Now this is the club you want to belong to!

A platter of vegetarian dishes

It is the Bombay Club, located at 815, Connecticut Avenue, NW in Washington DC.

At, $20.95 per person, the Sunday buffet-brunch is priced a tad higher than the lunch buffet available at other Indian restaurants in the D.C. region. The buffet was adequate, although not very diverse. But the quality certainly compensated for the quantity. The ambience helped by the presence of a pianist, also added value to the experience.

Every dish brought out the subtle flavors of the spices, unlike some places that simply throw spices into every dish with little consideration for whether it accentuates or detracts from the natural flavors of the vegetables or protein.

One of the traditional brunch options was scrambled egg, cooked with cilantro, tomato and onions. If you are a vegetarian, there were several options including paneer rasala (cottage cheese gravy), dal kabila (lentils), spinach aloo (potato cooked in spinach), mixed vegetables, along with bhel puri, aloo tikki (potato patty), greens and pickles as appetisers, and jeera rice (cumin rice).
The paneer (cottage cheese) cooked in a cashew gravy with a savory hint of cardamom was subtle and interestingly mild. The spinach potato was delicious and seasoned with cumin, ginger and garam masala (blend of spices). Dal kabila (lentils) was the spiciest of the lot and perfectly complemented the other, less spicy dishes.

I personally loved their chicken served with a coconut gravy. It was cooked in freshly ground spices. The chicken was perfectly marinated and went well with naan (bread). If you are a seafood lover, there were fillets of fish cooked in a gravy. The chicken and the fish paired flawlessly with the jeera rice. The meal ended with gulab jamuns and some Darjeeling tea. 

I have also tried their ala carte options. One of my favorites is their thali - a platter of vegetarian and seafood/meat dishes.

My friend Debasree contributed to this post.