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3570 Chain Bridge Rd., Fairfax, Va.
(703) 359-5810
Hours of Operation and Prices
Lunch: M-F 11-2:30, Sat-Sun noon-3
Dinner: Sun-Th 5-10, F-Sat 5-10:30
Entrees: $6-$16
Other Information
• All major cerdit cards
• Reservations on weekdays only
• Dress: casual
• Free parking
• Handicapped accessible
• Bombay Bistro's other location: 98 W. Montgomery Ave., Rockville, Md. (301) 762-8798
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You can tell a lot about a restaurant by its fish. Bombay Bistro's whole Maryland rockfish is marinated in yogurt, ginger, garlic and other spices. The skin is scored, and the fish is cooked over charcoal so that it is very crisp outside and deliciously blackened in spots. It's a magnificent entree. At the homier end of the menu is a vegetarian peasant dish called rava onion masala, a huge wafer-thin pancake made of lentil and rice flour folded into a square, with yellow potatoes and onions packed thickly inside. Bombay Bistro serves all the curries, biryanis, tandoors and vegetarian dishes that form the common Indian repertoire. And it prepares them with such refinement that it leaves no doubt that India's is one of the world's great cuisines. Indian menus can be bewildering, but the maitre d' here doesn't let you flounder. In fact, the service is so considerate that you'd be tempted to come and sit awhile even if you weren't seeking a meal.
This is sophisticated cooking that attends to all the senses. Most important, each curry is like a painting, with its own palette of seasonings, all carefully arranged and balanced. Lamb rogan josh has a sauce that is thick and velvety, intricately spiced but mild, its waves of fragrance gently lapping at your taste buds. Another lamb curry, nilgiri khorma, is quite different. Its sauce is a dark greenish brown, thick and grainy, more complex than hot, unfolding as you savor it. These are memorable sauces. Vegetable dishes are more subtle, the spinach heightened with just a little sweetly fried onion and dotted with large, bland cubes of house-made cheese, the shredded eggplant a red-gold combination with bits of tomato and onion. And biryanis are distinctive. Bombay Bistro is a warmhearted restaurant where the service is courtly, the cooking is aristocratic and the prices are proletarian.
© Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
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