Bombay Tandoor Bar and Grill — Restaurant in Virginia

Bombay Tandoor looks fresh and modern at first glance.

Its sleek decor is romantically dark; the flooring is porcelain wood, evoking a homey feeling; the restrooms are clean and modern, which is always a big plus for a South Asian fare establishment.

Yet...lurking underneath the facade of pricey Home Depot materials is the lack of basics, the inattentiveness to detail.

Let me explain.

The wallpaper is this dark gray and white saint logo. Nothing wrong with this at all; in fact it looks nice… until you notice that the wallpaper is falling off of the wall in places and is actually shoddily run over drywall protrusions. So, think if you were putting up wallpaper in your home and then noticed a picture frame still on the wall, and then instead of taking off the picture frame, you just run the wallpaper right over it. Huh? I guess it doesn’t matter if the customer doesn’t see it until after they’ve ordered.

The sleek porcelain petrified wood look hides the stains on it. I personally saw a server drop someone’s drink and then clean it up with a basic mop. Kudos to her for cleaning it up quickly. And...how about using a cleaning agent while you’re at it? So close, and yet so far.

The tablecloths stink. I mean actually stink, like they haven’t been washed in quite a while. It smelled like someone’s feet. Yuck.

The (men’s) restroom was the biggest conundrum. I walked in pleasantly surprised to find a modern sink, urinal, and private toilet stall in that order. It looks nice...until you get to the dysfunctionality of it. If you need to use the restroom for anything other than only washing your hands, then this is essentially a single restroom, meaning, two people using the restroom at the same time for different purposes leads to an uncomfortable bottleneck. You just went #2, and need to wash your hands, but someone just walked in to do that, so you’re stuck. It’s poor design like this that frustrates me. Just put a stupid lock on the front door, and your problem is solved.

Despite all this, if the food was excellent, the decor and poor engineering would not matter. In fact, it would make this place authentic. Alas, the food plain sucks. I know my South Asian cuisine. Most people in the DC area do now, too. If you want to be a player on this scene, you’ve got to ensure that your curries and kabobs make the customer take notice with its flavor. The food here follows the theme of everything else- so close, and yet so...

Disappointing and dissatisfied experience dining last night for a special occasion of a family member’s birthday. There was a private birthday event happening in the restaurant with blaring and unacceptable decibels of loud music throughout our dining time from 7.15pm to 9pm. I do respect the private party and their purpose but having allowed a DJ within the restaurant where other people are also dining in is something that the management had to take a call on. We dined with elders , kids where loud music could be harmful. Moreover it was intended to be private time for the entire family where we weren’t able to have a conversation with each other due to loud noise. Even the waiters couldn’t understand what we were trying to order. We have been to this restaurant multiple times and I wanted to be there yesterday evening for the special occasion hence we drove 40 mins to be there.

We did communicate our issue multiple times to the person in charge but looks like he dint have any power or control over the situation. They continued to bill us the entire amount and we had to leave the restaurant and talk to the person as it was so loud he couldn’t hear us. We step out for a brief moment to discuss this issue and our dissatisfaction and it was just an apology stating that we weren’t aware of the DJ out there. This is quite ridiculous and unheard of.

Overall it was a horrifying experience. Poor customer service. I would suggest to the management to close the entire restaurant or inform people who come and check in for dining , that there is a private party happening. Keeping in mind profits alone won’t suffice in today’s society, customer satisfaction of utmost importance and Bombay tandoor failed to achieve it . Hope this review reaches them and they do take some...

So this is solely based on pick up experience.

Last week I was in town for business purposes and decided to give this place a try! May be not my best decision. On their website they boast serving authentic Indian food but I found that it was greatly Americanized! And I doubt they know difference between lot of Indian breads as they had no idea they Naan and Kulcha are totally different breads!

For people who do not know the difference between them is that while wheat flour is used for making naan , maida is used to make Kulcha. Naan is actually leavened ( which differentiates it from tandoori roti ) with yeast while Kulcha is leavened with baking powder & whole milk yoghurt.

I ordered a Paneer Bhuri Spicy( and I specifically mentioned Indian Spicy) it was quite bland. In a region like DC where there are so many great Indian restaurants this was such a shame. Now they pair Rice with curry like most Americanized Indian Restaurant(North Indian curries like Tikka masala are paired with Roti/Naan where as southern Indian curries like Vindalo are painted with rice) but you just can't pair rice with Paneer Bhurji! That's fundamentally wrong. If they were authentic Indian place they would have know that better and they do not switch it with Roti/Naan even if your decline rice! I ended up ordering Garlic Kulcha separately and they gave me Garlic Naan! And as I explained earlier they are two different things but the staff had no idea about it!

Two star based on the fact that though they gave me Naan instead of Kulcha, it was good and good was prepared...