The Bombay Club, DC #2

What many people may not know about me is that I work in the corporate world during the week. I am often invited out to lunch with colleagues and/or consultants with which I work closely and there are a few restaurants I favor for a business meeting. One of them is The Bombay Club.

This incredibly classy restaurant is fine dining at its finest especially for a lunch. With low lighting, white tablecloths, and servers in suits, I find their attention to detail impeccable. Each server is also quite versed in knowing which items can be made vegan, which is so, so many.

We started with an order of the Crispy Kale Chaat sans the yogurt. Now I've had the famous spinach chaat at their sister restaurant, Rasika, but never had I had a version with kale. We were not disappointed. Flash-fried kale was covered in an incredible date-tamarind chutney with freshly diced red onion and tomato on top. Everyone at the table raved about this dish.

For my lunch, I went with the Vegetarian Bombay Thail, which they modified to be vegan for me. This is basically a huge vegetarian sampler that is not for the faint of heart for lunch -- it's a lot of food! It came with six samplings and I'll just go from left to right.

The okra dish was really, really good. The cauliflower and peas were very oily, but so tasty and were probably my favorite if I had to choose a favorite. The spinach dish was my least favorite as I found it very plain. Interestingly enough, this was the favorite dish of one of my clients! The potatoes stewed in a tomato sauce were superb. The squash and peas with black mustard seeds was a little odd. Adn finally, the chickpeas in the savory tomato sauce were fantastic.

All of this was served with rice and a delicious roti bread.

All in all, we had a great experience. The food was fantastic, the service was just right, and the atmosphere is very classy. The prices are not cheap at $21 for the thali, but when you aren't paying for it, the price is just right. I should note that the food is quite oily, but it is Indian food. Also, I had asked for spicy and it wasn't very spicy at all. They supplemented my meal with a spicy green sauce that was out-of-this-world so that made up for it. This remains one of my favorite spots for a classy business lunch.

Previous review
May 30, 2012

Bombay Club
815 Connecticut Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 659-5012