Nestled in The Lanes you’ll find Dishoom Permit Room, an all-day bar-café which brings a taste of Bombay to Brighton.

Dishoom Permit Room kindly invited us down to experience the autumn vibes at their restaurant in The Lanes and Marta & I gratefully accepted. We were warmly welcomed and shown to a lovely spot in the window, which I can recommend if you like people-watching as you can either watch the passers-by in The Lanes or nose at what the other diners have ordered. I also like the fact that while the venue is quite large, it doesn’t feel imposing as there are plenty of cosy corners and nooks. In fact, it wasn’t until I needed to use the facilities that I realised just how busy the restaurant was, which was impressive given it was just an ordinary Wednesday night.

While we were pondering what to order the waitress recommend a couple of snacks to get us started and so we ordered Carrot & Chilli Sharp Bites and Peanut Masala. Marta is clearly made of tougher stuff than I am as I have to confess the sharp bites were a tad too sharp for my liking. To be fair the menu does warn you that they can have an “...instant face-lifting effect.” On the other hand, the Peanut Masala was delicious, I don’t think I’ll ever look at a bowl of roasted peanuts in the same way again. The chilli was still there but it was complemented by a healthy squeeze of lime & coriander, so it was flavoursome rather than hot.

This experiment with the snacks was useful though as it meant I knew to check the spice levels of the dishes before ordering more food. However, before I move on to the main meal, I need to mention the drinks. As an UnBarred fan I was tempted to order their Pineapple & Pepper Crumble collaboration beer, but I’d had that before and already knew that was delicious, so I resisted the urge. Instead, I turned to the cocktail menu as I knew Permit Room had won Best Cocktails at the BRAVOs, which is no mean feat, so I had to see how they did it. The menu is impressive and after much deliberation I chose the Blushing Dawn Paloma and Marta had the decadent-looking Permit Room Clover Club. The description for the Paloma ends with “Smoky but no coughing” and that is spot-on as while it was smoky, thanks again to the lime, it was a smooth smokiness. The Clover Club was scrummy but being a little sweeter may have been more suitable as an after-dinner beverage.

But back to the food, and again there is plenty of choice and so while there were a couple of dishes, we were keen to get we then decided to ask our lovely waitress for some advice. In the end we went with: Crispy Spinach Chaat, Chicken Pick-Me-Ups, Lamb Samosas, Chilli Broccoli Salad, Dishoom Black Daal, Charred Sweet Potato, Garlic Naan & Steamed Basmati Rice. That was for the two of us but looking back that may have been a little excessive! It’s just everything sounded so delicious it was difficult to say no. I was glad I made the point to ask for advice on which dishes were the hotter ones though as this time I was more than happy to eat it all, there were no spicy surprises.

I would happily order any of those dishes again so I won’t take you through all of them as that would take a while but I will just quickly mention a couple of them. First of all, the lamb samosas were gorgeous, I think I’ve only had vegetable or chicken tikka ones before but these were better than any I’d had previously. I can imagine ordering these if I’ve been blown into the restaurant on a chilly night – a warming reviver. Also thank you to our waitress as I probably would have overlooked the Spinach Chaat, but this was one of my favourite dishes, crispy, light and zesty – who knew spinach could be so delicious? Apart from Popeye that is! While it is perhaps the least picturesque of the dishes, I did also love the Black Daal, this definitely gave me autumn vibes as it tasted like an Indian stew and would be a revitalising treat after a blustery walk along the promenade.   

While we certainly didn’t need anything else after all those scrumptious dishes, we decided to share a Gulab Jamun to go with our Chai Caffè Martinis. The drink was a yummy twist on the classic Espresso Martini and even comes with its own snack as there is a slice of banana on the top. The Gulab Jamun is a dumpling soaked in rum, if I hadn’t been so full of daal, I’d have devoured it as the sample I had was lovely and went well with the pistachio.

If you’re feeling the chill this autumn then I can recommend Dishoom Permit Room for a warming treat and best of all you can go there for breakfast, lunch or dinner. And no matter what time you go you’ll find a drink from their award-winning cocktail menu to accompany it. 

Charlotte

^{All photographs in this post were taken by the reviewer.}

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