Bombay Spice

I guess I wasn’t ready for non-​fat Indian food. In addition, the name is a misnomer — don’t be fooled. It should really be called «healthy, Indian inspired American food-​stuffs» as it does not really resemble actual Indian food. Shame on you Bombay Spice, you are not spicy — at all. And while I was initially amused by the novelty of non-​spicy samosas, i wasn’t laughing for long.
I’m not aware of any variation of Chicken Tikka Masala that does not involve yogurt. What you served was actually «Chicken cubes in tomato sauce in a little tiny bowl for $ 6.50 — sans spice.» It’s true, I am not an expert on Northern Indian food and there may well be a plain tomato version, but this was bland and boring all the same. And that «whole wheat chapati» taste exactly like whole wheat tortilla, and is about as interesting.
This review isn’t all bad. The service was fantastic, prompt and courteous. Our waiter Seth was very professional and had our drinks out quick and refilled through the meal. He even checked back on us at all the appropriate times. The interior was clean and well designed. Jetta R. was impressed with her Masala iced tea.
I suppose I’ll be grateful for Bombay Spice the next time I’m on a diet and I’m jonesing for Indian. Chicken Makhani is murder on my midsection.

The one thing I’ve retained from working in an office setting, aside from a vomit-​inducing disdain for motivational posters, is a comprehensive fluency of the convoluted doublespeak that is corporate managerial lingo.
One of my favorite managerial concepts, «The Compliment Sandwich», is a critiquing tool wherein you give someone a compliment, followed by a brutally honest criticism, and then book-​ended with another juicy compliment. It is a review tactic most often used on people who can’t take criticism well. Or businesses with unreasonably unwarranted senses of accomplishment (i.e. this place).
I will now demonstrate the compliment sandwich in reviewing Bombay Spice.
And unlike their single serving entrees, this sandwich will have a lot of meat in it.
Enjoy my club sandwich of snark, bitches!
COMPLIMENT – The service is helpful, friendly, and borderline obsessive. When our waiter accidentally got some chicken tikka masala on his finger and smudged my plate with it, he immediately replaced it with a fresh, clean one.
CRITICISM – Said service, while helpful and attentive, is completely full of shit. While sitting us and handing out menus, our waiter explained the «concept» of Bombay Spice; health-​conscious Indian food that does not sacrifice flavor, etc.
Lies. All lies. There is more authenticity in a can of Chef Boyardee beef ravioli than in the entire menu. Chicken tikka masala without yogurt?
Gee, why don’t you just sprinkle some parmesan cheese on it?
And healthy? Only because it’s so expensive that it prevents you from overeating. For 6.50 you can get a single serving entrée that wouldn’t feed a four year old. Or for 3.50 a piece you can have a samosa that fits in the palm of your hand and has all the spiciness of a bowl of cheerios.
At Bombay Spice you can spend 22.00 and still need to hit up a drive-​thru on the way home.
BS defies the laws of physics by sucking and blowing at the same time.
COMPLIMENT – The masala iced tea is delicious, doubly so when made into an Arnold Palmer.
And there you have it, your own compliment sandwich made especially for you, served with a side of YOU EFFIN’ BITE.

