Bombay Cuisine

Ahhh, the smell of India. This place takes me back to my formative years. During my early childhood, my parents taught HSL (Hindi as a second language) to American kids at a small private school in Mumbai.

Actuaily, I've never been to India. But I'll say this, if the food in India is as good as the food at Bombay Cuisine, I might need to visit. Soon.

Nestled in Grand Rapids' Eastown neighborhood, Bombay Cuisine is truly one of my favorite restaurants in the area.

You see, Grand Rapids has long been pretty bland when it comes to restaurant choices. If you need a good steak, this is the town for you. If you want something else, things are turning around and getting better, but the town is still trying to un-do 150+ years of striving to be more middle-America than Omaha.

Let's put it this way: there are 10 times as many Famous T.G.I. O'Chillibee's Roadhouse type restaurants as there are restaurants even resembling local fare. Además, even a majority of locally owned Grand Rapids originals are of the "__________ Steakhouse and Grille!" variety leaving me with few choices when I'm searching for something other than sliced fried chicken on a bed of field greens with soy-sauce dressing.

Seriously, how many ways can you prepare an Asian Chicken Salad? The fact that every national chain has one, and they all taste roughly the same, leaves my stomach in knots of anger.

So it was, with great pleasure, we sat down over a year ago to try out Bombay Cuisine. It's good. Not the best Indian food I've ever had (Saffron in Kalamazoo takes that honor) and it's not the cheapest meal (walk to Yesterdog for that). It is however, tasty, affordable, quaint, original, locally owned, and situated in a great part of town.

So what'd I eat this time? Lunch. We've had dinner there before and the food is basically the same stuff. Lunchtime however brings out the buffet. Now, if you're like me and you already know Butter Chicken is actually a divine gift, you don't really need a buffet. But, I took advantage of the opportunity to go goldfish on Butter Chicken while simultaneously enjoying some great Saag, yellow-curry with veggies (forget the name) and their fine desserts (custard pudding with red grapes and supurb rice pudding).

Another consideration with regard to Bombay Cuisine is their extensive selection of veggie-friendly dishes. We have friends that don't eat meat and Bombay Cuisine is the kind of place where they can enjoy some great cauliflower-based mild yellow curries while I'm busy giving myself early onset diabetes by chowing down multiple plates of Tandoori.

Oh yeah, did I mention the Tandoori? They do it better than even Saffron in Kalamazoo (and that's saying something). It's incredibly tender, perfectly spiced, and not overcooked. Don't leave without trying it. It pairs nicely with Bell's Oberon which they thoughtfully provide on tap (along with 7 other beers...none of which end in "weiser").

...and therein lies the problem. If you follow the advice I've just layed out, you'll be eating custard pudding, rice pudding, tandoori chicken, veggie curry and 7 or 8 plates of the incomprable Butter Chicken. I'm thinking dinner might total 15,000 calories. That leaves you with 2 options. First, you could call an ambulance ahead of time. It's not a bad idea, but Megan had a much better idea last time we ate Indian: SHARE.

Go with a group. Order some of everything. Share it all. Go home happy.