Dishoom Birmingham will open on 1st April 2020 at One Chamberlain Square (part of Paradise Birmingham), where it will enjoy the company of the city’s most beautiful historic buildings.
Bookings will open on Sunday 1st March at 9am and can be made via www.dishoom.com/birmingham. Reservations for groups of any size can be made for breakfast and lunch, and for groups of 6 or more at dinner (after 5.45pm). All are welcome.
Soft launch dates and details
Eager patrons are invited to help Dishoom prepare for the opening by attending their soft launch, which will run from Saturday 21st to Tuesday 31st March 2020. During this most critical final stage of preparation and training, guests will be offered 50% off food. The soft launch is open to all and the restaurant will accept walk-ins only for the duration – no bookings.
Dishoom will open for breakfast, lunch and dinner during the soft launch. Breakfast is served until 11:45am each day, and the all-day menu is served from 12pm onwards. Please kindly note that the restaurant will close at 3pm on 31st March, but will otherwise observe normal opening hours.
Dishoom Birmingham will occupy part of the ground floor of One Chamberlain Square, overlooking Grade I listed Birmingham Town Hall, the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and the Chamberlain Monument fountain, some of the city’s most charming and impressive historic landmarks.
Dishoom Birmingham will, as ever, pay loving homage to the old Irani cafés that were once part of the fabric of life in Bombay. The design will weave together threads of Bombay’s history with a Birmingham-inspired narrative. The space will accommodate 330 guests, across the dining room, Permit Room bar and outdoor terrace.
The restaurant will be open daily, providing patrons with everything from breakfast and mid-morning chai, to lunch and afternoon tipples, right through to evening feasts and late-night snacks.
Bombay comfort food, top-notch tipples, and Dishoom Birmingham specials
Executive Chef Naved Nasir’s menu of Bombay comfort food will be served from breakfast-time until late. Dishes cooked in Hindu, Muslim, Irani and Parsi traditions will all jostle for space on the table. From Bombay breakfasts to street food staples; hearty dishes of biryani to the curries of Mohammed Ali Road, and the famous grills of Colaba, the Dishoom menu brings together the food of all Bombay.
Birmingham patrons will also be able to avail themselves of the brand-new Chef’s Special, created by Chef Naved especially for the city. The Mutton Chaap Korma sees marinated chops of mutton lavished with a rich, nourishing sauce, best mopped up with the accompanying khamiri roti. A classical Indian korma in the style of Bhendi Bazaar’s Noor Mohammadi.
For every meal served at Dishoom Birmingham, the team will donate a meal to a child who might otherwise go hungry. A meal for a meal. Dishoom work with two fantastic charities – The Akshaya Patra Foundation in India and Magic Breakfast in the UK – who provide nourishing meals to children in schools. The initiative began at Ramadan in 2015 and was made permanent at Diwali the same year. Since then, Dishoom has donated over 8 million meals (…and counting)!
The restaurant will also have a Permit Room bar – named after the official term for all Bombay drinking establishments, in which, according to the Bombay Prohibition Act of 1949, only permit-holders may consume alcohol. The bar will serve Dishoom’s award-winning cocktails, teetotal tipples, chai, coolers and more.
Alongside the old favourites on the bar menu, a most special Birmingham tipple has also been created. The Bombay Mule sees favourite spirit of India, Johnnie Walker Black Label, lengthened with Dishoom Chai spices, ginger beer and dashes of grapefruit bitters. A fiery, feisty drink for independent spirits.
Designing Dishoom Birmingham
Everything Dishoom does shares the team’s deep love for Bombay – its food, its history, its culture and its quirks. Each Dishoom restaurant has a story – akin to a founding myth – deeply rooted in Bombay history. This story informs all aspect of the café’s design narrative, which is brought to life in collaboration with Dishoom’s long- term design partners, Macaulay Sinclair.
Inspired by Birmingham’s history as the “city of a thousand trades”, the Dishoom Birmingham story explores the unique parallels with the trades and markets of Bombay and the importance of the city’s commercial past.
Further design details will be forthcoming in due course. In the meantime, eager guests may read more about Dishoom Birmingham’s founding myth at www.dishoom.com/journal/introducing-dishoom-birmingham/.