Bombay Se

Added Nov 2, 2009 by sweethot of lower mainland (114 Reviews)

Tasty & quality AYCE feast featuring Bombay Indian Food!
I remember when Bombay Se opened it was one of the first restaurants offering Bombay style Indian foods, and I liked their walls which featured black & white shots of classic Bollywood stars.

Forward to now and they've moved into a bigger space with a lounge area and a dining area.

Currently they are offering weekend dinner buffets and weekday lunch buffets for about $15.

This buffet is amazing AND high quality! It's on par with the super-good buffet offered by Saffron in Burnaby but this buffet offers more unique Bombay style Indian foods including street foods.

They also have butter chicken on the buffet.

I loved that they offered ample chunks of fresh fruit including pineapple and watermelon as dessert.

The buffet was refilled with new items or topped off as it was emptying. They bring freshly cooked naan to the table. Coffee or tea is self-serve and is included with the buffet.

Contrary to the previous reviewer we found the service here was really good. The servers are friendly and sweet AND the fact that they have been trained is obvious. What is up with restaurants that just slap an apron on a clueless new employee and send them off to serve patrons.

I went for dinner on a Saturday night, and the patrons were multicultural. Some ordered off the menu while others had the buffet. It's a welcoming restaurant for families as well although it was irritating when a mother was letting her 4 year old dish out fruit and dropping half the fruit on the ground. It was not cute at all but bad parenting can't be blamed on the child.

The food was all piping hot, and tasty. I love pav bhaji and they even included the buttered rolls for this dish in the buffet. They had wada and sambar. Don't miss the build your own Bhel Puri appetizer at the beginning of the buffet alongside the chutneys. The lamb curry was one of the best I've had at a restaurant as the meat was good quality and trimmed of fat. I've had lamb at other restaurants where the meat is chunks of fat and bones. They also had some stir-frys but I skipped these.
I think the dishes rotate daily but I've only been to the buffet once.


I highly recommend this buffet, as it's more of a feast than an everyday meal. We tipped generously as we were quite happy overall with the food and service and because its very unusal to see this type of Bombay style food on a buffet.

The ambiance is nice as well, as other people are happily eating away and the tables aren't set too close together. Please note that the night we went the restaurant was only accessible by stairs as their elevator was out of order.

If you are not into buffets I recommend a visit here anyhow to have one of their sizzler dishes from the menu, or if you are visiting for lunch do try the bombay style veggie sandwich, I adore this the combo of chutney with potato cucumbers and cheese just works.

<More reviews below advertisement>

Added Oct 6, 2009 by prateek of Richmond, Vancouver (10 Reviews)

True North Indian Cusine - Still overpriced
I heard raving reviews about this restaurant and decided to try out for myself. The ambience is really nice for an East Indian restaurant and gives a slightly modern/contemporary look coupled with Bollywood posters and artifacts throughout the restaurant. Upon arriving, the waitresses and hostesses acknowledged us but did not attend to us for at least 10 minutes which initially gave us a sour taste to begin with. We got seated and were baffled to see only 3 chicken dishes. I ordered the infamous butter chicken and a Lamb dish as well as paneer makhni and dum aloo. We were suprised to see Dum Aloo on the menu as very few restaurants have brought that native dish to Canada. I was quite impressed with the food and it was a real nice treat after eating at many Indian Restaurants on Scott Road which all taste the same including Mehfil and Mahek (not sure what's good about them as the food was below par). The biggest draw back at Bombay Se is the portions of food which are really small and is definitely over priced. I am right in the middle for the value that this place provides. The oweners definitely need to step it up a notch and add the additional value by either increasing the portions or decreasing the prices by average $5!!!!!

<More reviews below advertisement>

Added Nov 18, 2008 by PotatoRus of Surrey (1 Reviews)

Window Dressing ... Service, service, service
My wife is from Bombay and the appetizers are reminiscient of Bombay snack/street food. We've visited Bombay Se several times over the last couple of years and have found the experience worthwhile.

This past week, we visited their new location. They've done a reasonable job with the decor and theme of the restaurant, expanding on what they had in the previous location.

Unfortunately, service, inconsistent before, has gotten worse. When we arrived upstairs, we waited patiently and quietly or 10 minutes while the server updated another guest on the current fashions in Bombay. Once we were noticed, we were asked to wait for a table to be prepared. 5 minutes later, we were seated at our table ... missing a place setting. We were 5 people squeezed into a table for 4 ... we kept looking around wondering why we weren't seated at one of the larger tables that remained empty while we were there. This trend continued throughout our dinner.

The food was consistent. The appetizers are good and several of the items unique. Dinner ... average.

We'vedecided to look for a new haunt for Puri and Frankies. Service makes or breaks a dining experience, regardless of the food, and we've had too many issues at Bombay Se.

Added Apr 28, 2008 by Azusa of Burnaby (39 Reviews)

Good food - will come again only if I am in the area
To the point of almost begging from a British ex-pat craving for good butter chicken, a small group decided to go to this place in Surrey for Indian food. I never heard about this place but given their insistence, this place must be good. So we went.

