Dishoom King's Cross

The Naan Roll Is the Argument

3.5 of 5

Skip the breakfast you were planning. Dishoom King's Cross opens at eight on weekdays and nine on weekends, and the whole morning menu is built around one smart idea: Bombay cafe food, translated for a London appetite. Marble, ceiling fans, a room that feels like it has been there for a hundred years. It has not. The cooking still holds up.

The bacon and egg naan roll is the famous one, and it earns it. Soft bread, salty bacon, a kick of chilli tomato. But the akuri deserves your attention too, soft spiced scrambled eggs piled onto buns. Kejriwal puts fried eggs on chilli cheese toast and makes no apology. If you want a proper plate, the Big Bombay takes the full fry-up and gives it a trip abroad. Prices sit around twelve to eighteen pounds.

Breakfast is served until 11:45, so there is no need to rush, but the line is shorter early. Go with someone who will share. Order a chai, watch the staff move through a packed room without looking flustered, and remember that this is a chain doing what chains almost never manage, which is staying honest. The portions are sized for people who mean it. Order the roll, order the eggs, split both, and you will have eaten a better breakfast than most hotels sell for twice the price.

Order this: Bacon and egg naan roll, Akuri, the spiced scrambled eggs, with buns, Kejriwal, fried eggs on chilli cheese toast, Chole puri halwa, if you are hungry for real
The damage: $$
Go: Weekday mornings, before the queue forms
Find it: 5 Stable Street, London N1C 4AB