Have to say that I don’t understand the hype about this establishment. I’m sure their hearts are in the right place, but somehow they miss the boat in their execution.
FOOD — Pretty much like the worst, bland health food you’ve ever tasted. I had the spinach and eggplant dishes. I’ve had these dishes at probably a hundred Indian restaurants in my lifetime. I’ve never tasted anything so flavorless in my life. There was a curious lack of spices in each dish despite the name of the restaurant (Bombay SPICE) and the decorative jars of spices adorning the shelves above our booth. The spinach was «dead», overcooked and dry. The eggplant was not diced up enough. There were two massive chunks of eggplant on my plate, literally about two inches long and one inch wide each. One of the chunks and a stringy tail another two inches long. It was like an entire ¼ sliced asian eggplant on my plate, uncut and it was stringy. It also had no flavor to speak of. I couldn’t eat it.
Served with each dish is a whole wheat «chapati» which looked suspiciously like a tortilla. I really missed having nan at this meal and wondered why a tortilla-​like bread was substituted for nan, when the chapati likely contains more fat.
WINE — Sure $ 6 glasses of wine can be seductive, but it’s also a handicap in a restaurant when you don’t offer a range of prices — ultimately really good wines can’t be offered. In order to make their «margin» on the wine profitable, they have to stack their list with wines that are actually worth a lot less than what you’d normally pay $ 6 for elsewhere. The result is a pretty awful wine list. I tasted two different wines and stopped there, opting to have my meal without wine (and gave my glass to a compatriot to finish). One was quite terrible, an Italian red, and the other, barely acceptable, a south African rose. I’ve not ever been in a situation where the wine actually made a mediocre meal bad… before this that is.
I understand the concept. These folks want to provide updated healthy Indian food in a trendy atmosphere at an affordable price. That’s a respectable business model, but the execution left a lot to be desired. I really do wish them the best in their noble pursuit, but cringe at the thought of patronizing Bombay Spice again myself. That’s a pretty unusual response for a vegetarian who grew up on California health food and beach-​front hippie food stands.

This is not what you might expect. Normally I walk into an Indian restaurant planning to pig out on some naan and korma. Upon looking at the menu a feeling of overwhelming disappointment swept over me (partially facilitated by the fact that I was ravenous). The thought «no naan» repeated in my head over and over until the veins stood out on the side of my head. I decided that the nearest Indian food restaurant was too far away, it was too late, I was too hungry. «Make the best of things,» I said to myself.
They give you two dishes with one order! Brilliant.
I ordered some Shrimp Tikka Masala… Phenomenal
My meal also came with the Chicken Curry… Wonderful.
Their menu is very healthy, and vegan and gluten free friendly. Not that I subscribe to either, but hey, good on them.
My one complaint is that there is too much cilantro. Totally unnecessary.

I have been to Bombay Spice twice now and have been happy with my experience both times. At first I was afraid that the food would be bland (yes, despite the name) but they delivered on flavor in a way that surprised me.
I must say, I wouldn’t exactly call this Indian or Pakistani food. It’s some weird American concoction. The word authentic should not come to mind. If I were to bring my parents here, they might enjoy it but wouldn’t think it was anything like we eat at home. That being said…
I would recommend everything that I have tried here: chicken seekh kabobs skewers as appetizers and the chicken tikka masala and chicken keema as entrée dishes. Both times that I’ve been, I’ve asked for them to spice it up and the waiters have suggested adding the sauce that you have to order along with your plate. This doesn’t make total sense to me, as they should be able to add a bit more kick in the kitchen? Either way, the spice may be lacking, but the flavor makes up for it.
Like Dottsy mentioned below, the $ 5 glasses of wine are a solid deal and good way to try out some new wines. I was also hoping for a wine special night, but they have yet to put that into place.
Bombay Spice is good food, albeit not your typical Indian joint.

Normally I would automatically give five stars to a place for giving free dessert, but I owe it to you, the anonymous reader, to say what I really think about Bombay Spice.
As much as I have a love-​hate relationship with Indian food because it is so delicious yet fat-​laden, I’ll take the authentic stuff over this «healthy» quasi-​Indian food any day. That being said, I did enjoy the chickpea ceviche appetizer, which was flavorful and innovative (thanks, Gabi!). Unfortunately, the «chapatti» it was served with tasted like a whole wheat tortilla microwaved for about 10 seconds.
The Twin Hummos plate was a bit disappointing because in addition to being served with the bland tortilla bread, the hummos had a very thin, soupy consistency. I noticed that the portion sizes of these appetizers were quite different: huge plate of chickpea ceviche and small bowls of hummos.
For my main course I went with the two chappati rolls: the chicken tikka masala and the eggplant. Both were alright but the bland tortilla made it hard to find the flavor of what was inside. The rolls were difficult to eat as such because they were about as wide as they were long. I have no idea how they expect people to use the accompanying sauces, because if you try to dip the rolls, everything falls out. I will say that the chicken tikka masala and eggplant themselves weren’t bad. Maybe the bowl would have been a better option than the rolls.
The desserts were interesting and I truly did appreciate that they were provided to us free of charge (this was because Gabi let them know we were from Unilocal). There was mango sorbet, which if you like sorbet wasn’t bad. The warm Carrot Soufflé was pretty tasty and light. The rice pudding was okay. Basically the dessert was free and it was there, so I ate it, but probably wouldn’t choose to order dessert here. Not to sound ungrateful, but some things are just not meant to be healthy!
A few words about the service: the waitress came over and explained the menu about 10 – 15 minutes after we’d all been sitting there studying it and deciding what to order. Nice of her to do that but kinda pointless by then.

