Bombay Street Food National Harbor — Restaurant in Oxon Hill

Extremely overpriced, even for the area. I got the Himalayan Goat Curry (comes with rice) with a side of Naan and a diet Pepsi, and it was $35. National Harbor is an expensive area, but even there if you pay $35 for one person you should expect great food, and Indian food in particular tends to be delicious generally so I felt comfortable paying a premium. I shouldn't have.

My first indication that something was wrong was when I got my soda, which they charged $5 for, and it came in an 8oz coffee cup absolutely filled with ice. There are 3 bars within a 5 minute walk where I could get an 8oz beer for $5, and not even cheap domestics, and no other restaurant that I've been to in National Harbor, including pricier ones, charge that much for an 8oz non alcoholic drink.

But, ok, maybe this is one of those places that make their money from gouging on the drinks. If the food is good, it doesn't matter. Unfortunately, the food was not good. The flavor of the goat curry was fair, I've had better but it was ok. The sauce was spiced well for flavor, even if it was very mild in terms of heat. For anyone who hasn't had goat, its a tender and tasty meat but it is often served on the bone in curry. You have to cut the meat from the bones, and while that can be tedious its usually worth it. Typically its going to be about half meat, half bone, and the amount of meat is going to nevertheless be a reasonable amount for the meal you're ordering. This was 80% bone, with either very little meat on the bone or several bones with no meat at all. The $24 dish has maybe 3ozs of meat. Goat is not an expensive meat, its generally just slightly more expensive per pound than ground beef, so 3oz for $24 was excessive even by the standards of National Harbor. The rice that came with it was plentiful, which is probably explained by rice being very cheap, but so is soda and they skimped on that so I guess I should be thankful for getting a reasonable amount of rice.

The last thing I had was the plain naan, which was $4. Naan is enjoyable even without extra butter or garlic or other seasoning, and it was her, but again the portions were meager. Basically a single, pita sized flatbread was $4. It was ok, again I've had better.

The interior décor was really nice, which is the only way in which Bombay Street Food excels.

Bottom line, this is mediocre Indian food served in portions that are insulting at their price point, excessive even by the standards of the pricey district where its located. I could see paying that much for that little if the flavor and quality was high, but it did not come anywhere close to approximating high end fare. The quality was that of a mid tier eatery with the prices and portions of a gourmet restaurant, which is insulting.

And I want to be perfectly clear, the area is expensive but you can get food with more flavor, higher overall quality, and larger portions for cheaper very close by. Nando's Peri Peri chicken blows this place out of the water in terms of flavor, quality, and quantity, at half to 2/3s of the price (depending on what you get), and its literally one store over, a 1 minute walk away. Mezen Mediterranean is another example, half the price for more food and more flavor, 3 minutes away on foot.

Avoid this place, there are better options here and if you enjoy Indian food Bombay Street Food will...

Horrible Customer Service! Before placing my order, I asked the waitress about the lobster Masala, but she could not explain the dish. I nevertheless ordered the dish, and for an appetizer I ordered the vegetable patty (i.e., the Vada Pav). I was brought the lobster and not the vegetable patty, so I asked the food runner about the vegetable patty. He let me know that he would check on the order, but he never returned. Regarding the lobster Masala, while it had good flavor, I was dissapointed in the portion. Only three very small bite size morsels were served. Obviously, not even the entire lobster tail! Since my waitress was nowhere to be found, a I asked one of the young ladies bussing tables to get my waitress so I could ask about the appetizer. She did not have the courtesy to acknowledge or respond to my request, and instead of asking the waitress to come over, she approached another busboy, or maybe he was a waiter, and she pointed to me. When this gentleman came over, instead of asking how he might help, he blurted out "what do you want?" I maintained my composure and explained politely and courteously about the appetizer, and as I was doing that the waitress had made her way to behind the bar, so he went to her and inquired. Instead of the waitress coming over to assist, she told the busboy, or waiter, that a vegetable patty was not on the menu and that is what he in turn rudely conveyed to me. Really??? To begin with, she was incorrect and I asked for the menu and pointed to where it is listed on the menu. I had even pointed to it when I placed my order with the waitress. Clearly, niether of these individuals had an understanding of the menu. Ultimately, the issue is not that the waitress missed placing the order, mistakes happen. The issue is that she did not come over to assist me when I inquired about the missing appetizer and the busboy or waiter that had been sent over was rude in his approach. Another waiter evetually came over, I explained the situation a third to him, and he summoned the waitress. The waitress came over and confirmed that she had not placed the appetizer order. Neither she, nor the restaurant's managment, made any kind of gesture or offer to compensate for the bad service. At that juncture, I asked for the check. I had not even finished eating when one of the young ladies that was bussing tables began to clear my table. The customer service at this restaurant is just bad! I was in the place early for lunch and it was a very slow day in the dining room. Only one other table was being served in the entire place, so volume was not the issue at hand. I do think there is a bit of a language barrier for most of the people working at this restaurant, but that was not the reason for the bad service either, as I have experienced language barriers at other restaurants where the service was nevertheless excellent.

This was my first time at this restuarant, and I will never be back to it, nor will I visit its other locations.

My lunch experience was very...

FOOD POISONING: first let me say i am not one to over-exaggerate or generally give bad reviews. i work in the service industry, and i am extremely understanding and courteous when i personally order food. i’ve eaten here once before and it was amazing, we decided to order take out this time. the only reason i’m giving two stars is because the delivery order was prompt and correct, and the food was really good…up to a certain point. i wish i had taken a picture, but on the calamari we ordered there was a string fried into the breading. again, since i work in the food industry i am not squeamish about this stuff, and i figured to was just a thread and picked it off. but now considering that one hour after eating i became violently ill, it may have been a hair. we got the food on sunday late at night, and i am writing the review now because i finally feel well enough to get up and out. i mean the whole deal: out of both ends and a fever. i practically overdosed on nausea and fever medicine to be able to stand up today. anyways, very disappointing from this place because the food tasted amazing going down, but unfortunately it came back up. i don’t know if there’s some hygiene issues in the kitchen, or maybe it was just the calamari and the rest of the food was okay.. anyways, had a miserable start to my week.

UPDATE:

i had to come back and take away the other star, because my boyfriend finished his leftovers from sunday last night, and is also now very ill. i was considering deleting my review, because i did travel a few days ago so he and i were thinking that it was possibly a bug from being overseas. i was thinking maybe i overreacted and blamed this place too quickly. BUT, considering that after finishing his leftovers that he is having the same symptoms now… it definitely was this place and it wasn’t just me. also considering that all he ate as leftovers was his chicken, with my dish not being chicken at all, because i only eat fish anyways and got the aloo ghobi. our only shared things was our calamari, naan, and samosas. but he didn’t touch any of the leftovers except for his chicken, so if he got sick off of that that means that there was some issues with the WHOLE order and not just the calamari or my food alone. i am going to call about a possible refund, and i pray that we receive it because this week has been miserable for us so far health wise because...