Note 1: Previously we’ve looked at the city’s oldest restaurants, the first Chinese restaurants, the first Italian restaurants and the first pizzerias.
Note 2: Michael Kennedy’s excellent article ‘Indian restaurants in Dublin since 1908’ published in History Ireland in January 2010 was an invaluable resource.
The Indian Restaurant and Tea Rooms (1908-09?)
The first Indian restaurant was opened in Dublin in August 1908 by chef Karim Khan at 20 Upper Sackville Street (O’Connell Street) and offered “real Indian curries” served by “native waiters in costume. The Indian Restaurant and Tea Rooms which seemed to have only lasted a few months, predated by three years the first 20th-century restaurant of its kind to open in London, the Salut e Hind.
Dublin’s first Indian restaurant. The Irish Times, 17 August 1908.
The Indian Restaurant (1939-1943)
It would be another 31 years until Dubliners and the Indian community could sample food like this again in a restaurant. Michael Kennedy points to the Indian Restaurant (later Mahomet’s) opening in late 1939 at 50 Lower Baggot Street. It is safe to say that this must be the restaurant referred to below in An Irishman’s Diary in September 1939.
Reference to an Indian restaurant being opened in Dublin. The Irish Times, 02 September 1939.
A year later, the same column, offered a fascinating (but brief) insight into the shape of ethnic restaurants (i.e. Indian) in Dublin at the time. The writer wrote that he had seen “several white students from Trinity” dining while he was there.
The Irish Times, 17 August 1940.
Here are two contemporary press advertisements for the restaurant:
Ad from Rathmines & Rathgar Musical Society programme (1942)
Evening Herald, 13 November 1943
The Indian Restaurant on Lower Baggot Street closed its doors in 1944.
The Bombay (early 1940s)
There was an Indian restaurant in the early 1940s called the Bombay on Castle Street, Bray, County Wicklow owned by Rask Dhas. A young man was fined £10 for hitting Dhas in the head with a bottle in 1941.
Bombay Restaurant, Bray. The Irish Times – 3 May 1941.
The Golden Orient (1956-1984)
The next big milestone in the Indian restaurant timeline was opening of the Golden Orient at 27 Lower Leeson Street in 1956 by Mohammed ‘Mike’ Butt, a Kenyan of Kashmiri descent and his Dublin-born wife Terry, a Cathal Brugha Street College of Catering graduate. It served generations of journalists, students and Indians until 1984. (A biography of the pioneering Butt can be read here)
Mike Butt pictured outside the Golden Orient. The Irish Times, 21 March 1986.
Dublin’s only Indian restaurant in 1961, The Golden Orient. The Belfast Telegraph, 25 Jan. 1961
The Taj Mahal (1957-1959)
There was a short-lived Indian restaurant called the Taj Mahal, 31 Lower Lower Street, which opened in 1957 and closed in 1959 after a fire. Its owner Ram Saran Das was charged with arson but found not guilty in the Central Criminal Court.
Robert Smith on Facebook remembers an Indian takeaway which lasted for a few months in 1959/60 on South Richmond Street. Does anyone have any more details?
The New Delhi (1961-?)
The New Delhi at 76 Lower Camden Street was opened in July 1961 by MM Miah, a 24-year-old medical student at a London university, and Jimmy James, a former chef at the Golden Orient. They were assisted by Jimmy’s wife Kathleen from Co. Meath.
The Gold Room (1964-64)
In February 1964, an “exclusive” Indian restaurant The Gold Room opened at 10 Chatham Street but only seems to have lasted a few months.
The Taj Mahal (1966- mid 1990s)
In 1966, the Taj Mahal restaurant was opened by Mohinder Singh Gill (aka Mark Gill) at the corner of 17 Lincoln Place and Clare Street. Originally from the Jalandhar district in the Punjab, Gill came to Ireland after spending a couple of years in Britain. In business until the mid-1990s, the Taj Mahal became one of Dublin’s longest-lived Indian restaurants.
The Taj Mahal (Lincoln Place side) in 1979. Credit – Dublin City Photographic Collection
While the Irish Sikh and Hindu community now numbers a few thousand, many of the first were brought over by Gill to work in the Taj Mahal in the early 1970s. A total of 10 families, some Hindu and some Sikh but all from the same Jalandhar region, moved to Ireland in 1972 to work as chefs in Gill’s Taj Mahal and another restaurant of his in Cork.
