Little Bombay

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Little Bombay is a small Indian 'cafe' at 9616 N. Lamar (339-0808).  It's in a shopping center called North Park, and while the lighted sign outside announces its presence, the restaurant itself is not visible from the street. It's near a sign for a Golden Corral.

It serves what might be called Indian fast food, although, unlike most American fast food, this stuff is good.  For dinner tonight, we had the stuffed dosa which is a rice crepe folded over a mildly spicy potato and onion mixture (and served with sambhar, a kind of lentil soup--"dhal"--and a coconut chutney), chole puri (fried bread with a spicy chick pea soup; while the soup is moderately spicy, it is served quite hot which makes it seem spicier.), samosas, and the ras malai (extract of milk balls in a cream sauce).  Ulla got the mango lassi, which was, in my opinion, too thick.  All this came to about $15.00.

The food is more authentic than most of what I've tasted in other restaurants (some of Sarovar's stuff is good also).  The filling in the dosa and samosa is really good.  This is the kind of food that, as a child growing up in New York, I could get only on special occasions when my mothers and aunts would make them.  There weren't any restaurants in New York at the time that made these dishes.  If you're extremely fat concious, be a little careful; almost every dish is fried.  India faces a serious problem with rising rates of heart disease and diabetes, and it's partly because of consuming too much of this kind of food.  If you're vegetarian, this might be a good restaurant to try, since there isn't any meat on the menu.

  I'm usually far behind the times in trying out new places in town.
It usually turns out that I haven't missed much, but in the case of Little Bombay, it seems I've been missing out on a lot.  Despite it's unimpresive location in an ugly north austin strip mall, Little Bombay is almost perfect.  The food is cheap but tastes great.  The atmosphere is casual and relaxed - you can get in and out quick if you need to or stay and chat for hours on end if you want.

  I was lucky enough to go with some indian coworkers who were able to
suggest a few things to try.  But even if you don't know the first thing about indian food the menu clearly explains what everything is. If you still don't know what to get, just pick at random.  I didn't see anything that didn't look great.  (although it wasn't stated anywhere, everything on the menu looked vegetarian to me)

  I highly recommend Little Bombay.  If you haven't tried it, go there
as soon as you can.

___________________________________________________________________________ [email removed]                                           soli deo gloria