Bombay Palace (Indian)

Bombay Palace is located at 71 Jarvis Street, just south of Adelaide in Toronto's downtown core. There are other locations as well, most notably one in Scarborough that I remember going to long ago (far longer than our writeups.) It has a nice interior, although the ambient music was pop rather than Indian. $1.99 AYCD pop is available. Only two other diners were present unfortunately, but it was a weekday lunch and it was busy earlier in the week and on weekends.

Chicken Tandoori was moist and quite good, not dried out at all. Butter chicken was very good and I enjoyed it. The chef recommended the mint sauce on the Tandoori chicken and it was indeed a good combo. I didn't try the curried goat (don't like goat) but there are plenty of vegetarian options available here.

Strangely there were vegetable spring rolls available. (Are they Indian?) They were probably ordered frozen. Kadhi pakora was quite good and not many AYCEs have this; the yogurt sauce was very good; I verified that the yogurt is made on premises for the sauces. Saag paneer was okay but was missing something. Naan bread was moist and flavorful, probably among the best I've had. It's kept under cover to keep the moisture in. Aloo gobi was excellent and fragrant with well-balanced spices. "Rajula curry" looks like chana masala, but tasted more Mexican; it was still quite enjoyable. Aloo papdi chaat was delicious and I have never had this before, very authentic and very enjoyable flavors of tamarind and cilantro in this vegetarian dish. Zucchini masala was an excellent and unique Bombay Palace house dish I have seen nowhere else. Coleslaw was enjoyable; dressing was very good. Tomato soup would have been better with less salt unfortunately. Potato salad was good and also fresh which is important. Spinach salad was also fresh but didn't have any added flavor from the dressing.

For dessert, mango, chocolate, vanilla ice creams are happily limitless, and were all fresh. There were no yogurt balls or other typically Indian desserts I saw but may have overlooked them. I had an enjoyable lunch at Bombay Palace and although the price of $13.99 would be high in Little India, it isn't bad for the area.

Rating: 7-7.5/10