I had dinner with Ayesha at Bombay Spice Sunday night. It was a nice evening out so I chose to sit on the patio. I was the first to arrive so I ordered a glass of Rose’. There weren’t many people having dinner, which was kind of a bummer. The establishment was very pretty and well decorated.
After Ayesha arrived I decided to order something from the tapas menu.
I decided on the Seared Scallops. Fresh sea scallops marinated in a yogurt dressing lightly seared on each side. They were very good! Not overcooked, they were sweet, and well seasoned. They came with a couple of skewers of diced vegetables.
Our server turned out to be a very nice gent named Zeff. Zeff was very helpful in suggesting a tasty Zin to go with our dinner. For my meal I chose to go with the plate. I picked out the Chicken Tikka Masala and the Chicken Curry. The Tikka was very good! It was flavorful and I didn’t miss the cream at all! The Curry was good and spicy as well. Not too terribly hot, just full of flavor. My only critisim on the meal is that the white meat chicken was a little dry. Everything else was very good.
The wine list was very nice and highly affordable! A 20 $ bottle of wine in a restaurant is almost unheard of, much less a good bottle!
I was rather surprised that there wasn’t a daily, off-​menu special being offered. I think Bombay Spice would benefit from offering something new and different to stay on the cutting edge of great restaurants. If you offer a predictable menu, people will get bored, and there’s no creativity being shown off.
Zeff did send over his manager so Ayesha and I could suggest him having a wine tasting event. I even gave him a Unilocal card! He was very friendly and explained he was new and he hopes to be bringing some exciting events to that certain Bombay Spice location. I’m looking forward to what he brings!
In summation, Bombay Spice is not a typical Indian restaurant. It’s more of an «Indian Bistro» and more suited for American tastebuds. I plan on going back to try their other dishes. I’m waiting to be wowed!

My friend & I were catching up mostly on juicy gossip from the holiday wknd which was not a good thing, since the place has intimate seating (AKA small/​cozy) and we were flanked by a couple with babies, a huge family, and several other couples all around. On top of that the music was so freakin loud, I couldn’t hear a work related caller on my cell & had to step into the 95 degree heat of the night.
However, I do have to say that I liked the music, recognizing several of the songs from CDs I own. And we both liked the food. Although others said it was ‘bland’ I didn’t think it was entirely void of flavor. The meat was tender and the chicken tasted a little dry but they use white meat, which I am not a fan of. The one thing I was confused about was the cracker lookin thing. Was it a super thin tortilla or giant half chip? Whatever that was, even dipped in the curry/​other sauces, it was horrible.
We’re planning to try tapas next!

Tasteless Indian food. I know this is Phoenix and compared to other cities our Indian food is pretty bland, but this place is just boring. They don’t seem to know how the food’s supposed to be made. I was suspicious of the odd flavor until Inigo’s review confirmed that they do not use butter/​ghee/​etc., instead just a little olive oil. The two curries I tried were decent, but yeah. If I wanted «healthy naan» I would just eat some whole wheat oat bran bread, or something. There are some good health-​oriented restaurants here, and this is definitely not one of them.
But if you do knock back the wine with some friends, as was previously suggested, you may have an alright time. So, be sure to be somewhat drunk here. Then it’ll be quite decent. Extra star for cheap wine.

Holy crap this place got sooooooooooooooooooo much better. Like 5 star good. Or actual 5 star good.
My previous complaints are all pretty much resolved.
*The food found flavor.
*The curry is now spicy.
*The hot sauce is now great hot sauce
*The rice pudding dessert no longer tastes like a wet tire — it is now magically amazing
*The service is now terrific
*They have a cute new gimmick — they give you $ 1 for gas. Seriously — they give each table a $ 1 piece to reinburst you for the gas it took to get there. Gimmicky, but cool.
* YES! YES! YES!
I think I found my new favorite place. YES!

