Bombay Eats’ Tandoori Chicken Pizza By the Slice is Not Bad

So I finally got a chance to swing by Bombay Eats yesterday, the Indian restaurant on 52nd btw. 8+9th that serves New York style pizza with toppings like chicken tikka and saag paneer.  The first time I visited, they weren’t selling the Indian pizza by the slice so I had to ask them to take a piece of cheese pizza and top it with saag paneer from their buffet (which is $10.95 all you can eat at lunchtime, but doesn’t include pizza.)  Of course after Midtown Lunch’ers descended on the restaurant in full force, they decided to finally offer the Indian pizza by the slice.

I stopped by yesterday to check it out.

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It looked like they only had one Indian pie, but it was actually divided into three sections: chicken tikka, tandoori chicken, and paneer (Indian cheese).   I ordered a slice of all three.

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As you can see from the photos all of the slices are topped with mozzarella cheese, onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms plus the Indian topping.  As a result, it becomes less Indian pizza than a veggie pizza also topped with Indian flavored chicken (or cheese.)  The chicken tikka was ok, but the chicken was a bit too dry and it didn’t have enough flavor to stand out amongst all those veggies.

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The paneer was good too, but had the same issue as the chicken tikka.  Not enough flavor to stand out among the rest of the ingredients.

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By far, the best was the tandoori chicken, which used dark meat chicken picked off the bone. As a result the chicken had far more flavor than the white meat tikka chunks.  Also, the moistness of the chicken combined with the spices and leaked into the pizza creating an almost reddish sauce at the bottom of the slice that made it more “Indian” flavored.  Not super strong, but strong enough to stand out more than the other two slices.

All in all it was a pretty enjoyable lunch, and a nice change in pace from your average New York slice.  At $3.50 a slice it’s not super cheap, but completely fair when you consider the amount of toppings. As for its Indian-Ness…  it’s probably better to expect New York pizza with a mild Indian flavor, than “Indian Pizza”.  It’s either that, or ask them to scoop something from the buffet onto a slice of cheese!

THE + (What somebody who likes this place would say)

  • Indian pizza is fun!
  • I’m bored of regular pizza, and this is a good change of pace
  • I love onions peppers and mushrooms!

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

  • I’m a pizza purist, and the pizza itself isn’t that great
  • It’s not Indian enough
  • All the slices seem to be more about the onions, peppers and mushrooms than the Indian toppings! What’s up with that?
  • The flavor of the Indian ingredients can’t compete with the other toppings
  • A slice of cheese with a scoop of saag paneer is more like Indian Pizza than what they offer by the slice!

Bombay Eats, 314 West 52nd Street (btw. 8+9th), 212-265-7777

1 Comment

  • what a great idea for a home project.

    And the pizza looks okay. i would probably enjoy the dark meat best- dry chicken is a sin.

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