I had to go to Montreal for some meetings earlier this spring and when I made my plane reservations I found that if I went up a day earlier I would save our company about $500 bucks on a ticket. Getting the OK from my boss that he would rather have me spend an extra night in a hotel in Montreal considering it was much cheaper than popping more money for a plane ticket, I flew into Montreal on a Sunday night. My colleague, Todd, picked me up at the airport and we went directly to an Indian restaurant that he and many of our colleagues had talked highly about in the past - Bombay Mahal. We met one of our colleagues, Francois, there for an evening of Indian food that they promised was some of the best in Montreal.
There's not a large Indian population in Montreal, but Bombay Mahal is located in what is the Little India area on the west side of the city not far from Parc du Mont Royal (Mount Royal Park). (see map) We parked down the street from the place and found a table in the second of the two small and dimly-lit dining rooms that are in the place. Francois showed up not long after we sat down.
Bombay Mahal is a B.Y.O.B. establishment and Todd and Francois were kind enough to bring along some beer. Todd brought his favorite beer - the St. Ambroise pale ale from the McAuslan Brewery in Montreal - and I had asked him in advance to pick up a six pack of the Boréale Blonde ale that is brewed outside of Montreal that I like so well. He told me that he couldn't find any Boréale (I'm almost sure he didn't try very hard - it's all over Montreal), so he picked up a sixer of the Griffon Extra Blonde ale, also from the McAuslan Brewery. It was all right, but not as good as the Boréale, in my opinion.
Francois is a tremendous home brewer - I've had a number of his homemade beers in the past - and he brought along a pale ale that was very good, as well as a homemade pilsner that was more hoppy than bitter, but still quite good. Francois may be the best home brewer I've ever encountered (with apologies to my neighbor Greg who used to brew some very good beers in the past).
Set with the beer for the meal, we took a long look at the menu decided to just order a bunch of stuff and divvy it up, family-style. We ordered up the butter chicken entree, I insisted that we get some of the lamb saag, Todd decided on getting some of the spicy lamb chili to counter the mildness of the butter chicken, we ordered up some of the chicken madrasi, and we also got a plate of assorted vegetables to go along with the entrees. Interestingly, basmati rice - which usually comes with entrees at Indian restaurants in the U.S. - was an extra cost order.
We started off getting some appetizers that included naan bread - both regular and garlic - and vegetarian samosa. The Vegetarian Samosa was a puff that is stuffed with diced potatoes and peas that were cooked in various spices and then deep-fried. Along with some mint chutney to dip the Samosa into, this was a very good start to the meal.
We also got an order of the onion bhaji - basically Indian onion rings that are floured and cooked with chick peas and various spices. I'd never had onion bhaji and I found the taste to be somewhat interesting. But I felt the appetizer was left in the fryer a little too long.
They started to bring out the food and it was overly apparent that we ordered way too much food. The chicken madrasi (on the left in this photo) was a spicy dish cooked in a coconut-base sauce. I didn't care for it all that much because I'm not big on the taste of coconut. But the other spicy dish - the lamb chili (on the right in the photo) - was an attention-getter for me. The lamb was tender and while the spiciness wasn't apparent at first, it really kicked in a few moments after savoring the taste of the lamb. Good god, it was hot! It just meant that more beer was going to be drank.
Interestingly, the butter chicken - which Todd swore was supposed to be mild - was pretty spicy. It was served in a rich cream sauce with coriander added, but they must have dumped in some curry with it, as well. It was good, but more spicy than butter chicken should have been - or at least what we thought it should be.
The highlight of the meal was the lamb saag. The sauce had a deep green color to it and the lamb was tender and flavorful. The spinach sauce was thick and savory - it tasted great as I scooped some of it out and placed it on the garlic naan that we had left over. It was spicy, but not the "burn-your-face-off" spicy that the lamb chili turned out to be. This was some of the finest lamb saag (or saagwala) that I've encountered at any Indian restaurant.
We were completely stuffed by the time we finished trying a little bit of everything. Todd - and many of my colleagues - had raved so much about Bombay Mahal over the past few years since I began to really get into Indian food as my new go-to "comfort" food that I was worried that my expectations would be too high. Bombay Mahal met my level of expectation based on all the positive comments I've heard about the place. Trying a little bit of everything was absolutely fun, but I was almost uncomfortable as Todd drove me to the hotel. My colleagues don't even consider any other Indian restaurant in Montreal. Bombay Mahal is all they need.
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