Bombay Royale is one of the best Indian restaurants in the Pioneer Valley, although the bar in Western MA is quite low.  Bombay Royale’s menu covers all the dishes you would expect to see in a general, non-regional Indian restaurant, and as a plus has a section for vegetarian dishes and a separate section for vegan dishes.  Their food generally is good, I really like the Masala Dosa, the Mulligatawny Soup, and the home made Lime Soda but sometimes the spices in their main dishes taste harsh and not well knit together.  They tend to fall down on service, it often seems like the waiters are only begrudgingly taking your order, bringing you your food and dropping off the check. Bombay Royale has a good Sunday brunch buffet, but it gets packed and often the kitchen is overwhelmed and leaves big gaps in the buffet, so come early.

Vegetable Samosa

The Dumplings:  There is some argument over whether Samosa’s count as dumplings, some people feel they are too big to be dumplings.  But here at Dumpling Hunter we embrace Samosa, Empanadas, Pasties, and Piroshkies as part of the Dumpling family.

Bombay Royale serves vegetable Samosa’s which are vegan, Lamb Kheema Samosa and Samosa Chaat which are smashed Samosa topped with Chaat Chutneys.  The veggie Samosas come three to an order and were pretty small, sort of mini, slider sized Samosas. But on the plus side this increases the surface area to volume ratio so you get relatively more fried crunchy wrapper.  The potato filling was very mild and I would have preferred it with a deeper curry flavor.  Overall their Veggie Samosas worked for me as an appetizer, I enjoyed the relative abundance of crispy fried wrapper and even though the flavor was really mild, the potato filling whet my appetite for the main dishes.

The Location: Bombay Royale is in downtown Northampton MA at 52 Crafts Ave. in One Roundhouse Plaza, near the Peter Pan bus station.