In the late 1980s, the restaurant gained fame through Larry Gogan’s ‘Just a minute’ quiz on RTE Radio 2. When asked “Where’s the Taj Mahal?”, a contestant replied, “opposite the Dental Hospital”.
The Taj Mahal (Clare Street side) in 1979. Credit – Dublin City Photographic Collection
The Taj Mahal was taken over by Sikander Khan, a retired major in the Pakistani army, in 1987. It closed its doors in the mid-1990s. Khan’s son Nasir opened the Royal Tandoori on South King Street in 1991 and in 1997 moved out to Donnybrook where he established Khan’s Balti House which is still popular today.
Advertisement for New Delhi restaurant, 3 November 1969
Thom’s Directory for 1973 shows nine Indian restaurants in Dublin including:
- The Bombay, 5 South Richmond Street. Open by 1969. The owner was Chad Ramoutar, described in the 1960s as Fianna Fáil’s only non-Irish member. Now Aussie BBQ.
- The Calcutta, 43 Lower Camden Street. Open by 1966. Owned by Patrick Sherkle. Now Pickle Indian restaurant
- New Delhi, 76 Lower Camden Street. Open by 1961. Empty.
- Punjab One, 109 St Stephen’s Green.
- Punjab Three, 6 Upper Clanbrassil Street. Now Clanbrassil House.
- The Tandoori Rooms, attached to the Golden Orient, 27 Lower Leeson Street. Closed 1985. Now House bar/restaurant.
- The Taj Mahal, 17 Lincoln Place. Opened in 1966. Demolished.
Punjab One Indian Take Away. St. Stephen’s Green, 1972. Dublin City Photographic Collection
Journalist Cliodhna O’Donoghue estimated in the Sunday Tribune (26 March 1987) that there were 14 Indian restaurants in Dublin City in 1987.
As Michael Kennedy has written:
By the late-1980s Irish tastes in food had become more adventurous. Foreign travel, emigration, the rising popularity of vegetarianism, increased disposable income, urbanisation and reasonably priced ethnic restaurants all explained the development.
The opening of Saagar (Harcourt Street, 1995-2016) and Jaipur (South Great George’s Street, 1998-2015) was seen as the new dawn of top-end, Indian restaurants in the city.
Dubliners love of Indian food and curries has continued to grow and we now have an abundant supply of top-class restaurants, takeaways and late-night eateries.
Here is a quick historical timeline:
1. The Indian Restaurant and Tea Rooms, 20 O’Connell St – 1908-08?
2. The Indian Restaurant, 50 Lower Baggot St, 1939-1944
3. The Bombay, Castle Street, Bray, County Wicklow – early 1940s
4. The Golden Orient, 27 Lower Leeson St – 1956-1984
5. The Taj Mahal, 31 Lower Lower St – 1957-1959
6. The New Delhi, 76 Lower Camden St – 1961-?
7. The Gold Room, 10 Chatham St – 1964-64
8. The Taj Mahal, 17 Lincoln Place – 1966- mid 1990s
9. The Calcutta, 43 Lower Camden St – 1966-?
Readers – What was your first experience of eating Indian food in Dublin? Where do you rate in the city today?
Click on the book for more.
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Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
This is brilliant!
Great read! I have been actually trying to find an Indian restaurant to do a Yelp event at for a while now – if I do, I’d love to invite you along if you’re free?
Cheers!
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*Emily Cunnane*
Yelp Community Manager – Dublin
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Interesting article, I think my 1st experience was the Taj mahal where the curries were graded 1 (mild) to 5 (Very hot). I remember we opted for a 4 and it was hot. Apart from that I remember nothing about the place. Indian food is in the main dissappointing, mainly consisting of various dishes from a stockpot. Some place even provide frozen starters from packets. The Shakira in Dun Laoghaire is good, best naan breads in the city and the Chicken balti is exceptional. Every dish is prepared by hand. Tony used to work in the Jaipur in town but has managed the Shakira for the last 15 years. His brother also has a restaurant in Tallaght
Without doubt, Kinara in Clontarf/Ranelagh/Malahide is the best Indian in the city and presumably, the country, although Chakra in Greystones and Ananda in Dundrum both deserve honourable mentions.
