O’Bombay
280 Pennant Hills Rd
Thornleigh, Sydney
O’Bombay is a relatively new addition to the growing restaurant scene in Thornleigh in Sydney’s north. It sits on Pennant Hills Rd with parking right behind it and has brought the flavours and tastes of Indian street food to the district. It has a quirky décor which goes well with the food they have on offer.
It’s hard not to start with the Pani Puri here. In fact - it’s a must do. These crispy balls filled with mashed chickpeas and tamarind water are actually done at a special cart. Hop up from your table, head over there and have them standing at the cart - freshly made right in front of you. It’s like you were at a street side stall.
A variation on this is the Dahi Batata Puri. Described in the menu as small crispy puffed breads mixed with boiled potato and chickpeas then topped with chilled yoghurt and various chutneys. They were crunchy and tangy and very moreish.
The prawns were a go to dish. They were spicy - but not overpowering - and there were plenty of them too. They were nice and tender and went well with the dipping sauce - and well on their own too!
Onion Bhaji is one of Sirs favourites. Spying lots of Bhaji’s on the menu made the decision difficult but Sir got what he wanted and loved them. It was a different version of Onion Bhaji but a great one. He raved about it and devoured it - sharing very little.
On to mains and we started with a good ole butter chicken. Yes we know what you may be thinking - but sometimes we just like to have this anyway. It was tangy, tender and tasty.
The fish curry was interesting too. It had big pieces of fish in a rich curry with a bit of bite. It looked like a bowl of just sauce when it arrived but there was heaps of tasty fish lurking just below the surface and easy to catch too!
Sides are essential with Indian food. We had some garlic roti which had plenty of topping and some basmati rice. Both went so well.
We really didn’t have space for dessert, but had some anyway. We’re not sure what it was but it used condensed milk and it was sweet. It was a bit like a deconstructed cheesecake in some respects and very nice too.
We left O’Bombay very full and impressed. The food was tasty and affordable, service was fast and friendly and the place has a nice feel to it.