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Lexington Ave Down Town East Village MidTown West |
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Masala Bollywood NYC
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Address: Masala Bollywood
108 Lexington Ave(Btwn 27th & 28th St) New York, NY 10016 Other NYC Indian/Pakistani Restaurants |
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Masala Bollywood NYC Review: Awful Food; So-So Service
Seriously, if your chef can dish up divine food, why would you want to resort to juvenile tricks like plastering your walls with pictures of Bollywood movie starlets and giving confusing names to the dishes on the Menu?During our visit to Masala Bollywood located on Lexington Avenue (Between 27th St & 28th St) in New York City, we had the unfortunate experience of eating some of the worst Indian food in the New York metropolitan region.
"Masala Bollywood stirs the palate with adventure that only a Bollywood movie can deliver," boasts the restaurant that finds in the Bombay film industry its inspiration.
In that spirit, not only are the walls festooned with pictures of Bollywood actresses and actors but the dishes in the menu contain prefixes of star names and movie titles.
So you don't have a mere Chicken Tikka but you get Devgan's Chicken Tikka; not just Lamb Vindaloo but Sholay Lamb Vindaloo; not Paneer Dosa but Hera Pheri Paneer Dosa and so on ad nauseum.
To get a good feel of the Masala Bollywood restaurant, we tasted a variety of items but found little merit in most of them.
Among the items we sampled were Juhu Beach Bhel Poori ($5.00) for Appetizers, Legend of Malai Kofta ($12.00) and Aawara Pagal Chicken Jalfrezi ($13.00) for the main course.
Our meal also included staples of Indian restaurant such as Garlic Naan ($4.00) and Onion Kulcha ($4.00) as well as Masala Chai ($2.00) and Neel Kamal Kulfi ($4.00).
Served from mobile carts in most Indian cities, Bhel Poori falls under the category of Chaat Food. Although usually served in unhygienic conditions in India, Chaat Food is yummy. But the Juhu Beach Bhel Poori we got was soggy and lacked the flavor that gives Chaat its piquant taste. Ready-to-eat Haldirams Bhel Poori available in most Indian Grocery stores for $2.50 - $3.50 tastes far better than the Juhu Beach Bhel Poori we were served at Masala Bollywood.
Our vegetarian entree Legend of Malai Kofta ($12.00) came with four medium sized Koftas in gravy. Numbingly bland, our plate of Malai Kofta lacked any semblance of taste.
There was no respite from our run of bad luck at Masala Bollywood even with our meat choice - Aawara Pagal Chicken Jalfrezi.
We've had Chicken Jalfrezi in several restaurants in the U.S. but none as terrible as the one served at Masala Bollywood. Chicken Jalfrezi is a delicious hot curry made with chicken, capsicum (also known as bell peppers or Shimla mirch), onions, green chillies and tomatoes. Mind you, Chicken Jalfrezi is not for the weak-hearted, lilly-livered poltroons. It is a HOT dish.
But the Chicken Jalfrezi placed on our table at Masala Bollywood was a disgraceful parody of the original. It was not even hot, let alone having any taste. Did the kitchen run out of chilli powder, green chillies and Bell Peppers that day?
Our entrees were served with plain white rice.
Garlic Naan and Onion Kulchas were the only passable items on our table.
Desperate for relief from such unappetizing food, we gravitated with much anticipation towards dessert. So we ordered Kulfi, a frozen Indian ice cream available at most Indian restaurants. What we got was a rock hard piece of ice that took forever to melt and had none of the rich, creamy taste associated with Kulfi.
As for the Masala Chai, fuggedaboutit. The less said about this dish water the better.
Our two waiters at Masala Bollywood could hardly speak a few words of intelligible English. We don't expect waiters in Indian restaurants to be Oxbridge graduates but it'd definitely help if they can at least speak passable English.
Masala Bollywood is an Indian restaurant that is long on boasts about stirring "the palates with adventure that only a Bollywood movie can deliver" but short on delivery when it comes to serving fine Indian food. - © NYIndia.us