First, the bad news: The service at Bombay Express is erratic and slow.
We were there for a looooong time during a recent weekend dinner. Maybe it was because we took awhile to order, needing time to peruse the list of 175 (no, that's not a typo) authentic eats on the menu. Or maybe it was because our server seated us in a little room just off the main dining room, which, with its windows looking out to where the action was, reminded me of the old-style "cry rooms" at movie theaters.
Or maybe they're just slow. The meal took a long time to arrive and did so unpredictably, with entree items arriving before appetizers.
And now, the good news: The food at Bombay Express is luscious. Everything we tried was good, some of it excellent.
We started with the onion pakora, shredded, battered, deep-fried onion with two sauces. Bombay Express' version is not quite as flavorful as the dark, spicy pakora I've had from other local Indian restaurants, but it exudes freshness with its clean, uncomplicated batter and strong onion flavor.
We also had the chicken samosas, delicate crispy cones stuffed practically to bursting with curry-seasoned ground chicken and peas.
We tried a couple of south Indian dosas, crepes made of fermented lentil flour and rice flour. There's just one crepe per order, but boy, what crepes! They're absolutely enormous, hanging off the plate, and are grainy, pungently sour and topped, in our case, with either an aromatic blend of creamed rice, cumin seed and ground cashews (the simple rava dosa), or potatoes, peas and carrots (mysore dosa).
Also enjoyable was the chicken dum biryani, saffron-flavored basmati rice cooked with lean chunks of chicken. It's spicy, so a few of the younger members of the party didn't eat much, but my husband and I — and our 3-year-old, who apparently was born with a cast-iron stomach — scarfed it down.
She also enjoyed the scarlet, spicy tandoori chicken, just like me. We had wanted the tandoori combo, listed on the menu as a platter of chicken tikka, reshmi kebab, lamb boti kabab, fish tikka, tandoori shrimp and tandoori chicken, but our server said they didn't have it. So we settled for the tandoori chicken, highly spiced meat — mostly drumsticks — on a sizzling platter.
We had a rich, spicy chicken curry, but our favorite was the lamb coconut kurma, tender lamb pieces with spinach in a light golden, gingery sauce that's sweet and meaty. My kids had lamb for the first time, and we all wished we'd ordered a second helping.
That's also true for the naan, flat, bubbly, crisp-crusted Indian bread that's a steal at only $1.50 for four huge rounds. It disappeared almost as fast as the desserts, which may be the best thing they do at Bombay Express.
At our sever's suggestion, we tried rasmalai, a tender cake of Indian cottage cheese in sweet, cardamom-infused milk. It was great, but absolute perfection was the kulfi, traditional Indian ice cream flavored with pistachio. It's just a little sweet, nutty and unbelievably creamy. The kulfi alone was worth the trip.
Appetizers $1-$9.99, soups and salads $1.50-$4.95, breads and crepes $1.50-$6.25, entrees $1.50-$16.99, dessert $2.95-$3.95.
Rating: ** 1/2
Where: 733 E. 3300 South
Hours: Monday-Sunday 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (lunch buffet), 5-10:30 p.m.
Payment: Major credit cards accepted
Phone: 412-0068
Stacey Kratz is a freelance writer who reviews restaurants for the Deseret Morning News. E-mail: skratz@desnews.com