Dishoom King's Cross

We take daytime reservations for groups of any size and a limited number of evening reservations are available for larger parties. Walk-ins are always very welcome.

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.