When driving past the madness that is the Central Festival intersection, one might overlook the phenomenal food options available in the area. Just down the road there is Italian, Japanese and European cuisine, coffee shops and a lovely family-owned gem called Bollywood. Bollywood has been winning the hearts of locals and expats alike with its delicious, authentic home-style Indian cooking since 2014.

Upon entering, you are greeted by happy and helpful staff and surrounded by Bollywood photos and memorabilia as Indian pop music videos play on the television. It’s easy to get lost in the ambience once inside. That is, until you are handed a menu. Full of traditional Indian fare, Bollywood offers up curries, masalas, roti, naan, as well as many vegetarian options, in addition to a few Indo-Chinese dishes. Just as many other Indian restaurants, Bollywood does not serve any beef or pork, but most notably is halal friendly.

Seafood is brought in fresh every day and because everything is made from scratch, most dishes take a little longer to prepare than other restaurants. However, once you have dined here, you know that it is very much worth the extra few minutes. To start any meal at Bollywood, one must definitely have a mango lassi! So sweet and smooth, made with homemade yoghurt and the perfect amount of grenadine, these amazing beverages are a Thursday special, with one free lassi for the ladies with any food order (sorry fellas!).

For our first round of dishes we were presented with prawn curry, butter chicken and mutton biryani. It’s worth noting that many of the spices used in these dishes are imported from India, making each as authentic as if you were there yourself. The prawn curry was excellent – smooth, yet spicy, creamy and cooked to perfection. Sometimes with this dish, the curry can tend to overtake the other spices and flavors. However, I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case here.

Next was the butter chicken. Equally excellent, this wonderful dish had a very smoky rustic flavor and was very hearty – definitely enough to satisfy ones hunger. As for the mutton biryani, it was full of flavor and cooked perfectly with tender pieces of lamb throughout. It was also the ideal base for the curry and butter chicken! Served with our meal was a good portion of delicious garlic and sesame naan, cooked in their coal oven, giving it a wonderful toasty flavor.

The best dish, however, was hands down the tandoori chicken. Also cooked in the coal oven, these tender, flavorful, marinated pieces of goodness are enough to make even the most skeptical diner shout out with glee! With amazing food on offer, it’s comforting to know that it is available for takeaway and with a weeks notice, can also be commissioned for catering! And as if the food wasn’t good enough to draw you in, Bollywood also has daily specials, including buy one get one free wine Wednesdays; 70 baht select beer on Monday; and a 399 baht set lunch special on the weekends; as well as five Belgian beers handpicked and paired with selected dishes.

Amazing food, great location, wonderful specials and a fun atmosphere make Bollywood the perfect stop for all of your Indian food desires.

By Katie, E-Table Asia