COCONUTS CRITIC’S TABLE — If you like your food spicy, then you might want to try The New Bombay, a restaurant that serves authentic Indian cuisine.
It is located on the topmost floor of The Podium, where a lot of sunshine gets in. Because of this, and the fact that The New Bombay isn’t in an enclosed air-conditioned room of its own, eating their spicy dishes can prove to be challenging.
Challenging, but worth it, my friend and I happily discovered.
If you’re not familiar with Indian food, you will need a lot of time with the menu. They have a lot of choices and you do need time to read all the descriptions.
My friend, who’s a regular diner there, instantly knew what she would have: Chicken Tikka Misala. And since I don’t know kheema from kofta, kadai from kalhapur, it took me a little longer (you can ask the very patient waitress) to choose what I’d have. I ended up with Vegetable Kadai — “vegetables with onion fritters and bell pepper cooked in onion gravy and topped with kadai spices,” according to the menu. Sounded safe.
Our orders took forever.
The waitresses probably got annoyed because we kept on following up on our orders. Well, we were annoyed our orders seemed like they were never going to arrive.
The good thing is that when our food finally arrived and we finally got to taste them, my friend and I were very, very pleased. Worth the wait indeed.
I liked my friend’s Chicken Tikka Masala (P235). The grilled chicken pieces were very tender and the tomato sauce was rich, thick and flavorful.
My friend and I both enjoyed the Vegetable Kadai (P225), too. The vegetables pieces were chunky and the dish was deliciously spicy.
Both were perfect with our steamed rice. And we just had to signal for more drinking water from time to time.
With or without my friend, I am surely coming back for more at The New Bombay. I’ll make sure, however, that the sun’s already down on my next visit, and that I am not extremely starving, because no matter how good the dishes we ordered were, they did take quite a while before they arrived.
The New Bombay — 5/F The Podium, 18 ADB Avenue, Ortigas Center, Mandaluyong City.
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Coconuts Critic’s Table reviews are written based on unannounced visits by our writers and paid for by Coconuts Manila. No freebies here.
