chili jam, and cream cheese stuffed into a fluffy freshly made naan bread.
Dishoom’s main menu served from 12pm daily, is a dream team selection of all of the best street food staples & Irani cafe favorites traditionally found in Bombay. There’s small plates like Pau Bhaji (mashed vegetables with a homemade hot buttered bun) Vada Pau (spicy potato patties in a bun, like a chip butty) and prawn Koliwada (crispy prawns). There’s also a selection of grilled meats, curries, biriyanis and even a dish created especially for Dishoom Birmingham The Mutton Chaap Korma.
To Drink
Dishoom is fully licensed and offers a large selection of beers wines & spirits including the Dishoom IPA beer, but is very well known for its cocktail menu. As well as a special dish, Dishoom has come up with a special cocktail, exclusive to Birmingham. The Bombay Mule is a tall refreshing drink made from Bombay’s favourite whiskey, Johnnie Walker Black Label, chai spices, topped up with ginger beer.
Other Info
- Address- Dishoom Birmingham, Paradise, One Chamberlain Square, B3 3HQ
- Opening Times Are 8-Midnight
- Lots of vegetarian & vegan options
- Due to the covid-19 pandemic, the opening of Dishoom Birmingham has been postponed
Dishoom Social
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