Popular Indian restaurant group Dishoom has smashed through the £100 million annual sales barrier for the first time since its first outlet opened in Covent Garden in 2010.
Accounts for the Shoreditch based company, founded by cousins Shamil and Kavi Thakrar and famed for its long queues of fan diners, show revenues surged by 23% to a record £116.8 million in the year to 31 December 2023.
The group, inspired by the Irani cafes of Bombay, has seven restaurants in London, including at Canary Wharf, Kings Cross, Battersea Power Station and Kensington High Street with others in Edinburgh, Birmingham and Manchester.
It also runs two smaller Permit Room bar-cafe locations in Brighton and Cambridge, which opened after the financial year end, and a third in Oxford launching in late October.
The accounts show that last year’s revenue boost came from new openings as well as strong like for like growth at existing restaurants, famed for signature dishes such as Chicken Ruby curry and Gunpowder Potatoes.
Underlying profits soared more than 40% to £13.3 million while the margin grew by 1.5 percentage points as the business “continued to generate efficiencies through scale.”
The results were published as the company prepared to launch the biggest overhaul of its men in its history on Monday.
Shamil Thakrar said: “These results reflect the incredible work of our team. Even more important than growth is keeping our focus strongly on hospitality, on providing guests with the most delicious food and the warmest service in beautiful restaurants and on making sure that Dishoom is one of the very best workplaces in hospitality.
“As a business, we continue to work ever harder to provide wonderful opportunities for our people to grow and develop. This has been absolutely critical to our current success and will be to our future development.
“We also plan to continue to grow the business very selectively, through seeking the right new opportunities for both Dishoom and Dishoom Permit Rooms.”
The company said it has “continued to perform well since the year end, delivering on-going growth at both a revenue and underlying profit level.”
