Since the loss of Deitrich’s and the short-lived Le Beaujolais at the Douglass Loop, the lack of a good French bistro in this town has been a major whining point for foodies. Sure, we have the awesome Le Relais, but it’s a fancy, upscale restaurant, hardly a bistro by any standard.
So what is a bistro? It’s hard to define simply in English, but let’s call it the Parisian model of a friendly, family-owned neighborhood restaurant that offers a simple bill of fare and tasty libations at wallet-friendly prices, with no pomp or circumstance. Continue reading La Coop brings bistro to town→
Bombay isn’t Bombay anymore, it’s Mumbai. And as India takes its native names back, Madras is Chennai, and Calcutta goes by Kolkata. But “Mumbai Grill” just doesn’t have the same curb appeal as Bombay Grill, somehow.
Goat Chettinad at Bombay Grill. PHOTO: Ron Jasin.Still, even if you say “Mumbai” and I say “Bombay,” let’s not call the whole thing off. Recent visits to Bombay Grill have me persuaded that it’s leading the growing local pack of Indian restaurants in a hotly competitive food fight right now. The food seems authentic, an assumption that’s substantiated by the regular presence of crowds of happy Indian-American diners.
More important, the Indian food here is consistently delicious, served in bright, clean and comfortable suburban shopping center environs, and service has been invariably friendly, quick and smiling. We’ve got a half-dozen Indian eateries around town, and a couple have stuck for close to 15 years. It’s a good thing, and if you still haven’t really embraced Indian food, perhaps it’s time to give it a try.
If you don’t have much experience with Indian cuisine, we’ll excuse you if you think it’s nothing more than bowls of fiery-hot curry, rice and maybe a big bottle of Indian beer. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, mind you; but it’s worth knowing that Indian food is actually as diverse and interesting as India itself, and that’s saying a lot.
From its southern tip in the tropics to its northern heights that reach to the top of the Himalayas, India incorporates fields and farms, jungles and deserts, plains and great river valleys, some of the world’s tallest mountains, and nearly 5,000 miles of ocean coastline that provide a wealth of seafood.
With 1.2 billion people in a country about as large as all of Europe, India is the world’s second most populous country (after China), and is wildly diverse in religion, culture and custom. What that means to us is that some Indians shun beef but eat pork; some reject pork but dine happily on cow; and quite a few avoid eating animals at all, turning this preference into some of the world’s most interesting vegetarian fare.
Bombay Grill earns my applause for opening its menu to the full range of Indian regional cuisines, offering samples of all those flavors from just about every corner of the subcontinent. You can sample a broad selection on the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet ($7.99 weekdays, $9.99 Saturdays and Sundays).
The menu, though, offers a much wider range of treats than you’ll find even on its expansive buffet line, offering more than 100 options divided partly by primary ingredient (lamb, chicken, seafood, goat and vegetarian), partly by cooking style (tandoori oven, biryani rice dishes) and partly by region (dosai and uthappam from South India). It’s all affordable, the menu topping out at $12.99 for seafood courses, $10.99-$11.99 for most meat and seafood entrees, and $8.99-$9.99 for nearly two dozen vegetarian dishes.
We put the system to a stress test recently with a sizable group of 11 for dinner, a crowd that proved to be dwarfed by an even larger anniversary party. No worries — service and the kitchen handled the load well.
We passed around all manner of dishes, and really had no complaints about quality or preparation on anything. Even with a bountiful meal, our large group joined the clean-plate club.
We began by sharing four or five appetizers, including medhu vada ($3.99), which look like Nord’s finest but are actually dense and savory “fried donuts” made with lentil flour; samosa turnovers ($3.99), or spicy mashed potatoes and peas wrapped in fried pastry cones the shape of oversize Hershey Kisses; a South Indian masala dosai ($5.99), or a giant crepe rolled around spiced potatoes; and a veggie appetizer plate ($8.99), featuring four chutneys, pakoras (onion fritters), a snow-white iddly (rice bread), hot green chiles peeking out of a fried wrap, spiced fried potato wedges, another medhu vada and a samosa, and something called a “vegetable cutlet.”
Main courses passed around the table included such traditional goodies as chicken tikka masala ($10.99), tender chicken bites in an orange-pink, mildly spicy tomato and butter sauce; chicken tandoori ($10.99), bright red and sizzling from the clay oven with sliced onions; and lamb saag ($11.99), chunks of lamb in a savory spinach-and-cream sauce.