Too bad my girlfriend and I had such a good time here that we both got wasted by the wonderfully cheap wine by the bottle. I’m a little confused by the all over the map reviews here, as we had such a really good meal and great service here.
My girl Jaime and I were motivated from a «one free entrée» mailer I got at home, so we went to check this place. The joint is strip mall sexy in its sleek and hip light green space. We were ultimately excited by the curries, tikka masalas, succulent basmati rice and the wraps on the menu. I’m no connoisseur or anything, but the chicken curries were impressive and the $ 20 bottles and accompanying wine stand were incredibly inspiring if you ask me. A four star try if you ask me and ask our cute server. :)

I completely agree with Matthew K. I also went to Bombay Spice because they ran out of food at the Indian Cultural Festival at the museum and they were one of the vendors there. I don’t know my way around Phoenix so we asked where a close restaurant was.
Someone directed us here warning us that its «fusion» Indian food. I should have known not to go from there. There’s only like 5% success for ANY «Fusion» restaurant. Anywho, the waiter was pushy and tried getting my friend to order a two item combo versus the appetizer. The wrong order was brought out, and when we pointed it out, it was fixed, but that pretty much used up my last straw of patience (I’m grouchy when hungry). The food came fairly quickly, and it was lackluster. I was seriously muted Indian food. I could have made a better chicken curry with a boxed mix.
As far as appearance goes, the bar looks pretty decent, but fluorescent colored bar + clashing fluorescent colored art work is not really my thing. Its advertised as a grill and wine bar. The grilled items were okay, but I definitely wouldn’t recommend this to anyone who wants real Indian food. The selection is somewhat limited, and I’m not going to make a repeat appearance here.

Weak. After hearing about this place on Unilocal and then trying a few items out at the India Festival at the Phoenix Art Museum I really wanted to check this place out.
They call their style «lite» or «fresh» Indian food but I would say «flavorless» and «bland». I was really hungry for Indian food and I still am.
I had a «plate» two item combo with what they say were different types or chicken but I swear I couldn’t see or taste the difference. It came with a huge pile of rice and a tiny tiny tiny cup of riata that was gone after the second bite. Their special bread (shh don’t tell them it’s a tortilla) was flavorless.
I did like the chickpea whatever they had at the India festival. Maybe I just picked the two most flavorless items on the menu I don’t know or maybe all the other reviewers had a few drinks before they ate.
One star for the chickpea item and one star for the nice interior.

I love indian food so when I got an invite to check this place out with a group of picky eaters (my veggie loving friends), I was excited to see if I could find some amazingness here in the valley.
At first glance, the place is very cool. The bar lighting is awesome and the booze is relatively inexpensive so it was already a hit with me. The menu is quite small, which I always think is a good indication that whoevers cookin’ back there has specialized in these few items. A friend and i shared some veggie samosas that were okay, not brilliant. I ordered the cauliflower curry and the spinach and tofu plate. Everything came out crazy fast and was pretty tasty. It was a good amount of food for the price (around $ 8 a plate) and I drank my $ 6 glass of wine (sweet!). I’m giving it four stars because of ambiance and price. Great place for a quick drink/​bite after work.
Food wise, I’m still looking for amazing indian food.

Maybe I am getting more stingy with my ratings.
Realistically I think this was more like a 4-​Minus, or a 3++ rating.
Décor and service were great. Happy, prompt and cheerful.
Appetizer was a Chicken skewer thing that was tasty. Perfectly cooked and decently seasoned.
Dinner was Beef Tikka, Chicken Tikka, Cauliflower and the Spinach and Tofu. Rice on both plates and all the various sauces.
In general, I thought the flavors lacked depth. I think they needed a bit more salt. I actually found a salt shaker in the place and with a bit more salt, many of the flavors really expanded.
Maybe the lack of butter and salt and other wonderful such creations have created a slightly shallow flavor. Maybe I am just spoiled.
Very happy to see cold sake on the menu and a few good beers.
I don’t drink wine, so I missed a real bar.
I hope they richen up the flavors a bit.

