Bombay Garden, Santa Clara

Bombay Garden
Indian cuisine in Santa Clara, most famous for its buffet

Recently, we've been quite turned on to the idea of Indian buffets. Passage To India is our nearest local one (not counting the place on Castro Street that I got stomach cramps from once, which has a new name and might be worth another try), but Bombay Garden is the king of Indian buffets in the area so far. Where Passage To India is only a weekend dinner buffet, Bombay Garden has a permanent lunch and dinner buffet. Though you don't have to eat at the buffet, we've never done anything else there.

We first went to the Bombay Garden over in Fremont, at the advice of a friend who said it was the best Indian buffet he knew. Soon after, this one opened at Lawrence and El Camino, so we tried it out. The service was better--it didn't take us twenty minutes to get a basket of nan--and the food was just as good.

Unlike Passage To India, they only serve one type of nan, but it's enough. It comes out hot and fresh in the baskets, and you should eat it while it's hot, because it's not as good once it cools. By the time you get back from your first buffet trip, the nan should be waiting.

Bombay Garden has a nice setup where one side of the buffet is vegetarian and the other has meat dishes. Everything is delicious, and it's a little spicy, but not too bad (except where noted). Don't neglect the southern Indian cuisine on the side table near the desserts (or maybe it's northern; I mix those up all the time). We love the malai kofta there, and the lamb sausage (cooked on skewers, so you can still see the small center hole). The sag paneer is always good, and this time around, the veggie masala was terrific as well. Everything has a good, distinct flavor, not too spicy, and it's popular enough that all the dishes remain fresh.

The gulab jamun are good, but nothing special, and in fact that describes all the desserts. But the rest of the food is good enough to make up for it.

The biggest problem with Bombay Garden is that you'll have trouble getting out of your chair at the end of the meal. But that's okay: they keep on a rotating cycle of Indian movies, so there's entertainment until you feel well enough to leave.

Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs

Broadmoor Hotel
Brunch buffet with outstanding food

In our ongoing review of the country's outstanding brunch buffets, Mark advises that no tour of Colorado would be complete without brunch at the Broadmoor. A favorite from his younger days, it appears to have retained all of the goodness of childhood memory.

The Broadmoor itself is a historic building, built in the late 1800s, and one of the AIA's 150 most popular buildings in America. Driving up, it's easy to see why. The Broadmoor is an elegant building in a lovely suburb, with mountains flanking it and greenery accenting its soft peach finish. It's very Western in its practicality; the walls are almost plain, with subtle decorations on the top story and plain white trim around the windows. Even the roof is modest but pretty, a small cupola overlooking the trees in front and the lake behind.

Inside, the decorations are more ornate, with beautiful chandeliers in well-appointed lounges, decorated ceilings, and portraits adorning the walls. We got to walk through this lovely hotel on the way up to the second floor Lake Terrace Dining Room, where brunch is served.

For the size of the room, the number of options was staggering, probably not too many fewer than the immense casino buffets in Las Vegas. In addition to the traditional egg, pastry, and griddle items, the brunch featured a full lunch spread, with hot beef, pork, and chicken dishes, as well as a salad bar, deli bar, cheese plate, and dessert table. We tried to sample most everything, but ran out of space long before we got there (and we kept going a little after that anyway).

Many brunch buffets have an omelette bar, but how many have an eggs Benedict bar? The Broadmoor has both. The omelette bar featured a novice who had a little trouble flipping the omelette, but her co-workers were very supportive and we tried not to make her feel bad about it. The Belgian waffles were not standard-sized, but were almost "silver dollar" waffles, made four at a time: the perfect size for a brunch buffet. More buffets should have them, and specifically they should have the light, fluffy, perfect versions the Broadmoor had.

It would take too much time to list all the outstanding food there. Everything we tried was delicious. Of the buffets we've tried, this one ranks up with the Bellagio as our favorites.

Spice Market Buffet, Las Vegas

Spice Market Buffet
Planet Hollywood Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas

The Big Two of Vegas buffets are the Bellagio and, apparently the Wynn. But Spice Market was voted best buffet in 2007 (then again, this is Vegas, so there are roughly two awards for every person, show, and restaurant) and had been getting great reviews, so we decided to check it out for brunch on our recent trip.

The name is the last holdover of the old Aladdin Casino, now Planet Hollywood. We loved the Aladdin and its Middle Eastern theme, but the Roc Bar is gone, the Desert Passage is now the Miracle Mile, the sweeping mural of winged horses is replaced by lights that change color slowly, and the whole Arabian Nights theme is now a style we can best describe as "generic 1980s." Blah. But the name Spice Market buffet continues on, reminding us of what once was, probably because they haven't figured out whether changing the name to "Lunch Counter" will mean they have to give back the awards.

At any rate, the quality of the food shouldn't be dependent on the name, and we did quite like Spice Market. It remains a touch short of the Bellagio (we have yet to try the Wynn), but it's a good, solid brunch. Good fruit selection, including a couple nods to the Middle Eastern name (figs and prunes); a standard omelette bar; Southern style cornbread griddle cakes (like small pancakes, but with a crunchier outside--pretty good); delicious pastries (surprisingly lacking in the cinnamon department); and very bland scrambled eggs and potatoes. In addition, they had some lunch dishes that were good, if unremarkable. There was plenty there to eat, but for the price, just walk across the street and pay another dollar to get better eggs, more pastries, and fluffier pancakes, not to mention more interesting lunch dishes and good salad selections.

Passage To India buffet

We went to the buffet at Passage to India in Mountain View. Being fans of Indian buffet in general and Mountain View residents, it seemed a little silly that we hadn't tried it.

Overall, the food was very tasty. The chicken tikka masala, malai kofta, chicken roll, and rogan josh (lamb) were outstanding, as was the nan, kept piled on a warm grill. I love nan, and had to stop myself from going and getting more even when I was too full to move. Everything we had was pretty tasty and not too spicy (I stayed away from the chili chicken, which one of our friends said was "OMG hot"), though I had a little burn in my mouth at the end of the meal.

The gulab jamun was among the best I've had: soft, sweet, and warm dough ball in sugar water, which could've had a little more rose in it. They also had a small cake (rather, a large cake in small pieces), which was good, and mango frozen yogurt, which I didn't try.

Overall, you can tell that the buffet is only available Tuesday nights (vegetarian) and weekend nights (full). The access and variety aren't as good as Bombay Garden, though the steam trays are smaller and except for the chicken tikka masala, they did an excellent job of keeping the food fresh and warm. The slightly better quality is probably worth the extra dollar in price, and it is closer to where we live, but I can see us going back to Bombay Garden just for variety. Passage to India is a very good Indian buffet, but here in the Bay Area that just gets it into the rotation.