I know I harp on it a bit, but I do so enjoy medium sized city (yes Seattle is medium. In fact, it actually has less folks here than SF. Who knew?) living where you can just pull one’s lazy ass out of your chair and in a short walk get a quick bite to eat. No getting in a car, driving across town and looking for parking involved. Yeah, I know, food delivery is around but besides lazy, my ass is also kind of cheap and, well, service fees and tipping and it all adds up to at least enough to move my laziness the few blocks to get something to eat. It also helps if it is something different and interesting. What could be more interesting than something called Bombay Burger.

I have walked by this place a number of times and always go, “hmm, I should try that one day.” Well, that day came when I decided to fire up the laptop and order on their website. Google maps said I could walk there in roughly 7 minutes or so. Considering how fast I walk sometimes I figured I could shave out a minute or two and the whole round trip would be ten minutes to eating time. I placed my order and by the time I got my shoes on got there my order was ready. For food made to order I take that as a plus for ones like me who want hot food now, Now, NOw, NOW!

I seem to be leaning into the vegetarianism these days with mixed results but had some high hopes for food from a culture that does excel in it and flavors. This is the aloo tikki burger—a grilled potato patty with spices, lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, chutney and ketchup(?). I have to say, I kind of liked this. Cooked to order the nicely thick potato patty did have a nice little crust on the outside and wasn’t all mushy. The mix of Indian spices adds much needed flavor to plain ol’ potatoes and they seem to have gotten the mix right here. Not too much of one or the other. Kind of like essence of curry without being bitter. You can choose your level of spice too and I went with the medium. The heat shows up in the tomato chutney on the bottom of the bun and for me medium was just about right. If you are no a spicy person, I’d go with “no spicy.” They also do give plenty of mayo and toppings so no worry about this being some dry patty. They also were light with the ketchup which was a good thing. I think they could have even just left it off and gone with just the chutney, either way, still good.

The biggest breakdown for me was the bun. It was too thin or maybe compressed? Either way, it didn’t really hold up while eating with all the wet toppings added here. The menu said there was supposed to be cheese on here but seems it never made it to mine. Not sure what kind of cheese it was supposed to be or what difference it would make in taste. I enjoyed this without the cheese though, next time I will make sure to check and see my cheese is there and let you know.

Speaking of cheese, I do enjoy me some paneer. It is a thick cheese that holds itself together and doesn’t have an overpowering taste which makes it great for slicing and grilling without melting and also infusing your own spices into it. Much like you would with say a super extra firm tofu or something. Matter paneer (paneer and peas) is one of my fave dishes. Thus I couldn’t pass up the paneer burger.

Grilled paneer with lettuce, tomato, mayo, onion and as the menu says “special house made dressing”. Not exactly sure what it was but it tasted a bit like a cilantro and chili kind of thing. Though it seemed to be slathered on with the tomato-ish chutney like the aloo tikki above. Was a bit of a mish-mash mess and for me sort of overpowered the paneer which had been tandoori’d and seasoned. It was also a thin slice as opposed to the potato slab you get. I didn’t dislike this, but altogether the flavors got muddied and you kind of miss out on the joys of the paneer and the cilantro. Probably could have done without the mayo too. And again, the bun was way too thin to hold up. Menu also stated this was supposed to come with chips, but they didn’t seem to make it into my bag.

I was definitely intrigued with the fries sprinkled with chaat masala. You definitely get a lot at the $4 price and they don’t skimp on the seasoning like some places but it isn’t an overpowering spice either like say Old Bay. These were good. Hot and crispy out of the fryer and with the masala you don’t even need the salt. I would definitely get these again. Men said these were supposed to come with a special chutney dipping sauce, but it didn’t seem to make it into my bag. Unless you consider ranch dressing a “special chutney", of which I got two small containers. My taste buds did not like that combo. I was just content to eat these as is, though might be interesting to see what the chutney would add. Maybe next time.

In case you could not tell, my restaurant curse I’ve mentioned in the past seemed to rear its head quite assuredly with a number of items missing. I will take a little of the onus this time as the bag was stapled closed when I picked up and I was hungry, hungry hippo and just wanted to get home and eat. Beyond that, I still kind of liked some of the things I ate and I would gladly go back, particularly for the fries. At basically $8 a pop for the burgers, you do get a decent sized one which could be even better if they would just upgrade their buns. If you are looking for a different take on a burger, Bombay Burger is a good fast food alternative to all those other options. Yes, they do have a beef burger but sometimes you gotta break out of your comfort zone and try something different. Kick up the spice. It is chilly outside and we all need something to get our blood flowing. Spicy Indian chutney seems like a good way to go to me. Just make they don’t leave it out!