Yes, it’s true… I am giving Bombay Spice 5 stars!
I thought about it, and in my eyes, my experience deserves 5 stars.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that everything I ate tasted fresh and it’s all pretty healthy so I have no guilt, but the service was fantastic, the atmosphere very welcoming, the mix of Indian and Jazz music was just the right touch, and I had a wonderful meal. (Being surrounded by very cool Unilocalers didn’t hurt either!)
I’ve had true Indian Food a handful of times in my life… and I’ve enjoyed it each time. However, I could tell that those meals were heavier than what I typically choose to put into my body. A couple of these experiences were also at buffets, so I’m sure part of it is that I overate (as most Americans do when dining at buffets). Enter Bombay Spice — generous serving sizes, lots to choose from including soups, salads, tapas, wraps, bowls, and plates. I ate a lot this past Wednesday night, but I walked away feeling satisfied, not full — and not guilty either!
Thanks again to Kevin (the GM), Jesse (our server), and Karen A (Director of Marketing) for taking such good care of as at the Unilocal UYE. We didn’t expect so many appetizers, and the wines were both delicious and complimented the food just right. I drank several glasses of the «Spellbound» Zinfandel, but I tasted Jared’s «Rodney Strong» Chardonnay as well.
My favorite tapas were the chickpea ceviche and the chicken tikka skewers. I also enjoyed the lentil cakes. Everyone else raved about the lamb chops, but I ended up ordering a bowl for dinner so I saved some room for that… and I’m glad I did! I went with the brown rice bowl with spinach & tofu and also with eggplant. It was served at exactly the right temperature that it was hot, but not hot enough to burn the roof of my mouth… perfect! I loved the texture of the eggplant and the sauces I chose (bombay hot and tamarind) went really well and added a little more flavor.
Although I was full, I had to taste the dessert sampler that was brought to our table… I see that everyone who reviewed before me enjoyed the mango sorbet best. I actually loved the carrot soufflé and the rice pudding — both were the perfect amount of sweetness. I recommend sharing desserts as I was satisfied after a few bites of each.
The community table was great for our group to chat, share food, wine, and lots of laughs. I hope they will have a similar set up at the new location opening in April at Tatum and Shea.
On top of all of this, I just read that «a portion of each guest check will be donated to breast cancer research.» Wow! That alone makes me want to return asap!

This review is specifically for the Unilocal Event that took place tonight at Bombay Spice. Sarabear’s review is so thorough though that there’s not much that I can add. I will say that the property does have a «quick casual» feel, but its somehow softened by the presence of a bar. I didn’t notice if they were serving a full bar, but was nicely surprised by the Spellbound Old Vine Zinfandel that they were serving.
We picked and tasted all of the items that they graciously provided and my friend and I ordered a brown rice bowl with curried vegetables and cumin potatoes. It was good. Not great. Personally, too much rice, not enough of the optional sauces. Its more like an ounce of side sauce, I want more… I tend to think that almost everything can be defined into one of three categories; accessories, condiments and beverages. Think about that one… its true. But I digress. I like my condiments! Give me more sauce!
Then, when I wasn’t really paying much attention, I realized that dessert was being served. I don’t know the names of each, but we had a sampler plate: a savory carrot specialty, rice pudding and sorbet. The sorbet was outstanding and I really liked the rice pudding. It was noted by the resident bad-​ass DJ that I am hard to please when it comes to dessert, and I noted that I am really not… just that I it wasn’t chocolate and I love chocolate… who doesn’t??? Voila… Suddenly, and out of no where two perfect chocolate truffles were placed right in front of me!
Dark chocolate truffles and old vine zinfandel, yeah, it was good. I didn’t share.
Thanks Carrie, Bombay and Gabi for a great evening of tastes, conversation and laughter!

