Dishoom is opening its first ‘Permit Room’ restaurant in London

It’s hard not to like Dishoom. The Indian restaurant chain is known for its indulgent, creamy black daal, addictive ‘chicken ruby’ curry, and legendary breakfasts, where you can get a naan stuffed with bacon and a fried egg. 

The chain already has seven locations across London, and it’s just announced a brand new opening. Dishoom has revealed it will open a new ‘all day bar-café’, called the Permit Room, in Notting Hill this spring.  

The Indian joint has applied applied for an alcohol licence and planning permission at 186 Portobello Road, with the licence requesting to be from 8am to 11pm. 

The new spot is going to be a bit more casual than its other restaurants, focussing more on cocktails and sharing plates than sit-down meals. Cocktails on offer will include a ‘mango lassi punch’ and ‘kiwi colada shimmy’. For food, they will have small plates as well as crowd-pleasers like half chicken tandooris and chef’s lamb curry. 

Dishoom already has Permit Rooms in Brighton, Cambridge and Oxford, but this will be the first to open in the capital. Dishoom describes its sister brand as ‘a salute to Bombay’s permit rooms, beer bars and drinking holes’ – bars that opened in the Indian capital in the 1970s after prohibition was lifted.

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