Mumbai Chopstix - A Little Bit About a Lot of Things A Little Bit About a Lot of Things

October 25, 2010 Mumbai Chopstix

I had bought lots of buywithme coupons, $15 for $35 worth of food. I read the fine print wrong, and didn’t see that you can use 1 coupon for a table of 1-4, 2 coupons for a table of 5-9 etc. So we went out to dinner with 2 other couples and then I took my mother out to lunch. I still have one coupon to use before November 4th.

When we went of dinner on a Saturday night-it was crowded. Not an open seat in the house. When we went for lunch on a weekday afternoon-it wasn’t as crowded, but there was still a good lunch crowd.

Located on Newbury Street, Mumbai Chopstix has a homey feeling-like you’re eating in a friend’s dining room. There’s a front room with low tables (try and grab a seat by the window for good people watching) and in the back there is a high table with bar like seating. The dining room is casual, simple art pieces on the wall, clear acrylic chairs, modern light fixtures, and large, heavy wooden doors. They offer Chinese and Indian inspired food.

They have great lunch specials-for $12 you can get a soup/appetizer, an entree and an ice cream. Because we are trying to eat $35 worth of food, we pass on this deal, but will keep it in mind for another time. I order the sweet corn soup-creamy burnt ginger infused corn soup with cilantro chicken or vegetables ($4.95). The consistency is similar to the hot and sour soup, it looks like a clear gelatin of sorts. In my head, I’m thinking that it’s kind of weird, but my fears float away after tasting the soup. It has a great taste to it, and I love to corn. If you don’t like cilantro, ask for the soup without it-because it can be a bit overwhelming in the soup at times.

The “calcutta style hot and soup soup” is a spicy ‘desi’ Szechwan brother with a hint of garum masala chicken/vegetables ($4.95). Also a great choice to warm you up on a cold afternoon.

We order the momoh’s, which are steamed vegetable or chicken dumplings served with Tangra chili sauce(that has a little kick to it) ($5.95) These are really good. We had the vegetable momohs, that have a nice variety of vegetables inside, including some baby corn! We had both varieties at dinner, the chicken momoh’s are excellent as well. They come 4 to a serving.

We also ordered the Szechuan fried rice, an Indian take on Chinese fried rice with exotic veggies (you can get meat) and curry leaves ($9.95). It was delicious, very light-it felt almost healthy. (You know how fried rice can sometimes just sit in the bottom of your stomach.)

Some other dishes to mention, that are not pictured above, are the tandoori chicken or vegetable spring rolls with sweet chili sauce ($5.95) come 2 to an order. They are fried, and yet light-exactly what you would expect from a spring roll. The Meatball Manchurian is tender beef meatballs in a soy and cilantro spiked glaze ($16.95). An excellent choice. The “desi” chicken is very popular (we brought some home when we went for lunch) which is an Indian Chinese classic, boneless chicken infused with fresh herbs and chilies, served traditional Hakka style with light gravy ($16.95). Excellent flavor in this dish-I really liked it. For dinner we had the sweet and sour pork ($16.95)-tender pork tossed with lychee, peppers and onions in a sweet and sour sauce. Also an tasty dish-the pork was tender and the sauce was more sweet than sour (and not too syrup-y as some sweet and sour sauces can be). And the chili garlic noodles, stir fried with shredded vegetables prepared to desired heat level ($8.95) was like a lo-mein.

All the entrees came with a bowl of white rice and all the dishes can be made to your desired heat level. Everything here has a light and fresh taste. I really enjoyed this place, the food was fresh, the service was good-I hope they do well. I think they bring something new and different to Newbury street!

It was too cold to eat outside when we went, but they have a great outdoor patio!

We went back on a weekend, and we were pleasantly surprised that they offered an all you can eat buffet for $9.95. The middle of the room is set up with the buffet, and in addition to all the foods set out, you get a cup of soup and an ice cream dessert. The soup was the hot and sour soup-which I actually tasted this time, and it was little spicy-made my lips tingle a bit. It was very good! We sat in the back room, and we came in at just the right time because we got the last open table. The buffet had a really good selection of what is on the menu, they offered fried rice, the chili garlic noodles, the desi chicken, a lamb entree and more.

The tandoori chicken spring rolls came with a sweet chili sauce. They were excellent. Crispy on the outside, and packed with flavorful chicken. We used our last coupon but when we got the check we got a $10 off $40 coupon for our next meal! Can’t wait to go back.