Thanks to Bombay Spice and Karen for sharing a delicious evening with us. I expected to pay for $ 4 appetizers and glasses of wine, Instead, we were treated to one of the most lovely Spellbound Old Vine Zinfandel and a very nice Rodney Strong Chardonnay. They brought out complimentary samples of quite a few dishes, and others on the crew ordered some of their own as well. I am sure they will share their reviews later.
The first dish was Chickpea Ceviche. Karen said it was her favorite, and I have to admit, it may have been mine as well. It was a delightful blend of Chickpeas, onion, tomato, cucumber and aromatic Indian spices served with papadum. Delicious!
They brought out Shrimp Tikka next with mint chutney. They use no fat or oil in their cooking, and their meats are marinated in yogurt and spices before grilling. I thoroughly enjoyed the bites I had of that one.
We had some lentil cakes with a sweet tamarind sauce. I enjoyed the lentil cakes, but should have had more mint chutney. The tamarind sauce was well prepared, it just is not the kind of thing I like. Loved the texture and preparation of the dal cakes though.
The vegetable biriyani was light and well seasoned. It was served with a very nice Raita (yogurt cucumber & mint) There were samosas, but I didn’t get a chance to try those. Their signature dish of lamb chops was tender, moist, flavorful and looked as pretty on the plate as they tasted. We also had chicken tikka… surprisingly moist and delicious.
I’m not a dessert person when I go for dinner. I love a good dessert, but I usually do not order dessert after a meal. They brought us tastes of three really light not too sweet desserts to finish off a meal. The first was a carrot Soufflé which was made with shredded carrots and the Indian equivalent of ricotta cheese. It was very good. Their Indian style rice pudding was very nice. It had a little more body to it than the usual runny rice pudding that I really appreciated, and was seasoned with cardamom. My favorite was the mango sherbet… light, refreshing, and no extra sugar added. mmmmmmmmmmmm
They have an extensive appetizer menu. Their dinners are served as wraps, bowls, or plates consisting of 2 entrees and a side of rice or bread. The bowls looked like quite a lot of food… a lighter option is to order an appetizer and a side dish of any of their entrees.
The atmosphere is nice for groups as well as small parties. They have a nice bar, a community table in the front, and plenty of tables in the center. They had a pretty nice crowd the whole time we were there, but no one was waiting. The owner, the managers and the service staff were very friendly and efficient. No one ever felt like they had to wait or ask for anything.
It was a very pleasant place to eat. I was also impressed that they took great care to add the extra touches… The bartender even had a box of chocolates… one would magically appear whenever a customer looked like they needed some chocolate to go with their wine…

The 16^th and Glendale area finally has an Indian food option… and its pretty good but not yet consistent. — Not an Indian or Pakistani that I could see in the restaurant except for perhaps one of the chefs. But this doesn’t matter at all if its done right. Heck, most top level restaurant chefs are from Mexico anyway, and they are the best in the world, so I won’t make a judgement call on missing Indian food chefs at all.
Not yet great but definite potential. Our first trip for dinner had us pleasantly surprised, the décor was hip /​modern, nice wine bar and excellent food prices (nothing over $ 10). There were some heat issues, the chapati was warm/​cold (When eating Indian, I like a hot naan (yeah baby!) and this substitute was not in the realm of servable, perhaps a tortilla warming dish might be an option) and the vegetable curry was warm, not hot. We both went all vegetarian for this first time and the rest of the food was good. Our samosas for an appetizer were delicious with the various sauces (If you can get past the 80s Killer and Awesome sauces for names, they are pretty tasty.)
Second dinner trip was even better. Hot crisp samosas again (they are worth ordering), an exceptional appetizer order of scallops, and an amazing chickpea ceviche (order this, its fresh and delicious). Shrimp skewers however were the letdown this time as they were probably marinated too long and overcooked and served warmish. Ugh. Good flavor but not the way you want them served. The cauliflower curry was kind of bland, won’t be getting this for a main dish, ever.
Terrific selection of wines priced $ 6 glass/​$ 9 flight/​$ 20 bottle. Very reasonable. Even a couple of (good!) Japanese Sakes on the menu which is unusual but nice. They also serve a couple of beers as well.
Service was a little too much in your face (continual «Is everything ok?») but they are working out the details and I expect as they get more experience things will improve. Service was still good, just too much of it.
Overall, I’m very happy to have this option in our neighborhood. The place is a nice change and has excellent (Awesome /​Killer? lol) potential. Once again, you can’t beat the prices for fresh, healthy and tasty food.
This place is well worth a stop in for an appetizer and glass of wine at the bar. Even though I went last night, I’ll be getting dinner again tonight to try more items, I like most of what I see and taste so far.

