Bombay 8

Better than Bombay 7 but Bombay 6 was when the franchise peaked...

“One curry to rule them all, one curry to find them. One curry to bring them all and in the tandoori bind them.” – JRR Masala

A much smaller meeting of the congress gathered today, however the impact of our rating system is not diminished.

Hiding beneath a 5 star hotel, Bombay 8 is a small, easily overlooked curry house that was recommended to us as literally the best curry ever. The person who rated it like this does like to exaggerate things (Its not exactly space now is it) so we attended with trepidation. Located just minutes off the M62, you can easily tie this in with a visit to your favourite Swedish furniture store’s Warrington location that is again just 2 minutes away from Bombay 8.

Upon entering the establishment, we were seated and offered drinks while waiting for the other members of the congress to arrive. Once all were gathered, poppadums and dips were ordered along with the rest of the meal. Unlike the previous establishment Fort of India, this was not BYOB so beer was back on the menu with your typical Indian flavoured fizzy hop beverage Cobra.

The décor was average and probably what you’d come to expect from a “modern” eatery these days, with a fake wood relief wall, a dropped ceiling and lights. The space was actually relatively small inside, those waiting for a table at the bar were overflowing into the entrance / exit as there was not enough bar space. There was no mysterious leather padded doors that we’ve come to enjoy spotting around the places.

The dips were as you would expect, the red being spicy, the onions being oniony and the orange being fruity.

Next came the starters. The four starters obtained were:
Vegetable samosas
Meat samosas
Mixed meat platter
Onion bhajis

The meat and vegetable samosas were acceptable, nothing bad or especially good about them – they were probably generic frozen samosas most curry houses will serve these days.

The bhajis were huge, they appeared to have their own gravity.

The mixed meat platter was great, a good quantity and variety of meat on the plate considering it was a starter, garlic chicken, chicken tikka, a tandoori lamb chop and sheikh kebab, all cooked very well though while tasty, the tandoori lamb chop was probably a bit on the crispier side of life.

After the starters were cleared away, the curries arrived. Ordered by the congress were:
Chicken nepal(ese?)
Chicken tikka masala
Chicken tikka Samber

Additionally various rice and naans.

The chicken nepal was nice, a lot like a ghorkali (We assume this is the same dish).
Be wary of the random green chilli in the curry though. Do not consume this if you want to be able to taste the rest of the dish.

The chicken tikka masala was nothing special, it does have the fact it had quite a lot of meat content going for it but had the unfortunate problem with a watery run off in the sauce which isn’t a sign of a great curry. If it was less watery and they had sweetened it up just a tad more then it would have been fantastic. If they truly won best Curry House in England than it certainly wasn’t for this dish.

Extra point is given to the server however who cleared away our table, as you can expect with a curry everyone has 2-3 plates and bowls each so there’s a lot to clear and this guy just grabbed it all in one go and off he popped back to the kitchen!