The Justice

Media Credit: Julian Agin-Liebes The buffet at Bombay Mahal offers customers many different dishes, such as pakora and matar paneer.

When you walk into Bombay Mahal, one of the three Indian restaurants located on Moody Street, the first thing you'll notice is the smell of yummy Indian food-a promise of great things to come. You may also notice the simple décor of plain, wooden chairs and tight spaces, but don't be alarmed if it seriously reminds you of the school dining hall you're avoiding; just relax and head for the dimly lit booth area, which has a lovely, cozy atmosphere that makes it the perfect location for a romantic date.

After my lunch companion and I sat down to order, we took a look at the enticing menu. It was full of appetizing, exotic Indian dishes, and it was hard to choose among the mouth-watering options of beef, chicken, lamb, seafood and vegetarian dishes that combined ingredients like chickpeas, spinach and potatoes with spicy curries and creamy yogurt sauces. Eventually, I settled on the chicken jalfrezi and dal soup while my friend ordered the chicken masala with naan, an Indian bread. The food was definitely tasty, but both of my dishes were a bit too salty. The dal soup was basically a non-spectacular lentil broth, overly salty with hardly any lentils. The chicken jalfrezi, on the other hand, was delicious: a steaming plate of chicken, peppers, onion and peas in a savory yellow gravy served with white rice. Overall, I was satisfied with the food, and the prices weren't bad either, at $3.99 for the soup and $12.99 for the entrée.

But hold up! Before you decide to venture here for your off-campus lunch or dinner, take note of certain things. First, the Bombay Mahal waitstaff hovers excessively. In fact, they very unsubtly watched over me and my friend during our entire meal. Trust me: It kind of ruins your private conversation when the on-looking waiters are storing away enough mental images to write a tell-all book.

I also did not find the staff very accommodating when certain requests were made. For instance, when we sat down to eat, our waiter promptly filled our glasses with water, which was great. However, I like to have the jar on the table so I can refill my own glass as needed. But when I asked the waiter if he could leave the water on the table, he declined and said that he would just keep returning to fill up our glasses instead-great, more hovering and watching from his end. This was hardly a major issue, but in my mind the customer is always right, and the waiter could easily have accommodated the simple request.

Besides this, the restaurant was also way too quiet when I went. There was no music playing, and for some reason it was totally deserted during the lunch hour except for me, my friend and the staff. The restaurant is supposedly much livelier at dinnertime-which I guess it has to be if the business is still running.

To sum up, the food at Bombay?Mahal is tasty, but you have to watch out for the salt and the audience watching you eat. Also, skip the lunch hour-unless you want a quiet place for two-and go instead for a dinner or on a weekend, when it's likely to have more people. Happy dining, my friends!

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