Bombay Café (Los Angeles, CA)

Rating:

When I told Don that I was headed to LA for Thanksgiving, he gave a list of his favorite food stops. A couple of them are very close to Helene’s place in Westwood, including Bombay Café.

Bombay Café is a nouveau Indian restaurant (it’s to Indian as El Camino is to Mexican). But they did stock the classic Indian brews, including a large Taj Mahal for my brother-in-law:

There were far too many good looking dishes on the menu to choose from, but since there were four of us we managed a reasonable initial sampling. We opted for one familiar dish that the entire Lavoie family enjoys: Saag Paneer. Bombay Café makes their paneer in-house, and it is notably fresh. The spinach was piping hot, a little sweet, and satisfied my spinach craving. That being said, it wasn’t overly distinctive and could have used a bit more spice.

 

 

The highlight of the meal for me was the Chicken Frankie. Frankies are supposedly a popular Indian street food (we haven’t made it to the sub-continent yet, so will have to wait for personal verification).  I can say that the one at Bombay Café was awesome — a dark masala sauce wrapped in a chapati “burrito” form.

I had never heard of white poppy seeds, and so couldn’t pass up the Goan Shrimp Curry (served in a puree of white poppy seeds, coconut and cilantro). It was Helene’s favorite of the pack, and my second favorite after the Frankie. If you like coconut, shrimp, and Indian food then you should definitely get the Goan.

 

We were deciding on one of the two eggplant dishes, and asked our server who recommended the Eggplant Deva (Japanese eggplant layered with fennel-laced tomato sauce and garlic-ginger infused yogurt). She said it was her favorite dish on the menu. It was good, but next time I’ll try the Baingan Bharta, as I just couldn’t shake the fact that it tasted very much like a pizza with an eggplant crust.

 

Overall a very enjoyable experience — good food, good beer, good family fun 🙂

 

Bombay Café
12021 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90025
(310) 473-3388

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