One of London’s Preeminent Gujarati Restaurants Shuts Down in Dalston

Gujarati Rasoi has closed in Dalston after six and a half years on Bradbury Street, near Dalston Kingsland station. One of London’s preeminent Gujarati restaurants, and the subject of an admiring review from Marina O’Loughlin in the Guardian in 2013, its stalls at Borough Market and Broadway Market will continue to trade. The restaurant is family-run, by Urvesh Parvais and his mother, Lalita Patel.

Writing on the restaurant’s website, they said:

After six and a half years of running our dear little restaurant we have decided to move onto new projects pastures. Once the dust has settled from the closing we will share with you what we are up too… [sic]

We would like to thank all of our lovely customers who have encouraged us along the way and have eaten at our table, we will miss sharing our food with you!

However, do not despair we are still at Broadway and Borough market so you can still enjoy our food.

A western Indian state, Gujarat’s culinary history and cuisine is largely vegetarian, owing to intertwined political and religious majorities promoting the diet. It is not, however, an entirely vegetarian region as commonly assumed in the West, with many communities eating meat — particularly lamb — chicken, and fish — its coastline providing plentiful seafood. Parvais and Patel chose their food — vegetarian, and frequently vegan — based on “Recipes, methods and techniques, the culture of eating and cooking seasonally, reducing waste, buying locally [...] kept alive and intact by my family across three continents and generations.”

Gujarati Rasoi’s Instagram last posted on 6 February, with no announcement posted there as yet, and the decision to close looks to be sudden. Eater has contacted the owners for comment.