From interiors to Indian cuisine, the founders of furniture retailer, Dwell make their debut into the London restaurant sector with the launch of Zumbura.
Running a successful interiors brand and then opening a restaurant is not the usual career path. But newly opened, Clapham-based restaurant, Zumbura has proved it can work.
Aamir Ahmad, Sean Galligan and David Garrett, co-founders of contemporary, British home and interiors brand Dwell have done just that. Inspired by Ahmad’s life-long ambition to open a restaurant and his childhood memories of eating authentic Indian cuisine, Zumbura brings tasty, south Asian dishes to South-West London.
The kitchen is headed up by Head Chef Raju Rawat, who brings together fresh, aromatic and healthy ingredients and creates them into family meal-inspired dishes intended to be shared.
It’s this casual attitude, as well as the team’s impeccable interiors taste, that gives Zumbura a warm and welcoming, yet vibrant and fresh mood. A beautiful hand-carved wooden bench runs the length of the restaurant serving up zesty and aromatic cocktails, whilst the rest of the room is industrial inspired from metal bar stools to exposed lightbulb lamps suspended overhead. It’s a striking balance and one that was most likely dreamt up on the foundations of Dwell.
We visited the restaurant on a Friday night not long after it had newly opened and even then, was bustling with what looked like regulars and locals. Situated in Clapham Old Town, it’s neatly tucked away from the Friday night hoards of Clapham’s twenty-somethings.
As is the current trend in the capital, here all the dishes are intended to be shared, so we ordered a good proportion of the menu to try.
The kullia is perhaps the restaurant’s signature dish – an aromatic lamb and turnip stew, slow cooked to fall delicately onto your fork and packed full of smoky flavour. The machli ka salan, soft, white fish packed full of strong mustard seed and fenugreek flavours counteracted the heartiness of the lamb stew perfectly.
The menu boasts a wealth of great vegetarian dishes too – ideal if you’re on the hunt for a good restaurant for non-meat eaters. Try the potato curry and karela lentil dish are must-tries, and minus the meat are priced below £5 making Zumbura one of the most exciteing ‘cheap eats’ to come out of London in a long time.
We rounded dinner off with kulfi rose ice-cream, out of pure intrigue over anything. It came presented as a sort of grown up Mini Milk, and instead of milky, sickly sweet strawberry flavour, it was trimmed with delicate, fresh rose petals. Pretty and palette cleansing, it’s just the kind of sweet-toothed treat you want after a helping of curry dishes.
With a host of Indian restaurants popping up on the ‘small plates’ scene, Zumbura offers something authentic and well priced. Perhaps bypass the big players this summer and head down to Clapham Old Town.
Zumbura, 36a Old Town, Clapham, London SW4 0LB
Tel. 020 7720 7902
Staying in and cooking at home? Be inspired by our roundup of the best curry recipes.