Bombay House

Address: 2731 E Parley's Way, Salt Lake City UT, 84109. 801.581.0222.

Review: I have a confession: I love Indian food. I love it almost as much as I love Italian food. In fact, when I enjoy a little Indian, it sort of feels like I'm cheating on Italy. Oh well, a little cheating never hurt anyone, right?

Seriously though, both cuisines are as delicious as they are divergent. Italian food is the ultimate rags to riches story. At its heart, it's a pauper food, based on severe poverty, simplicity, and quality of ingredients. Only relatively recently has it been elevated to a rich man's food. Indian food (in a broad sense), a pauper food in its own right, is based more on complexity of spicing, heat, and extracting maximum flavor from lower quality cuts of meat. Indian food's strong vegetarian strain also sets it apart from other cuisines. Anyway, does the Bombay House do Indian food justice and make me feel okay about my cheating ways? Hell yes.

I've been going to the Bombay House since a friend recommended it at BYU during our ungrad days. The place had me at chicken coconut kurma. Since that first time, oh so many years ago, the Bombay House has extracted untold amounts of money from my wallet. And the quality has only increased over the years. It is one of the better restaurants I have ever frequented. Tonight's dining experience was no different.

We started with the saag shorba (a soup of cream, spinach, tomatoes, and spices).

Sure doesn't look like much, but add a little lemon wedge and this stuff is money. The spinach and the cream make it substantial. The spices make it complex and flavorful. The tomato and lemon cut through the fat of the cream and make the soup refreshing. Goodness, I'm salivating just lookin' at it.

We then moved on to the main event: bhuna gosht. (At least, I think it's called bhuna gosht. It's a new dish, so I might be off base with the name. In any case, it's a lamb dish cooked with potatoes, tomatoes, onions, ginger, and various spices.)

Here's a picture of the entire spread.

Top right hand corner is the rice, and mango chutney populates the right bottom right. The lamb dish was had a good acidic quality on the tongue, which played well against the inherent fattiness of the lamb. The potatoes were really well cooked: mostly soft, but with just enough texture left to make them interesting. This, coupled with a little mango chutney, made my mouth happy.

And let's not forget the naan.

Light, carbonized in the right way, not doughy. Good stuff.

While we only had water tonight, the mango lassi is very good, as are the desserts. The kheer is a rice pudding with cardamom, cashews, and golden raisins. If you like cardamom (and why wouldn't you?), you'll dig kheer.

A note on price: the Bombay House ain't cheap. The saag shorba is $3.50. The entrees range from $12 to $15. A full dinner for two will run you about $35 to $40. But who gives a rip? Buck up and pay the cash. You'll be better for it.

Rating: 9/10 (5/10 is average)