New Bombay Restaurant

It's Tito Boy's last night in Manila after a short visit and we decided to celebrate it with an Indian dinner. Our place of choice is New Bombay Restaurant in Glorietta (right beside Pho Hoa/Bac (?) and Subway).

New Bombay is an intimate restaurant that seats maybe 30 people, tops. The interior is decorated with Indian colors and murals. The heavy chairs even have bells in them and yes, there are plenty of gold, red and orange accents.



We ordered quite a variety of food which was more than enough for four people.

For starters, we ordered the Malai Paneer Tikka, cottage cheese sauteed in cream and cashew nut paste. I like this very much. The cottage cheese is lightly grilled and is very tasty.



My favorite is the Palak Paneer. The menu describes it as Paneer cooked in spinach sauce. Paneer by definition is "fresh, unripened cheese", whatever that means :-)



My mom's favorite is the Dal Makani, thick yellow lentils with spices. My mom can't get enough of this. It's great with some Naan, an oven baked flat bread.



We also had a heaping serving of Vegetarian Biryani. Biryani is essentially an Indian fried rice made with Basmati rice. Basmati Rice are elongated rice granules and "buhaghag" when cooked. I saw an Indian lady at the supermarket the other day, testing the rice guy if Basmati Rice is sticky rice or not. The guy answered, "It's not sticky" and then the lady would try to confuse him again by asking other varieties in the supermarket. Eventually asking the same question over and over again. Poor guy. I wanted to say to the lady to just buy the friggin' rice already!



Anyway, I got carried away with my story. We also had Chicken Tandoori. It's called tandoori because it's cooked in a tandoor oven, usually made of clay that is heated by wood or charcoal in high heat. Sort of like the Indian version of an Italian wood fired oven. I like the cilantro dipping sauce that came with the chicken, great dipping sauce for the naan.



We also had Fish Tikka, bonelss fish marinated in yoghurt and secret Indian spices cooked in a traditional clay oven (Tandoor).



The Malai Prawns were also good. These prawns were marinated in cashew paste cream and roasted in the tandoor oven. The sauce is similar to a barbecue sauce, sweet and tangy.



Overall, I like this restaurant very much. It is quiant, intimate and the food is delicious. I would recommend this to everyone who likes Indian food, or would like to try Indian food. You won't be disappointed. Bring your appetite with you!