Located in a basement on Wardour Street, it would be easy to walk past Dum Biryani House without even realising. A sign set up outside invites you to come down and try their wares and we would encourage you to do the same!
Founded by Dhruv Mittal, DUM Biryani House offers a selection of smaller dishes alongside biryani (of course!) and also a couple of specials and curries. The biryanis are big enough to share so we would recommend getting a few of the smaller dishes to start with first. We had three small dishes and one biryani between two and were completely stuffed! There’s a good selection of meat and vegetarian plates so this is a great place to come with any veggie friends as everything is equally as good!
We had the Andhra Prawn Fry (king prawns cooked with red chilli and coconut) Kala Channa Fry (black chickpea curry and paratha) and Nizami Chicken Lollipops (in a hot and sour Schezwuan peppercorn sauce). The chicken lollipops were deliciously spicy – if you like chilli, definitely try these! Our favourite though was definitely the Andhra Prawn Fry, the prawns are big juicy fellas, covered in a creamy coconut sauce that still had a good kick of heat.
The biryani on offer here originates in Hyderabad and ‘Dum’ refers to the cooking method. The meat or vegetables are layered with rice, covered with a puff pastry top and then steamed to cook. We’ve never had biryani cooked like this before and it makes for a lighter take on the biryanis we are used to. Three fillings are on offer – lamb shank, chicken and seasonal vegetables – and each is served with beetroot raita, mirchi salan (padron pepper in a peanut and sesame seed curry), house ancharr (pickle) and papads. We had the chicken and there were plenty of chunks hiding under the mound of rice. The flavour of the biryani is good enough that you could eat it alone, but it’s really nice to get the extras so you can mix and match the flavours and adjust the level of spice you want.
If you still have room after all of that, there are two desserts on offer, a pistachio kulfi with mango coulis and gulab jamun (sugar soaked milk doughnut) with cardamom and honey yoghurt. The gulab jamun is saved from being too sweet with the tart yoghurt but the pistachio kulfi was our favourite. A light pistachio ice cream, it was a great palate cleanser to end the meal.
For more information and to book, visit: dumlondon.com/