Unless you were aware of this restaurant, you will not have know it is there, as it is tucked inside a corner in a strip mall (same block as Future Shop). It was just 7:00 p.m. when we arrived and the mall itself was deserted. Not necessarily a good sign at this point. However, when we opened the door, it showed the place was well known to others - it was almost packed. Fortunately, we were able to get ahold of a table for four.

We ordered lamb curry, chicken and spinach curry, a Biryani and, well, the butter chicken. We also had some garlic naan. All of us ordered beer, except our desginated driver who ordered a lassi. The drinks came after five or so minutes followed shortly by the lassi. And we waited, waited and waited for the food. We were almost done with our drinks when the food finally arrived, almost all at the same time (except for the biryani which took another couple of more minutes).

I wasn't terribly excited about the food. The lamb was slightly gamey (as expected) but I thought it could have been slightly more tender. The curry sauce of the chicken and spinach curry had a good consistency but lacking heat (they are not to blame, though, my friends are not real fans of spicy hot food). The butter chicken was creamy and slightly sweet; unfortunately, the chicken from both the chicken dishes was a bit on the dry side. Finally, the biryani was so-so - I have done better rice dishes.

The service was hit or miss. As mentioned above, the timing was a bit off. In their defence, in the menu, they did mention dishes might take 20 or so minutes to come out after they were ordered. Water wasn't refilled after glasses were empty and had to ask for them a couple of times. The same happened to the bill. To those who care, they did check on us a couple of times.

There is a huge opportunity for improvement regarding ambiance. The layout of the restaurant is basically a box with tables. There is nothing separating a table from the next and when things get loud, it gets really loud. The walls have pictures of Bollywood movie stars but it is not something I care much about. The place was a bit dark to my liking. You could see the food but, unless you knew what was on the table, you might not be able to differentiate some dishes from others (which happened to us with the lamb and chicken and spinach dishes).

Overall, it was OK, it might be better than some Indian restaurants in Vancouver (after all, it is Surrey!). I would drop by again and try some other dishes (I wished we tried some of the sizzling plates, as described by other reviewers) if (and only if) I was in the area. Might not do so if I had to drive all the way down there.

Credit Card Debt?
Search and compare every credit card in Canada and find the best one to suit your needs at Credit Card Search.

Added Mar 11, 2007 by maphia of Mount Pleasant, Vancouver (4 Reviews)

Wouldn't get sizzlers again
To start I didn't realize until writing this review that 2 was decent, because I sort of expected to give it a 3. I would probably give this restaurant another try if I lived closer, but I wouldn't get a sizzler again.

The place was busy and they were actually turning people away since they had all the tables reserved ahead of time... which seems like a pretty good sign. I think as mentioned before the interior is interesting since it's full of huge Bollywood photos.

The food was okay. The chicken stuffed roti that we had as an appetizer was very good. Although the flattened baby potatoes with yogurt and chutney wasn't quite as impressive. Rather than getting the usual Indian type entrees with rice and nann, we decided to try the sizzlers since they sounded different and were suggested by previous reviewers.

The sizzlers are definitely different. I mean they come with fries and a slice of melted cheese on top. They were also pretty generous with the portions of meat, but it actually could have used some more rice. The dish was also far too salty for my tastes.

Anyway, if you're planning on trying this place you should probably call ahead and make reservations.

Added Sep 10, 2006 by bc-bound of White Rock (8 Reviews)

90% Fat Content
Went for lunch because of good reviews. Short menu all with deep-fried food.
Had the Frankie chicken. Chicken was good but was wrapped in deep-fried roti & was served with french fries & cole slaw.
Service - OK.
Decor - good. Washrooms clean.
Won't go back.

Added Apr 9, 2006 by AMM of Strathcona, Vancouver (5 Reviews)

Fo-shizzle my Sizzle!
Five friends and I drove down to Surrey to check out Bombay Se. I'd never heard of the place, but my friend had seen the cook on City Cooks and was intrigued. We got there around 5:30 on Tuesday evening, and the place was all ours. We started with some unique appetizers. One was crispy pastry balls filled with yogurt and other spices; they popped rather pleasantly in your mouth. Another was puffed rice with crispy noodles and cilantro. They were very new to me, and quite good. We also had some nice vegetable pakora to start.

The menu had quite a few options, but we were focused on the final page, which had the sizzling dishes my friend had seen on TV. We all ordered sizzlers at $15.95 apiece. It took a little time, but when our meals came, they were well worth the wait. Our waitress brought us each a steaming platter of lamb, chicken, beef, or veggie cutlets atop rice sizzling on hot plates. The meat or cutlets came with vegetables smothered in mouth-watering sauce that was topped with melted cheese! What's more, there were "Masala"-seasoned French fries on the platter as well! My mind was blown...

The food was delicious, hot and filling. The fries were a great complement to the Indian food and certainly not something you see every day. Our waitress was quite nice and helpful. Drawbacks? The location isn't great, being stuck in a mini-mall, but the giant posters with scenes from Bollywood movies were nice eye candy. Also, the beer and wine list was limited. All in all, though, I highly recommend Bombay Se for the sizzling dishes, and I look forward to trying some of their other options.