Things Kavi Thakrar Has Said on Podcasts

“I think matcha just generally as an ingredient is on too many menus. And the other thing that I'm seeing is caviar bumps. Like caviar on everything is an upsell. Like, here's a chicken nugget, let me put caviar on it.” — Kavi Thakrar, The Go To Food Podcast

Thakrar's answer to a quickfire question on what's on too many menus right now. He calls caviar bumps a trick to push up average spend, and a moment later adds: "Here's a chicken nugget for three quid. Here's 30 quid of caviar."

The Go To Food Podcast · 2026-10-29 Permalink → Listen →

The Go To Food Podcast Around 58:36 into the episode

Kavi Thakrar

…and foremost, right? If people don't feel comfortable or happy here, you've got to go. It's just not acceptable. What's on too many menus? Too many menus today. I've got two answers to that. That's two answers. So I think matcha as an ingredient is just, I don't need a matcha croissant. No, no,

Ben Benton

no. I don't. But you'll get one. Yeah,

Kavi Thakrar

exactly. So I think matcha just generally is an ingredient is on too many menus. And the other thing that I'm seeing is, I don't know what you caviar bumps. Like caviar and everything is an upsell. Like, here's a chicken nugget, let me put caviar on it. Yeah, like behaviour. Okay, like, so those for me, and that's a trend that's becoming. I think it's a way to get a little bit more. You want to get your

Ben Benton

average spend up? Yeah,

Kavi Thakrar

but a couple of caviar bumps. Yeah, it's mental. Here's a chicken nugget for three quid. Here's 30 quid of caviar.

Ben Benton

It's lazy.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

“We may be the most blogged about restaurant, I think, in history because we opened in 2010. And I think 15 months later, blogging was dead because Instagram was invented. And so we invited all of the bloggers in London in, and they all very generously said lovely things about us. And then they all died because they probably all started Instagram pages.” — Kavi Thakrar, The Go To Food Podcast

Thakrar remembering Dishoom's launch, when the restaurant invited London's food bloggers in early. He says the goal hasn't changed since: give people a brilliant time and, if they loved it, get them to tell others.

The Go To Food Podcast · 2026-10-29 Permalink → Listen →

The Go To Food Podcast Around 51:01 into the episode

Kavi Thakrar

…and the dish. So he's right and not make an Instagram. It's a spectacle. And so for me, I see lots of people doing stuff just for the theatre of it. And is it making the dish more tasty? Is it making the experience more tasty? Or am I just looking at my cell phone, not my friends? You want to

Ben Benton

facilitate the human theater of the world? We've been going quite early on, more than anyone, in sort of 2010 to getting bloggers in and stuff like that. We may

Kavi Thakrar

be the most blogged about restaurant, I think, in history because we opened in 2010. And I think 15 months later, blogging was dead because Instagram was invented. And so we invited all of the bloggers in London in, and they all very generously loved the lovely things about us. And then they all died because they probably all started Instagram pages. So yeah, I think it was really important. We wanted people to experience what we did and if they liked it, right about it. And that's what we want all of the time, whether it's you with word of mouth or a podcast or quite frankly, Instagram. We want people to have a brilliant time. And B, if they loved it, tell people about it. Like, that's it. Like, that's what hospitality is. It

Ben Benton

must be incredible because the amount of people we spend on this podcast who go, like, we want to take that Dishum model with our national dishes.

Kavi Thakrar

Yeah.

Ben Benton

You must see that the whole time. They go, like, you know, I can't remember who speaking to you recently. I think maybe Maimai and Mayme in Baron Market, she was going, I want to take my food and offer it in that kind of style. Yeah. Which must be just an incredible compliment.

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

“Deepen, don't dilute. And that's really important because if you're just going to grow for the sake of growth and chase money or dollars or sites, then you're losing the connection with your team and your guests. … If you wake up every morning thinking your job is hospitality and making it better, and that growth is fundamentally the enemy of hospitality, and you're trying to reconcile those two, then you can grow at a pace that allows you to deepen what you're doing.” — Kavi Thakrar, The Go To Food Podcast

The Dishoom co-founder was asked how hard it is to turn down the expansion offers that come with a famous restaurant brand. He frames growth and hospitality as in tension, and says the pace of new openings has to serve the second.

The Go To Food Podcast · 2026-10-29 Permalink → Listen →

The Go To Food Podcast Around 08:13 into the episode

Kavi Thakrar

…easier than if you have a bigger restaurant or two restaurants or three restaurants. And I think that as a team, we're very focused on making sure that we know that hospitality is our job and not growth. And we kind of have promised ourselves we will only grow if we think we can deepen hospitality.

Ben Benton

Nice.

Kavi Thakrar

And we call that deepening, not diluting. So, deepen, don't dilute. And that's really important because if you're just going to grow for the sake of growth and chase money or dollars or sites, then that's you're losing the connection with your team and your guests. And that's not what we're in the business of doing. So, saying no, of course, in theory is hard. But if you wake up every morning thinking your job is hospitality and making it better, and that growth is fundamentally the enemy of hospitality, and you're trying to reconcile those two, then you can grow at a pace that allows you to deepen what you're doing.

Ben Benton

Yeah, yeah. How do you, what are the criteria then? Like, for instance, opening here, boroughs become the hospital, like, you know, like Freddie said, a center of hospitality in London. Do you then look at that and go, like, we want to be a part of that? Borough needs a Dashum? Like, what are the…

Kavi Thakrar

Yeah, that's a great question. I think that, so for us, I mean, you know, where we have Dashums, and we have a few in London now. And for us, it's where people want to spend time. Yeah, yeah. We're all pretty central in terms of where our restaurants are, but it's where people live close to or can…

Ben Benton

yeah. For your soft launch, you had over a three-hour queue last week, which is quite incredible. It's a mad. People are

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

Things Kavi Says on Podcasts

Where to Find Them

What They Said

Collections They Appear In