Dishoom Permit Room Cambridge — Restaurant in Cambridge

Worst restaurant experience in Cambridge. Please don't believe the hype! Arrived on time for our 7:15pm table and was made to wait. The lobby was full of waiting tables and we were told the restaurant was booked out (on a Tuesday). We were taken to our microscopic table crammed in amongst the hoardes and found that we couldn't hear ourselves think due to the roar of conversation. There was nowhere to hide my coat or bag due to the small size of the table, so I put my (luckily small) bag on my lap and hung my coat over the chair. I then proceeded to be repeatedly buffeted by serving staff every few minutes as they squeezed between me and another diner. My coat was knocked to the floor twice. No one apologised. We asked for water and my friend's cup was half filled. She asked for refill and received half again. On the third occasion (the waitress seemed a little annoyed by now), my dinner companion asked for a full glass and finally received a reasonable amount of water. Of course there was no room for a carafe to be left on our mini table. We asked for the cranberries to be removed from the biryani, but apparently this is not possible unless you have an allergy (they didn't specify whether we would have to prove anaphylaxis). "But it's fine" said the waitress "Because they are just sprinkled on top, so you can pick them off". They were indeed sprinkled on top and we have no idea why the kitchen staff could not have witheld this ingredient. The biryani was dry with no sauce that is provided by most indian restaurants. The naan was very greasy.

Luckily the service was prompt and after an hour of the most unpleasant experience we were allowed to leave, but not before we struggled to have the discretionary service charge (12.5%) removed.

Over priced, dry and expensive (£17.50) biryani in the most unpleasant atmosphere. Please avoid.

On a positive note, the service was prompt and the large sparkling water was delicious.

We will not...

Reviews all say that the 24-hour-cooked black daal is astonishing, and generally also recommend the ruby chicken.

Neither of these is on the breakfast menu, so I had egg-and-bacon naan roll with masala beans.

I was underwhelmed by the lack of seasoning (I had to ask for salt to be brought to the table to give the beans more taste), and the naan wasn't anything like as nice as the paratha served at Tawa Lounge in Histon.

My companion fared better with the full Permit-Room breakfast, which I'd rejected as too pedestrian, although he also spoke to the waiting staff about whether he could have ordered it with spicier scrambled eggs. Apparently free-standing green chillis can be requested, but they weren't offered.

The coffee was served in glass mugs, which is an authentic nod to the 1950s-1970s Bombay vibe, but this makes the drinks smaller than one would expect when paying £4.20 for a cappuccino in central Cambridge.

The staff were attentive and friendly, although the younger ones tended to do that weird, unattractive Gen Z lack-of-confidence thing of addressing customers as "guys": "hello guys, how are you doing?", "can I get you guys any more water?". What's the point of pretending that the restaurant is a 1970s Bombay establishment if the staff don't make more of an effort to call customers "sir" and "madam", with authentic subservience?

Everything was great and good quality, and the locale is uncrowded at breakfast time, with many comfortable niches, yet it didn't quite come together in the fantastic experience I was hoping for. PR's PR and marketing had really raised my expectations and perhaps I was unreasonably imagining some kind of technicolour...

This was an unfortunate start to our stay in Cambridge. We had a terrible experience across service, food and atmosphere. First of all the service: we were kept waiting on uncomfortable stools (small, slippery seats) in the waiting area with clear visibility on several empty tables. (That's when we should have left.) Finally, after a good half hour, we were finally seated at exactly those tables. The person greeting and seating us was rude and inattentive. Food: portions were small (samosas were really "mini samosas") and the sauce was cloying. Broccoli was undercooked. As others have pointed out, the chai was terrible, but when we complained and the waiter suggested they replace it, the item it was replaced with was simply added to the bill. Then the atmosphere: I had read that Dishoom presents itself as the place where you want to hang out all day. For us, that could not be further from the truth. Apart from the fact that it's not nice to be in a place with mostly rude, stressed-out waiters (in their defense, it seems that they were understaffed, which is another strike against the Dishoom concept), the music was insistent and much too loud. Finally, the "optional" service charge is not communicated when you pay the bill, so it's not really optional. But I guess that's US practices coming to the UK. What's surprising is that the portions were small enough and the prices high enough that I'd have thought Dishoom could have paid its (thinly spread) staff a proper living wage. Cost per person: £35 GBP / person for 2 mini samosas, a main and a...