After an awful experience with Dishoom in Manchester, I was invited back to any Dishoom by Head Office to try and show me a good dining experience again, this wasn't an attempt to get me to leave a review and leaving a new review wasn't even mentioned, the good intentions were just to restore my faith with the Dishoom brand, of which their location close to Covent Garden is one of the most reviewed places in the UK on Yelp, sadly I couldn't make it to that branch with it undergoing refurbishment so I decided to come to their Kings Cross location which is just two bus stops away from Kings Cross and St Pancras railway stations.
Remember if you are visiting here you do need to pre-book and then there might be a short wait, they seem to always have people waiting outside even in the rain, they have a stack of umbrellas waiting!
I came to my table a couple of minutes late, but this wasn't a problem and I was seated a couple of minutes later after they found a table. The restauraunt is huge and is over more than one floor, they have a central bar where you walk past and feel the warmth of the brewing chai.
All of the staff seemed fantastic, not only did they know the menu well-offering recommendations from everything from recommending which dishes to order and how many of them, explaining the concept to even helping carry my suitcase to the table, which made the journey here easy after getting off my train at Euston.
The staff seemed fantastic and they took my allergy seriously, they knew I was coeliac before I had even mentioned it and my server had no problem talking me through the menu to show me what I could eat and also dishes which carried a cross-contamination risk
I did try many dishes of which I will most likely slaughter the spelling or traditional name - my favourites included the Chicken Ruby and Gunpowder potatoes. The potatoes had so much flavour, they were seasoned well and tasted good especially with the sauce/cream/yoghurt on the side. The chicken ruby also had amazing flavours, I would have liked more chicken but the chicken it did have was tasty, succulent and breast pieces (my favourite), I wish I'd have ordered my own rather than sharing with my friend! A flaw with this though was bits of something, I presume to make the food a little fancier which I just didn't like the taste of, these were in other parts of my meal too which meant I was picking them out while eating: I do also feel the skins on the potatoes could have been crispier,
I also decided to opt for one spiced lamb chop, again it had great flavours but it wouldn't have been my first choice of meat. I would have preferred pork. I'm not a huge fan of Indian food so only a few dishes as a whole appealed to me, but I was pretty happy with what I had.
The chai also was great, I tried the plain and chocolate chai, the latter was my favourite. I don't tend to order hot drinks but still, the flavours and spices were there and they were rather good.
More importantly, the chicken tikka which was the dish I found to be undercooked and oddly tasting back in Manchester was actually good here, it was probably my least favourite dish due to them using thigh pieces and I do much prefer breast in general, but still, it doesn't mean it was bad by any means.
For dessert, I ordered a coconut milk Indian rice pudding dish, I found this to be really sweet and I don't think the cashew nuts went very well with the rest of the dish, it was probably the only item I ordered which I'd rate below a 3/5, which surely says something about the quality of the other dishes which in most cases, Dishoom should be proud.
I would like to see more gluten-free chicken breast dishes and perhaps an iced version of the chai, my friend comments her naan bread was the best she has ever had, I wish they did a gluten-free version of that too, but still, I was impressed with the gluten-free preparations regardless and I'm sure if it was possible, they would offer it.
Being Indian tapas, it can work out a little expensive as you do have to order multiple dishes and I do feel they try to make dishes a little too fancy at times but the majority of my food tasted really good, and the service, decor, vibes, overall feel were all exceptional especially how the staff never wanted to make me ill - I loved that. Dishoom - Kings Cross certainly warrants a strong four-star rating. read more