Goat chettinad ($11.99) consisted of flavorful but mild goat meat on the bone, (unfortunately more bone than meat) in a South Indian toasted-spice sauce. My favorite, malai kofta ($9.99), featured six bite-size veggie “meatballs” made of finely minced veggies fried in crisp, breaded spheres, then dunked into a delicious and complex sauce of tomatoes, finely ground cashews and fiery spice.
An average share for dinner would have been about $30 per couple; we picked up the appetizers and a big Indian beer and still got out for $66.15 plus tip.
Bombay Grill
216 N. Hurstbourne Pkwy.
425-8892 bombaygrillky.com
Rating: 90
The buzzing gallery and nightspot zone along East Market Street that the PR-meisters wish we would call “NuLu” has become so crowded lately that, as Yogi said, nobody goes there anymore. Of course, this is not true. In fact, thousands of people joyously cram the nabe in pursuit of art and good things to eat and drink, and doubly so on weekend evenings. Continue reading Beating the crowds with a weekday lunch at Rye→
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, my father came home one day and announced, “Kids, we’re going to Chicago this weekend, and we’re going to a new kind of restaurant. It has the most amazing salads on a giant buffet, and you can walk right up and take whatever you want.”
Catching up with a bunch of items that have piled up in my critic’s notebook, let’s take a quick trip around the world on a dinner plate, stopping off at a trio of worthy spots for tastes of the Mediterranean, Korea and a Philadelphia treat — a surprisingly fetching “cheeze” “steak” that’s fully vegan.
The blue and white logo on the western side of Decca’s 136-year-old building in NuLu may be painted to look weathered and old, but this popular spot is actually one of the hottest new tickets in its rapidly gentrifying neighborhood.
But it would be a mistake to think of Decca as merely another NuLu hipster hangout. Consider it instead an icon-in-the-making, book-ending the eastern end of the downtown strip as Proof on Main holds down the west. Continue reading Decca is an icon in the making→
It’s getting harder and harder to be a food snob around this town. Years ago, it was easy to complain about all the good things we couldn’t get to eat here. Real Mexican? Ethnic Chinese? Sushi? Thai? Back in the bad old days, Louisvillians who liked to complain about what they couldn’t have were in a target-rich environment.
Nowadays, thankfully, the sounds of whining have ceased, as our city’s lovably evolving restaurant scene has filled in most of the gaps. Sure, there’s still arguably a dearth of spots to enjoy authentic Greek, real kosher-style deli food or some finely nuanced variations on Tex-Mex. Nor have the raw-food or dining in the dark movements made inroads here, but that’s perhaps just as well.
The long-running jeremiads about Louisville’s lack of New York City-style pizza seem to have abated with the arrival of Papalino’s and Coals Artisan Pizza; and Roots has effectively silenced the quality-vegetarian complaints. Now, by and large, whiners are reduced to niche markets. Why can’t we have a Tibetan vegan momo bar, or a place to get Navajo fry bread?
Even if you don’t have much experience with Korean food, you’ll find it easy to like, especially if you try it at an eatery as amiable as Charim.
For the most part, Korean dishes won’t seem unfamiliar to anyone who enjoys the varied cuisines of Asia. Some of its dishes seem to bear a resemblance to familiar Chinese fare; other items might remind you of Japan. Overall, there’s a robust, hearty and often spicy character that’s all Korean. Continue reading A taste of Korea at Charim→
“Volare, oh oh … Cantare, oh oh oh oh … Let’s fly way up to the clouds …” With Dean Martin’s classic rendition of the pop Italian ballad firmly planted in our ears, let’s talk about Volare and how it fits into the pantheon of Louisville’s top Italian tables.
It’s all connected, after all, and goes back to the 1970s, when, for a century or more, “Italian” food had meant the hearty, tomato-sauced American-immigrant fare that families brought through Ellis Island from Calabria and Sicily, Italy’s poverty-ridden deep south. Continue reading Volare continues the upscale Italian tradition→
“I went to Oriental House for lunch the other day, and we had a really good Chinese meal that didn’t cost us an arm and a leg.” This statement would have been perfectly grammatical, and factual, in 1960, and it still is. Continue reading Top-notch Chinese a tradition at Oriental House→
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