London has fallen in love with street food in these times of economic austerity. The buzz around street food has boosted Indian street food, which was relatively unknown to a vast majority of Londoners, to the front of the race.

The interest in Indian street food has been helped by the fact that it is nothing like the stodgy and ubiquitous curries like chicken tikka masala, which most Londoners are familiar with. Young first-time restaurant owners, with real passion for Indian food, have made Londoners sit up and notice the amazing variety and tastes of India.
Dishoom, a smart version of mumbai’s Irani cafes; Roti Chai, a stylish version of the roadside dhaba; and Mooli’s, a restaurant serving Indian rolls, have impressed jaded Londoners with their version of Indian street food. Dishoom’s Shamil Thakrar says, “Britain’s relationship with Indian food has been a long and strong one, but it’s riddled with clichés. Traditions of food in India are much bigger and more exciting. We thought there is potential to revive this relationship, make it more relevant to the present time but get rid of the clichés. We wanted to present a vibrant take on food in India and we came upon this idea of Irani cafes. It’s so sad they are disappearing, especially as they are a lovely bit of heritage.”
British-born Rohit Chugh, who runs Roti Chai, wanted to give Britons a taste of Indian hospitality. “The depth of Indian hospitality always comes from offering food: Whenever we went to India, the amount of food we would have to eat in a day was incredible. We would have invitations from six different families every day in India and they would all come up with these six course feasts they would spread in front of us. I wanted to replicate that experience here in the UK,” says Rohit. “We can never create that excitement of standing on a street in Delhi or Mumbai eating as thousands of people charge past you with fumes, noise and everything. We have tried to bring the soul of that food over here,” he adds.
The trend of street food will be a long-lasting one, believe Rohit and Shamil. “Street food appeals in multiple ways — it is authentic, and not expensive,” says Shamil. “While I think curry houses are great, it is a tradition that needs to be refreshed. Indian street food does that.”
The popularity of these street food restaurants is huge with food critics giving them rave reviews. “I had a diner come and tell me that the machher jhol he had was just as good as what his mom cooks. That was the best compliment,” says Rohit.

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Dishoom

Started in 2010 in Covent Garden, close to Leicester Square, by Shamil Thakrar, along with brothers Adarsh and Amar Radia, who are his distant relatives and friends. His cousin Kavi Thakrar joined the team later.
Highlights on the menu are masala chai, brun muska, masala omelette, chilli cheese toast, pav bhaji, vada pav, and berry biryani.
Shamil, whose family is originally from Gujarat, was born in East Africa and has an MBA degree. He was in consulting before starting Dishoom, and they are now looking at expanding by launching another branch. They did a hugely successful pop-up restaurant in South Bank last summer, which they named Dishoom Chowpatty Beach.
The idea was “what if an old Bombay Cafe were to take a gentle stroll down to Chowpatty Beach in about 1965 and has an acid trip?” he says, adding it was a lot of work just for five months.
They will continue with the Bombay Café concept in their new restaurants. Dishoom has a humorous take on festivals, like the introduction of Velan-times Day instead of Valentine’s Day, tracing the origin of the “festival of love” to medieval Gujarat with the symbol being the rolling pin, or velan or belan.
“The humour comes because of necessity essentially, we are intrinsically serious about what we do and our food. That amount of seriousness can get very heavy, so we use humour to lighten up a bit,” says Shamil, who wants “to make desi cool.”

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Roti chai

Launched in late 2011 at Portman Mews, just a walk away from Oxford Street, by British-born Rohit Chugh, with roots in Amritsar, Punjab.
Highlights are street food like bhel puri, papri chaat, dhokla, railway meat curry, chicken lollipop, bun tikki, and idli sambhar. “I studied law at university and joined Price Water House Coopers as an accountant, did my MBA from London Business School and joined Goldman Sachs on the trading floor. I liked my jobs, but the passion was not there,” says Rohit, explaining his decision to quit his job to work towards opening his own restaurant.
He made the decision to launch his own restaurant in 2009 after working for five years with chef Vivek Singh in Cinnamon Kitchen. “It took me nearly two-and-a-half years to get Roti Chai off the ground after I left Cinnamon Kitchen in 2009. The process had a lot of highs and lows, a rollercoaster ride.”
One thing the street food enthusiast was sure about was that his restaurant would focus on street food. “I have always wanted to do the street food concept for my own restaurant: I think it’s soul food, it’s comfort food, it’s much more than food,” says Rohit, who is a huge fan of papri chaat, one of the bestsellers on his menu.

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Mooli’s

Launched in 2009 at Firth Street in Soho, London, by friends Mathew Chandy and Sameer Singh. The menu focuses on roti wraps, with diverse fillings like goat, chicken, chana masala, paneer and aloo.
Mathew and Sam, who graduated as lawyers from the National Law School in Bengaluru, met again in London where Sam, a Rhodes Scholar, had a consulting job with the Boston Consulting Group and Mathew was an in-house lawyer at UBS, the banking and financial services giant. The concept was originally Sam’s, who travelled in India to get the best recipes. He quit his job in 2008 and paid for his expenses by playing poker. Mathew joined him a year later and they launched Mooli’s. Their chef is Raju Rawat, who had worked in Benaras and Bombay Bicycle Club. There are plans to open new branches across London.