Wednesday 9th August
Dishoom Chowpatty beach pop-up, South Bank, London


Spent a great day on the South Bank with my very good friend and her two extremely lovely little daughters.  It was lovely and sunny so after spending some time playing in the beach that they've created there we headed up to the pop-up Dishoom Indian snack restaurant.

The decor here is great, loads of colourful palettes of wood on the outside and the inside is all wooden slats and there is a section of the wall made up of rolled up newspapers.  The menu is on blackboards behind the bar and it's half drinks and half food.  For the drinks you can order any of these as either 'naughty' or virgin.  We both went virgin as it was early in the day.  My friend got a fresh coconut which the barman drilled into.  It was nice and fresh and reminded me of being in India many moons ago with this particular friend where we used to drink these (sometimes with I think rum? in it).  My god daughter (see pic below) loved the coconut.  I ordered a orange and ginger shaved ice drink which came poured on an ice lolly (wooden spoon instead of a stick), but I found this too thick and think would have been far better if it had been 'naughty' as the alcohol would have cut through the sweetness.

Walking in

The food menu
(hope it's readable0

a view from the bar

My god daughter enjoying the coconut juice

My orange & ginger shaved ice drink

 So onto the food.  Half of it as veggie.  There were rolls/wraps but we went for the snacks.  We shared a Pav Bhaji, a vada, samosa and naan.  The naan was lovely, thin, but great flavour and texture from the tandoori oven.  The Pav Bhaji was really spicy, but I was disappointed in it.  Years ago, my sister lived with a Gujarati girl who used to make the most amazing pav bhaji, with cauliflower, carrots and peas.  This was lightly crushed, loaded with butter and a masala that was heavy on cinnamon.  Delicious and traditionally served with buttered rolls.  The one we had today was also served with the buttered rolls but the texture was too smooth, it was more like a sauce and the spicing was overly reliant on chili.  It was enjoyable though and we left none behind.

Pav Bhaji in a cup

The vada was lovely, I thought.  It did however come in a bread bap, which was a bit weird I thought as you couldn't taste enough of the vada.  But it was well spiced and very tasty.  My friend thought it a bit too spicy, but I liked it.

The vada in a bap!

the naan - rally tasty

 We got the samosas for the kids but ended up eating them ourselves (greedy) as they were too spicy for them.  These were really nice, crisp and well spiced with well cooked pieces of potato, carrots and peas inside which weren't soft or soggy.  Mmmmmm!

the tasty samosas

Buttered bread to mop up the pav
bhaji

Coconut juice

enjoying naan in the sun

 There's loads going on on the South Bank at the moment.  There's a anniversary festival for 60th years of the festival of Britain on at the moments, so loads of bars, rooftop gardens and beach huts along the way.  Whilst walking off, we saw this band and I noticed these two guys dancing.  Really funny.  I'd seen them at Brixton Splash on Sunday.  Brilliant, must be in their 60's, full on quiff wigs and bell bottoms shaking their thangs on the dance floor.  Apparently they can be found dancing at all the free festivals so look out for them!!

the groovy dancers at the Bulmer's bar

View from outside tables

http://www.dishoom.com/southbank-pop-up/