Brilliant article…
Visited the Taj several times in the early eighties but
only for the after hours over priced wine, sometimes
served in teapots in case the peelers came in.
Did you know that there was an ultra hot curry on the Taj Mahal menu named after Micheál Ó Doibhilin. The naming was a tribute to Micheál for how hot a curry he could eat.
So according to me, the only authentic Indian restaurants in Dublin should sell Idli, Masala Dosa and Moongi Dhall…. and Madina on Mary st. is where to go.. I noticed a new restaurant on Marlboro st. and also Deli O Deli on Moore st.. At last the real deal has arrived in Ireland. perhaps this is due to that small population of Indian people living here not just catering for a western palate..
The article is great. Its curious that all Indian food here and popular dishes in England are a hybrid of actual Indian food: you would never see dishes like Korma, Tikka Masala or Jalfrezi in India, these dishes became popular in England around the 1950’s and 1960’s.. I wonder what was on the menu back in 1908, was it authentic or hybrid?! The Irish Times feature in 1940 certainly implies that the food was authentic,, super little snapshot of the 40’s in that article.
Thanks guys
Medina closed down sadly over covid. Absolutely superb lunches on many lunch breaks from work were had. Naan and Dosas were awesome. They did versions of their main curries where they left the bones in the meat, which made for an even more flavoursome dish.
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I well remember the New Delhi in Camden Street in the 1960s where the wine was served in teapots and poured into cups after a certain time as police raids regarding licensing laws were fairly frequent. Currently I think that the Meghna Tandoori in Terenure and the Jewel in the Crown, Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge are consistently good for indian food.
I worked in the kitchens of the Golden Orient around 1976 … Downstairs was called the Tandoori Rooms … Same food from the same kitchen but the menu was more expensive … Joseph was the Resident chef from Pakistan and they had this wonderful pakora flour from Kenya … mmmmmmm …..
[…] Note 1: Previously we’ve looked at the city’s oldest restaurants, the first Chinese restaurants, the first Italian restaurants, the first pizzerias and the first Indian restaurants. […]
My mother worked at the Taj
[…] https://comeheretome.com/2013/05/16/some-notes-on-the-history-of-indian-restaurants-in-dublin/ […]
My very first curry was at Calcutta on Camden Street, owned by family friend, Paddy Shirkle and his wife, Rose. This was back in the middle 1970’s. Paddy and his wife would come to our home for visits. We used to share a table many times with Con Houghlihan, an Irish Sports writer and Mick Jaegar held the door for my father on the way out of the restaurant one night which was upstairs in the building. I wish I could get some of these recipes from Paddy but since moving to New York, we have lost touch. He had the best curry I have EVER had!
Looking to get in touch with sheila macdonnel new York as regards the calcutta restaurant camden Street
Brings back memories. Not a truer word has been spoken about the wonderous gentile man that he was. The good was memorable. It would be hard to find any Indian food as succulent and delicous as what Mike Butt and his chef’s proudced in the 70s and 80s.
Unfortunately to my knowledge Paddy and his Wife Rose passed away some years ago. I know some of Rose’s family. Her brother Michael and I know each other since we were kids. Sadly the last time I spoke to him he told me they had both died. At the time I was asking him about the recipe for the curries they did in the restaurant. I, like you visited the Calcutta many times and enjoyed every visit. They used to make up a white cabbage and onion salsa in vinegar to accompany the curry. Lovely stuff.
Two lovely people, a real gent and a lady, RIP.
Is there any specific reason why an even older restaraunt and still popular today Indian restaurant the jewel in the crown was not mentioned?
What year was the restaurant opened?
“….predated by three years the first 21st century restaurant of its kind to open in London,….”
Should be “20th century”, shouldn’t it?
yes, of course! thanks for the spot. have edited.
This was extremely interesting and a fantastic read. I was trying to find out what was the first Indian restaurant in Ireland and I was pleasantly surprised.
Tony Allen used to do a radio ad on ARD back in the late 70s, for an Indian Restaurant called the Koh-I-Noor. The jingle used to go ‘put a little spice, in your dining tonight’. Can’t remember the address mentioned.
Not sure but… Was it the Taj Mahal, Lincoln Place – RENAMED?