I can’t hide the fact that on hearing the news that an Indian restaurant had opened locally, I was more than a little excited.
Frank and I don’t really get down to Boardman too often, as we’re so preoccupied with our day-to-day life, but when we were afforded some extra time after running my parents to Pittsburgh Airport the other week, we decided to stop by and tickle our tastebuds.
Unfortunately for us, our arrival time of just after 3pm was during their afternoon closed hours. (They open until 2:30pm for their lunchtime buffet, and do not reopen until 5pm for dinner).
Yesterday, my morning students cancelled (illness), so after a dash out to the Four Seasons Flea Market in Youngstown, I suggested that we make another visit to the Bombay Star.
We arrived shortly after 1pm for the buffet, and were seated immediately.
The restaurant was nearly full – most appeared to be lunching after church.
By 1:30, however, there were no more seats, and quite a number people were waiting infront of the waiter’s stand for the next table.
Vegetarian Dishes
Those who are vegetarian will be delighted to know that all of the dishes except a pot of Chicken Masala and one of Tandoori Chiken Given were vegetarian.
A basket containing 4 quarters of delightfully soft naan bread arrived at the table shortly after we had been seated.
Drinks
Drinks included with the buffet were a lusciously smooth mango milkshake and a milky black tea with accents of ginger and cardamon.
The tea is highly recommended, personally, as it highlighted some of the more subtle spices and flavours in the curries.
Dessert
Dessert was a rice pudding, which might only have benefited by being served warm, rather than cold.
Value
Those like Frank and myself, who are familiar with Indian food will indulge the most with this very inexpensive buffet (the total for our meal for two came to $16.50-odd). We had a few large plates each with a bed of jasmine rice smothered in the delicious melange of spices, sauces and textures. Many others there who were less ‘experienced’ with this type of cuisine, ate only a single plate with inconspicuous dots of the various curries.
At a later date, we’ll have to have dinner there, to get a gauge on individual serving sizes.
Service
The service was efficient, but not stellar.
I noticed many tables weren’t automatically served water as we had, and even our glasses of water weren’t filled up during the course of our meal.
Our table for two was quite small, so space for placing used plates was difficult to come by, and the plates were removed rather slowly.
However, these are their early days, and I’m sure that service will tighten over the coming weeks and months.
Given the interest, the very reasonable prices, and the delicious dishes, I can only hope that the Bombay Star wont be a victim of its own success due to the limited seating capacity. I for one, certainly wouldn’t want to be waiting outside for a seat in the middle of winter.
Then again, maybe they should just open another restaurant in downtown Warren!
Or maybe not. It’d certainly put a bit of a damper on my raw fooding endeavours!