Bombay Grill - West Hollywood

I love Westernized Indian food, although my scope of experience trying different places in this fair city is very limited. Truth be told, the only other place I’ve gone to thus far is Gate of India on Sunset and they have their share of up’s and downs, but I’ll leave that for another review. Where was I, oh yes, Bombay Grill. Pro’s: 1. Lovely, family-run shop where the fam (Mom and apparent chef, dad who reads the papers and son taking phone orders in the back room) They will eye you out and find a thread to start chatting about- I like that from time to time. If it scares you, I guess it’s a con, but you can’t hate people for being pleasant and genuinely friendly. 2. Simple menu. 3. This place is the real McCoy, complete with Tandoori oven and other tools of the trade- real spices included in that summation. Con’s: 1. Decor seems themed on post-apocalypse. Please excuse the hyperbole, it just is tattered, old and like so many mom-n-pops, in serious need of a face-lift. Really. Carpe Diem, nice Indian family. The time is now! 2. No White Meat Chicken!? Not having a white meat option, even as an up charge, is a big no no. 3. I think this may have been related to the son being preoccupied, but at the time I wasn’t able to coax a vegetarian preparation of the dish I’d ordered, in lieu of not being able to do white meat. Incidentally, the dish I ordered is my favorite Indian dish, Chicken Makhani or Butter Chicken. It’s a buttery, softened relative of Chicken Tikka and when it’s good, you’ll be reeling! When it’s not, well, you’ll wish you’d gotten something else entirely. Anyway, back to my haphazard review… 4. Prices. I’m not one to moan about prices, but the tab for what ended up being Chick Peas in Makhani sauce, a samosa, some rice and bread came to around $20. Not a lot of money, but didn’t seem like a lot of food for the money. Maybe I should think Euro portions and the problem will fix itself. Anyway, to get into the actual food, ordered 2 types of Naan, out of 4 or 5 variants they had. Onion Naan was regular Naan with some chopped onions strewn over it and mashed in there at the last second (I watched them being made and packaged, so that’s how I know) and the regular Naan was freshly prepared, warm and nice, although it should have been crispier and my feeling is that it’s probably never crispier than what I got. The Chick Pea Makhani, I dish I ended up with as a late contingency dish, was mediocre. The spices were all in there (Garam Masala, Cardamom, Fenugreek, Cumin, et al), but it wasn’t there and was a trifle too sweet. Don’t get me wrong, I love sweetness and often add sugar or honey to whatever I eat, but this was just a little too heavily sweetened for my liking. There were plenty of Chick Peas, so no complaints there. Rice was good- can’t really screw up Basmati unless you’ve not got your eye on the rice cooker. Samosas were not the genuine, chick pea flour sort, instead they seemed to be made with a differently folded egg-roll wrapper, although the inside was good, with mashed curried-potato and a few green peas on the inside- nice! All in all, not a bad place and I’m sure some of their other stuff must be stellar because there are fairly modern, newspaper and culinary magazine reviews pasted on the store front that sing praises for Bombay Grill. They’re quick and friendly and everything is REALLY made to order from almost scratch. Don’t believe me, order while you’re there and watch through the little opening on the kitchen wall! I wouldn’t eat there, opting to take it out and have it at home as the setting is not conducive to the whetting of one’s appetite. If you’re writing war novel set in India, that’s another story, but otherwise take it To Go. Good eating, folks! RG