Bombay Spice is a new restaurant concept serving «Indian food, but redefined.» That tag line kind of definitely made me curious, so last week a colleague and I tried it for lunch, and here are my impressions/​constructive criticisms:
THE INTERIOR:
Very hip, polished, and modern. Some two tops, a bench along one side, some four tops, a bar. The bar area features a lit up wall with wine bottles placed artfully in boxes. You’ll feel you’re in a trendy casual dining spot. Nothing inside evokes «you are in some traditional Indian restaurant» but since they already used the «redefining» catchphrase they’re off the hook here.
THE MENU
Wraps, salads, or build your own plate. BYOP (I think for $ 8.95) comes with a choice of two entrees, brown or basmati rice, and a whole wheat chapati (which is like our version of tortilla) in lieu of the heavier and calorically denser naan. All dishes cooked in olive oil instead of ghee (clarified butter) or other oils (which does change the taste to some degree). No paneer (Indian soft cheese) in any of the dishes — these guys sub it with tofu instead (again, healthier).
All this tweaking with the menu I’m totally ok with. A plus to them for making dishes more heart-​healthy.
A few missteps, though. Calling the cilantro/​mint chutney «Awesome Sauce» and the chili chutney «Killer Sauce» seems too juvenile and out of place with the rest of the menu, even as a «redefinition.» I’d more liken finding «awesome» and «killer» sauces at Cheba Hut than a modern Indian joint. Why not call them what they actually are?
Appetizers, however, are not served until after 3 pm. This is a head scratcher. If you’re going out with a group for lunch, you may want some apps to start with and share. Serving us four sauces at the very beginning with nothing to dip into them with (ie. appetizers such as their baked veggie samosas) was a little odd. Anyway, their call.
They do have an inexpensive wine menu to pair with the food, however, which could be a big plus for folks.
THE FOOD
So don’t get me wrong. I really appreciate the concept of trying to make Indian food healthy. But «healthy» doesn’t necessarily have to mean less flavorful.
I got a plate with beef seekh kebab and eggplant, while my colleague got the chicken curry and the tofu bhurji. We both sat there eating, trying to savor our food. Both of us are guys open to the whole «fusion» concept and redefinition shpeal, but that wasn’t the problem. It’s just we both ate and shrugged in an «well, the food’s ok… I guess» kind of way.
So that’s it. In an irony of ironies, Bombay Spice was lacking just that: spice. It’s not the grease we were craving, nor the heavy naan, but the flavor of everything else that goes into the food (the cumins, the corianders, the garam masalas, the turmerics, the onions, etc.). My seekh kebab was definitely plain and unremarkable, but at least the eggplant was a tad more flavorful. My colleague thought his chicken curry didn’t taste like much, and while he thought the tofu bhurji was a really good new concept, it was still faint in the taste dept. So I guess you could say the flavors here were extremely muted and safe.
As for dessert, I got the kheer (or «rice pudding» on their menu) and my colleague got the fruit yogurt. We both thought the desserts were fairly decent and concluded that Bombay Spice would be better as a place to come for a light dessert and a drink rather than a full meal since neither of us thought of our lunches much.
THE SERVICE
Very friendly and efficient. Apologies given for the mis-​order of my dish. No worries. Managing partner went around checking in on everyone and very friendly.
CONCLUSION:
All in all, 3.49 stars. An interesting new concept that may win many fans throughout the Phoenix Metro for their light, healthier take on Indian food (they’ll soon open a second location at the Whole Foods shopping center @ Tatum and Shea), but for me, it’s a place that has done everything right except in the most crucial department: the food. But all that depends on who their target market is. Currently I doubt this will be the #1 destination of Phoenix’s IT support crowd, but other folks may definitely enjoy it.