Dick On Food: Foray to Bombay
By Eddie Dick
Staff Writer

Most Pomona College students are familiar with Bombay Bistro as the restaurant guilty of planting flyers under the windshield wipers of nearly every car on the 5C. But in addition to their ambitious advertising program, they also boast a establishment that manages to provide solid Indian food with friendly service in a rather pleasant, if quirky, atmosphere.

The menu offers an extensive list of entrees and combinations, and the best deal in terms of value and selection is the buffet. In addition to a wide variety of meat and vegetable dishes, the buffet offers a number of items to get your meal started right. While the salad consists of rather ordinary lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and yogurt, the deep-fried items are another matter. The samosas (fried potato dumplings) are crispy on the outside with a wonderfully soft and spicy filling. The deep fried onion pieces, known as onion bazhi, are also a treat, but eating too many of them is liable to ruin your appetite.

While the starters on the buffet are good, they are nothing compared to the main entrees. Particularly delicious are the vegetables cooked in a spicy tomato cream sauce. The wonderfully creamy sauce works perfectly on a bed of rice or the all-you-can-eat garlic naan. Another vegetable dish that is worthy of high praise is the palak paneer. This dish, with its well seasoned spinach and large chunks of mild cheese, is one of my favorite Indian dishes, and Bombay Bistro provides an excellent interpretation of this classic. The one disappointment in the vegetable department were the lentils that came in a rather soupy sauce that ran all over my plate, polluting other more enticing items.

There are also a number of meat dishes to choose from on the lunch buffet. The tandoori chicken is nicely prepared and some of the most tender, moist chicken I have ever encountered on a buffet line. Unfortunately, I found the chicken to be rather bland, lacking in the level of flavor that I expect from an Indian dish. Another disappointing meat entrée included in the buffet was the lamb. In addition to being fatty, its flavor was somewhat bitter and unappetizing. The chicken curry, on the other hand, was an excellent dish. The curry flavor was not overpowering, and it offered a reasonable amount of spiciness, though I could always use more. The one problem that I encountered with the chicken curry was the thin consistency of the accompanying sauce. I would have loved to smother the rice or naan in the zesty curry sauce but was unable to get any to stay put long enough to make the trip into my mouth.

For dessert, the lunch buffet offers rice pudding. While the flavor of the pudding was okay, the consistency was soupy and the floating rice particles were rather undercooked. Rather than getting dessert, I suggest simply taking another trip through the main entrée part of the buffet line.

The Bombay Bistro experience is decidedly quirky as a result of its interior appointments. Not content with being a simple restaurant, the Bombay Bistro goes the extra mile by employing an amalgamation of interior elements, such as a prominently displayed and well-stocked bar, a shiny new dance floor (complete with colored lights), and a multitude of television sets, which play Indian music videos. While it is certainly an odd mix, the Bombay Bistro seems to pull it off without it seeming too awkward.

Keep in mind that the buffet changes daily, so return trips can sometimes lead to pleasant surprises or mild disappointments, depending on the day of the week. The buffet only runs Tuesday through Friday, so those of you interested in a Monday lunch spot will have to look else where.