Bombay Masala: A New Taste in Town
326 Eglin Parkway, Fort Walton Beach, 862-0978
Hours: Lunch Mon-Fri 11am to 2pm
Dinner Mon-Sat @ 5pm


By Bruce Collier January 24, 2008 Issue

My friend and I ate at Bombay Masala early on a cool weeknight. We were there about two hours, and the place went from nearly deserted to nearly full. The dining room is square, with fire engine-red walls, brightly decorated with Indian prints. The management has decorated corner areas with little stands of fountains, figures, and dishes of mints and tiny candies. Service is well carried out by the co-owners and their family.

They and the cooks have their work cut out for them. Bombay Masala’s menu offers starters, breads, rice dishes, and curries of vegetables, shrimp and meat. “Curry” is a loose term, embracing endless combinations of spices and a sliding scale of heat from mild to blistering hot. Of all the world’s spicy foods, spicy Indian is in a class by itself. When the menu says “very spicy,” take it seriously. We were told the kitchen can adjust heat, on request.

My friend was a newcomer to Indian cooking, so we gave the menu a good run. To start, we had chicken tikka, tandoori shrimp, a mango mixed pickle, and a basket of naan, Indian flatbread. Other starters include batter-fried vegetable pakoras, fried diced onions, vegetable samosas (stuffed, deep fried pastries), and a yogurt, cucumber, tomato and bell pepper mixture called dhai raita.

The appetizers came. The yogurt-marinated chicken was bright red, but mild and juicy. The also-red shrimp were plentiful, with a little more of a kick. Both were baked in a tandoor, a clay oven that is a central feature of Indian cooking. The pickle was hot and intensely salty. The naan, seasoned with butter, helped soak up the heat. We liked it so much that we ordered another basket, seasoned with garlic and herbs. The menu also lists deep-fried bhatura bread, and naan seasoned with jalapeno. In India, bread is no afterthought.

Bombay Masala does not serve alcohol, and I don’t know whether this will change. However, one can drink the usual ice tea and soft drinks, or try a mango lassi, a yogurt smoothie that goes a long way toward cooling the mouth. I ordered something I rarely drink — hot tea — served in a pot and flavored with milk and cardamom, a spice frequently used in India. As with the yogurt, the milk in the tea acts as a counterpoint to hot-spiced food.

The menu offers a number of dishes prepared with goat, a meat rarely offered hereabouts. I ordered a Goanese dish, goat masala, and my friend ordered chicken vindaloo. Goa is a place, famous for chili-seasoned food, and vindaloo is generally considered the hottest of curries. Both come with a basmati, the fluffy, long-grain Indian rice.

The goat was served in chunks, on the bone, in a rich, medium-spicy brown sauce. It was fork-tender, with a flavor between beef and lamb. The chicken was theatrically red (like broiled lobster shell), served with chunks of potato and as fiery as its color. The lassi, rice, and bread helped ease the heat, but this was eye-watering stuff. One of the owners jokingly called it “suicidal,” and another said, “It’s too hot for me.” He advised us that stirring milk or yogurt into the leftovers would dilute the heat.

Other dishes included rice biryianis of chicken, shrimp or goat, meatless curries with garbanzos, Indian cheese, okra or mixed vegetables, and assorted curries and vindaloos with shrimp, goat, chicken or lamb. There are also some mild chicken dishes. Rice comes with pretty much everything, and it’s hearty, substantial fare. However, save room for dessert.

The menu offers three desserts. They are kheer, a rice pudding with nuts and dried fruit, gulab jamun, fried dough balls in syrup, and gajar ka halva, grated carrots cooked with butter, sugar, dried fruit and nuts. We ordered the last two. The dough balls tasted like bite-sized beignets. The carrots were something special. Imagine a cross between carrot cake and New Orleans bread pudding, creamy and chewy.

There hasn’t been an Indian restaurant in this area for years. The last one closed sometime in the 1990s. In my writings, I have learned there are quite a few Indian and Pakistani people living in the Destin/Fort Walton Beach area. Bombay Masala, which opened several months ago, advertises itself as “the only eatery of our kind within a 70-mile radius....” Welcome to the neighborhood, I think you were expected.

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