Narin’s Bombay Brasserie



Cuisine

Indian



Meal Periods

Lunch



Dining Format

Buffet



Phone

(713) 622-2005



Address

3005 West Loop S
Houston, TX 77027



Website

thebombaybrasserie.com



Cuisine

Indian



Meal Periods

Lunch



Dining Format

Buffet



Phone

(713) 622-2005



Address

3005 West Loop S
Houston, TX 77027



Website

thebombaybrasserie.com

EXPERIENCE

Narin’s Bombay Brasserie is an Indian restaurant near the Galleria with a lunch buffet that gives vegetables, lentils and paneer a worthwhile share of the plate. The setting combines a dining room with a bar, and lunch retains some of the pleasures of restaurant service: linen-covered tables and warm naan brought over to accompany the food. You choose from the spread, then sit down to a meal with a little polish.

The West Loop South location is easy to recognize by its red Bombay Brasserie lettering and the arched Narin’s sign over the entrance. It occupies part of a pale commercial building with tall columns and upper arches. Inside, the bar is prominent, but the buffet is a lunchtime reason to visit in its own right. The restaurant suits a catch-up lunch or a family gathering where everyone would like to choose for themselves.

The appeal is in the combination of self-service variety and a table to settle into. Naan arriving alongside the curries gives lunch a shared element, even when the plates look quite different. Someone can concentrate on paneer and dal while someone else explores the rest of the day’s selection. There is room for individual preferences without turning the whole table’s meal into a negotiation over one order.

Come for lunch rather than expecting an unlimited dinner. The buffet changes, and the broader menu offers separately ordered dishes beyond the day’s spread. A useful approach is to give the vegetable choices proper attention and leave a little space for a sweet. Gulab jamun has a way of making an entirely reasonable case for that space.

FOOD

Vegetable Manchurian is a good place to begin at Narin’s. Crisp vegetable dumplings coated in garlic-soy sauce bring an Indo-Chinese accent to a buffet otherwise full of familiar Indian curries. They are worth trying alongside the spinach, paneer and lentils, particularly if your usual Indian lunch starts and ends with the same chicken dish. The buffet changes, but these are among the preparations that give its lunch selection character.

Saag paneer, dal makhani and navratan korma offer three quite different ways to build the rest of the plate. The saag pairs spinach with Indian cheese; dal makhani brings lentils; navratan korma adds a mixed-vegetable curry. Give each a little space rather than covering everything with the first sauce you choose. The garlic-soy dumplings are a different proposition from a spoonful of dal or cheese surrounded by greens, and that contrast is part of the pleasure.

Butter chicken has also appeared on the buffet. The familiar tomato-and-butter style is an inviting companion to naan, especially for someone who wants a meat dish beside the vegetable preparations. It does not need to be the entire lunch, though. A little butter chicken, some Manchurian and a helping of saag make a more interesting plate than treating the vegetables as whatever fits around the edges.

The naan comes warm to the table. That small bit of service matters when the curries are self-serve: collect the dishes you want, sit down and share the bread rather than making another trip for every part of lunch. Tear off a piece for the dal, use another with the spinach and cheese, and leave the bread within reach. This is precisely the sort of meal where the bread can disappear while everyone insists they have only had a little.

Gulab jamun offers a syrup-soaked sweet finish when it joins the dessert selection. After garlic, soy and curry, one of those small sweets makes a very definite change of course. You do not need an elaborate dessert plan; just enough room to enjoy something sweet before heading back out into the Galleria-area afternoon.

FOOD HIGHLIGHTS

♛ Saag Paneer — spinach and cheese among the changing lunch choices.

♛ Dal Makhani — a substantial lentil dish to enjoy with naan.

♛ Navratan Korma — a vegetable curry worth looking for on the spread.

♛ Vegetable Manchurian — vegetable dumplings dressed with garlic-soy sauce.

♛ Naan — warm table bread accompanies the self-service buffet lunch.

♛ Gulab Jamun — a sweet ending when it joins the dessert selection.

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