A tough crowd showed up at The Bombay Club to dine at one of Providence’s top rated Indian restaurants; a Chicagoan, an Englishman and a Brazilian.
The restaurant is right off the main drag of the Italian restaurant dominated Federal Hill area. Inside, the surroundings are simple and adequate, but I was particularly annoyed by the sound of some kind of giant motor or compressor going off every few minutes next to the dining room, which made carrying a civil table conversation somewhat of a challenge, even in a mostly empty restaurant.
The service was curt, and thankfully made no mistakes. The food was somewhere between fair and good, and nothing was bad but nothing was really great either. Like I said, it was a tough crowd!
The meat (spiced lamb) and vegetable Samosas were OK, but lacked the spice heat that I seek when eating Indian food, and the exterior of the meat Samosa was unappetizingly dark. The vegetable Samosa was by far the superior of the two, but I’ve had many better elsewhere.
I ordered the Tandoor Se Chicken Tikka, while my English counterpart ordered the chicken Tikka Masala, and while they are basically similar dishes, one is more of a stewed or simmered version, while the other is more of a barbequed version being prepared in a Tandoor clay oven, both came with the same yogurt based sauce. The Tandoori oven when operated with skill, can yield a fantastic crispy seared chicken with a succulent juicy middle, but when done by a novice, well you get the dish I was served; dry lifeless and one step away from being jerky. The chicken Tikka Masala however was tender, succulent and delicious, easily the best plate on our table. The Brazilian got a saucy lamb meatball dish that I never quite caught the name of, to me it was just OK, but he seemed to really enjoy it.
For breads we ordered the Onion Nan & Keema Nan (Nan stuffed with medium spiced minced lamb), both were good, oddly, when I asked for some melted butter to dip my Nan in, I was handed a plate with an un-melted stick of butter!
Overall, middle of the road, good but not great. I’d go back for the chicken Tikka Masala, it really stood out as the best dish here, and I would recommend against getting any of the Tandoor meats.
Taste: 6
Experience: 6
Value: 6
Score: 6
No comments:
Post a Comment