Dishoom has confirmed Edinburgh as the next UK city for the group's expansion, with a site in the Leith waterfront area understood to be in advanced lease negotiations. The group is expected to sign within the next eight weeks, with an opening target of early 2027.
The confirmation, delivered by co-founder Shamil Thakrar at an industry event in London, ends years of sustained speculation about when Dishoom would extend into Scotland. Edinburgh has been among the most frequently requested cities in the group's social media communications for several years, and the question of a Scottish site has come up consistently in every interview the founders have given about expansion plans.
"It was always Edinburgh," Thakrar said. "The city has the history, the appetite, the kind of guests who will understand what we're trying to do. We needed to wait until we found the right building — that took time."
The Leith Location
Leith's waterfront has undergone significant commercial and hospitality development over the past decade, establishing itself as one of Edinburgh's primary restaurant neighbourhoods alongside the Old Town and the New Town's George Street corridor. The area's combination of a local residential population, tourist draw and creative industry footprint gives it the mixed guest base that Dishoom's model has always depended on.
Details of the specific site have not been confirmed. The building is understood to have significant heritage character — consistent with Dishoom's established practice of occupying spaces with architectural history that can be woven into the restaurant's storytelling. Previous Dishoom sites have occupied a former hydraulic pumping station in King's Cross, a Victorian printing works in Edinburgh Road and a 1950s warehouse in Manchester's Spinningfields.
Dishoom's UK Footprint
The Edinburgh site will be Dishoom's ninth UK restaurant, adding to locations in London (Covent Garden, Shoreditch, King's Cross, Kensington, Canary Wharf and Carnaby), Manchester and Birmingham. The group's expansion rate — one to two new sites per year — has been deliberately measured, with each opening preceded by an extended development period focused on finding the right building and adapting the restaurant's signature narrative to its specific location.
That approach has produced a consistency of quality and character across the group that is unusual for a restaurant brand at this stage of expansion. Every Dishoom site operates its own variation of the Irani café mythology the founders developed for the original Covent Garden opening in 2010, adapted to the history of its building and city.
For Edinburgh — a city with a deep connection to both colonial history and South Asian migration — there is considerable creative material for the team to work with. What Dishoom does with it will be closely watched.
Reservations and further details are expected to be announced by the group closer to the opening date.