Indian restaurant group Dishoom is launching the biggest shake-up of its menu on Monday since the company began its remarkable journey with its first opening in Covent Garden 14 years ago.
Co-founders and cousins Kavi and Shamil Thakrar - who describe themselves as “very proud Londoners” and grew up in Barnet - are introducing 23 new and updated food dishes, as well as drinks, in an overhaul they admit risks “howls of protests” from lovers of menu items being dropped.
The launch follows a series of supper clubs events to test out the new menu over recent weeks
The company, which has a total of 13 restaurants, including seven in London, revealed last week that its revenues soared 23% last year to £117 million.
The shake-up follows numerous trips to Bombay - the city that has inspired the food that has proved so popular with Londoners prepared to queue in the rain for it - with their executive chef Arun Tilak and head of R&D Rishi Anand.
According to Shamil: “One of the issues about our menu is that so much of its is proper Bombay comfort food which has persisted over decades and maybe centuries in some cases, it’s a bit like if there were British restaurants in India which were serving shepherds pie or fish and chips or roast beef, it’s pretty hard to change.
We’ll see if there’s howls of protest, but hopefully howls of support for the new stuff as well and if not, we’re happy to take that feedback on the chin.”
“Some of these are such classics and for that reason we don’t change them very much. We also get howls of protest when we take thing off so from that point of view we’re careful about it. This time, we just felt we had done so much exploring and thinking and eating in different places we had to reflect that and it felt like the right time to do it.”
The cousins pride themselves on being food “story-tellers” rather than businessmen and are rolling out outlets of Dishoom and its sister brand Permit Room only slowly despite wild success that would justify a far quicker expansion plan.
Kavi said: “We spent so much time in Bombay with our grandparents as children and its been such an important part of our history as people. When you meet
a Bombayite they are very passionate about food and it’s really rooted in nostalgia and so a lot of we do is telling their stories around that food and the communities that celebrate that food.
“One of the joys in our job is that people often come off the plans from Bombay and the first meal they will have is a Dishoom and that is a real compliment in many ways because it shows the people from that city enjoy what we do and it allows them to access the favourites of their city in one place, and that’s not something they can do in Bombay. But we’re able to offer this experience to enjoy the food and hospitality and service in a way that they cannot at home
“This menu change of maybe 15 to 20 per cent of new stuff is quite significant for us because there are so many favourites and classics on our menu, but is also allows us to tell more stories that are also rooted in nostalgia and culture and migration and the different communities
“A good example of that is a new Goan fish curry that we’ve got. In south Bombay there’s a wonderful fish market in called Sassoon Docks and a 10 minute walk from there is a bunch of Goan restaurants and we love spending time in those restaurants and of course the fish is just round the corner so fish curry is a big part of Goan cuisine and Goan communities are a big part of Bombay We’d never really done that but we wanted to tell those sorts of stories and go deeper.
“It’s not all about new, we’ve had Pau Bhaji, which is a wonderful dish of fresh vegetables and freshly baked buns, and Bombay-ites will often fight about which there favourite one is in the cit. We’ve had it as a recipe on our menu for 14 years. We were back there with our chefs earlier this year and we ate in these all these other places we don’t normally always go to and we’ve come back and tweaked our Pau Bhaji recipe.
“So what’s lovely about this menu change is that we’ve got some tweaks to some classics, we’ve got some hopefully newly established classics that people will love, and then are some like our black dahl and chicken ruby where we’ve tried a lot of our stuff and we’re really proud of the ones we’re selling to our guests so they’re going to stay as is.”
But to keep their menu manageable, one in also means one out, making a hard choice for the cousins and their team,
As Kavi puts it: “To put something new on we’ve got to take something off and that’s really hard because inevitably for someone that’s the reason they’ve come - because that’s their favourite. A good example of that is Malai Mushrooms its a wonderful dish and obviously vegetarian friendly and we’re changing that to a hot Tandoori Chaat. Or our Paneer which is a favourite of many of our guests and we’re changing the recipe on that.
“There’s a new fish dish called Fish Amritsari which is replacing Prawn Koliwada which was a favourite of many peoole but there’s just not space to do all of it all of the time. We’ll see if there’s howls of protest, but hopefully howls of support for the new stuff as well and if not we’re happy to take that feedback on the chin.”
It is not the first time a dish has been returned. The removal of Chilli Cheese Toast in an previous smaller scale menu revision had to be reversed after so many customers complained.
The attention to detail that goes into creating a new menu item is impressive. On a research trip to Bombay earlier this year, Kavi and Shamil got through almost 700 dishes. The dedication to research can only be admired.
