I joined friends for dinner at Dishoom on Boundary Street in Shoreditch, a “Bombay café in London”. You can book for groups under 6, so we rocked up at around 7pm with a few groups ahead of us in the queue, but in the 10 minutes it took for us to make it through the door, the queue behind us had formed out the street. Impeccable timing. Once in, the wait at the bar was still around an hour, but the cocktail (or mocktail in my case) list was good and the smells wafting into the bar area kept us excited.

Our waitress explained how to order. The menu is divided up into small plates, grill, biryani, ruby murray, bread and rice, naan and the odd special dropped in too. The best way to order is tapas style, a few dishes from each section. For our group of 4, she suggested around 10-14 plates.

Amongst other dishes, we ordered the calamari, spicy lamb chops, house black dahl (a Dishoom signature dish) and mahi tikka (fish). We were unanimous (the vegetarian in our number aside) that the lamb chops were the most delicious.

image by pheebzeatz.wordpress.com/

I’m no food critic, but it just smelt, tasted and looked authentic. If a Brick Lane curry is your thing, give Dishoom a miss, but if you want an authentic treat that doesn’t leave you feeling stuffed, but leaves you smiling inside, give it a go – but get there early!