Welcome to Dum King's Cross

ACCOMPANIMENTS

BIRYANIS

DRINKS

PUDDINGS

VEGAN

FOR CHILDREN

DAIRY INTOLERANCE

GLUTEN INTOLERANCE

YOUR MAJESTY'S BANQUET

ACCOMPANIMENTS

BIRYANIS

DRINKS

PUDDINGS

VEGAN

FOR CHILDREN

DAIRY INTOLERANCE

GLUTEN INTOLERANCE

YOUR MAJESTY'S BANQUET

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Reservations

Dishoom is mostly a walk-in café. All are welcome, any time, no reservations needed. However, if you’d like to make a reservation, we hold a handful of tables back for groups of all sizes every day until 5.45pm. After 6pm, a small number of tables are available to be reserved by parties of six or more, at specific times.

ONE JANUARY MORNING in 1928, a young Irani – not long arrived in Bombay – was waiting to collect a parcel at Victoria Terminus. Unusually, the train was running late. Growing hot and bored, the Irani decided to stretch his legs. He wandered amongst the station crowds and then down a side track, off the main terminus.

Quickly, he found himself in a vast shed filled with the hubbub of a thousand industries: freight trains pulling in with a squeal, wagons being loaded and unloaded, men and machines labouring with their cargo. Goods of every conceivable sort ebbed and flowed through the station, a veritable artery linking the Indian subcontinent to the Western world via the port of Bombay.

The Irani was of an astute business mind. He had come to Bombay with almost nothing, and he was always seeking an opportunity to strengthen his toehold there. That day, watching the men at work, he felt a keen sense of opportunity.

The very next morning, he began selling his Irani chai and a few baked goods from an impromptu stall in a corner of the godown. The news spread, passed on from worker to worker, supervisor to babu, and the little stall flourished. The Irani introduced additional items here and there: a rickety table, some chairs, a shelf displaying plump fresh pau, a wooden bench to sit on. It wasn’t luxury, but all who spent a moment there were glad of it.

Although at first wary of being ousted from his borrowed corner, he soon became bolder: the station guards were grateful for a ready source of chai, and would happily take their baksheesh in spicy keema. The Irani ‘café’ inched outwards appropriating its own space in the large transit shed, buoyed by the burgeoning number of loyal patrons. In almost unnoticeable little steps, it gradually started dominating the godown.

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Continued…

Decades later, the Irani’s hair has turned from jet black to grey, his jacket is cut from better cloth, but his smile is just as it was. His beloved India has changed dramatically. She has fought for her independence and has been torn asunder by partition. The gora sahibs are long gone, and a young nation is forging its identity. And from a small corner of the shed, the humble stall has grown into an established café – in truth, even something of an institution.

The renown of the Irani and his hospitality has spread far; everyone – labourers, smartlyuniformed train supervisors, well-heeled sahibs – comes for a cup of cutting chai, a quick breakfast, a hearty meal. Railwaymen, angadias and passengers meet there and dawdle together, reading their newspapers, loudly exchanging jokes and political opinions, mopping their plates clean with the Irani’s hot pau. And at the end of a long hot day, a refreshing beer (discreetly passed from a hidden box of ice) is a most welcome reward.

Even after so many years, the Irani never fails to greet each one of his guests with a nod and a smile. Whether it is an omelet at daybreak, a big bowl of Nalli Nihari at lunch, an afternoon snack or a sly peg of liquor from a bottle before home-time, his welcome is as warm as the chai is hot, and every guest goes on his way feeling that he has found a small source of solace and joy in the old godown behind the great Victoria Terminus.

Go back

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Reservations

Food & Drink at Dum King's Cross

BEGIN YOUR DAY AT DUM with breakfast, which might be a Bacon Naan Roll, a Kejriwal or a Big Bombay. Then lunch lightly on Roomali Rolls and Salad Plates, or linger with a feast. Refresh your afternoon with a drop of Chai and a small plate or two. Dine early or dine late. Or just join us for a tipple – perhaps an India Gimlet, a Permit Room Old-fashioned, or our very good Dum IPA?

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Menus

Bombay breakfast, lunch, afternoon chai, dinner and late tipples.

The Godown at King's Cross

Dum King’s Cross is located within a restored Victorian industrial building — a former railway transit shed, built in 1850. To Londoners this is a warehouse, but to Bombayites, it would be a Godown. Vast quantities of goods once flowed through this foremost interchange between rail, road and canal. Goods were unloaded onto the platform, and the draft horses that worked the canals and turntables were stabled beneath. For over 100 years this building passed goods to and fro between Britain and the rest of the world, and between London and Bombay.

PICTURED: King’s Cross was London’s foremost interchange between rail, road and canal.

Welcome to the Permit Room

Since 1949, and to this very day Bombay has been under a state of prohibition. Set apart from a family room, there is a special place where only permit holders may consume liquor which has come to be known unofficially as a Permit Room. Our Permit Room – the bar within our Kensington café serves the most delicious and sincere old cocktails, recalling the days before Independence, such as Gimlets, Juleps and Sours; Fizzes and Old-Fashioneds, and a Bombay Presidency Punch.