Newest Bombay Grill enticing

Restaurant: The Owings Mills location has dishes that aren't available at the chain's other locations.

Sunday Gourmet

Clarification

In last Sunday's review of Bombay Grill, Akbar was mentioned as one of several Indian restaurants in the area that had closed. Akbar did close but reopened under new management and continues to operate in Randallstown as Akbar Palace.

The folks who run the local chain of Bombay Grills, of which the one in Owings Mills is the fifth, are old pros by now. They started modestly 13 years ago, in the basement of a townhouse in Mount Vernon. Their restaurants are located as far away as Columbia and Frederick. So you have to feel they know what they're doing.

But the newest Bombay Grill, in Owings Mills, was mighty empty the weeknight we ate there.

Blame it on the rain. Or blame it on everyone's being out of town. It's never a good sign, though, when you drive up and there's only one other car in the parking lot.

It would be too bad if this nice restaurant isn't getting the customers it deserves. With the closing of Annapurna and Akbar, people in the area have had to travel downtown or to Cockeysville to get their fix of tandoori chicken and lamb saag.

It's a pretty restaurant, too, in spite of the fact that it was a chain steak house in a former life. You can still sense the wagon wheels and railed porch in the architecture, but now the dining room is quite elegant, with soft peach walls, ornate appointments, hand-carved artifacts and comfortable booths. The service is smooth and accommodating, but maybe the almost-perfect pacing of our meal was due to the emptiness of the dining room. I like to think our waitress is always so delightful, though.

Why should you eat here unless you live in the area, given the fact that there are several other Bombay Grills -- perhaps ones closer to you? The Owings Mills location has dishes that aren't offered at any of the others, according to owner Tony Chemmanoor.

For the most part, though, the food is what we've come to expect at Indian restaurants around here: curries and tandoori grills and a good selection of vegetarian dishes. Still, it's presented with a little more panache, from the slice of lemon placed in the water glasses at table to the raspberry coulis decorating the kulfi (a traditional Indian dessert that, believe me, doesn't usually involve raspberry coulis).

I'm often just as happy with the most inexpensive dish on an Indian restaurant's menu as I am with the most expensive, given the fact that they both probably have sauces with intriguing layers of complexity that you can enjoy with the fragrant basmati rice or one of the seductive Indian breads that are grilled or fried or stuffed. This is certainly true at the newest Bombay Grill.

Order tandoori lamb chops for $17.95, and you'll get succulent pieces of grilled lamb marinated to almost fork-tenderness. They come prettily plated with a mix of fresh vegetables and a timbale of rice. But just as satisfying and just as filling (unless you crave meat) is the vegetable masala ($8.50), fresh vegetables cooked in a creamy, fiery blush pink sauce that sounds many notes of flavor. If you've also ordered tangy raitha -- yogurt, cucumber and onions -- and the Bombay Grill's bread basket, a tantalizing selection, you've got yourself a meal.

You can also get a "combo bread" as an appetizer, and I recommend it. The soft, warm pieces come stuffed with pistachios, raisins or coconut--just a bit of each so the addition isn't overwhelming. Otherwise you might have a sampler of grilled tandoori chicken and lamb variously spiced, or "lambosas," samosas stuffed with ground lamb. (I prefer the vegetarian version of the fried pastry.)

We couldn't resist the description of kadahi murgh ("an unusual dish ... served in a kadahi (wok) reminiscent of the olden days"), but actually everything we ordered arrived in what I assume was a kadahi, a small two-handled metal serving dish.

Still, what the kadahi murgh lacked in uniqueness it made up for with a fiery sauce that followed up the heat with subtle aftertones, a fitting accompaniment to its chunks of boneless white meat chicken. Shrimp kovalam, shrimp in a creamy almond sauce, was quieter but still delivered a kick.

Bombay Grill offers the traditional and very sweet Indian desserts, such as rice pudding and gulab juman in a rose-water syrup. The pistachio or mango kulfi are more refreshing, but they won't give Baskin-Robbins much competition: They resemble a homemade ice cream made with condensed milk. After a meal like this what I crave most is fresh fruit, but that never seems to be an option.

Bombay Grill

Food: ***

Service: *** 1/2

Atmosphere: ***

Where: 11308 Reistertown Road, Owings Mills

Hours: Open every day for lunch and dinner

Prices: Appetizers, $2.50 - $8.95; main courses, $7.95 - $17.95

Call: 410-998-9295

Rating system: Outstanding: ****; Good: ***; Fair or uneven: **; Poor: *