Mainstreaming at Mumbai

Brian Freedman asks if Indian food is becoming the new Chinese. At Mumbai Bistro the answer appears to be yes, for better and worse.

I wonder, however, how much Mumbai should be judged by the metric of spicy authenticity, because they seem to be aiming for something else entirely: A neighborhood Indian restaurant whose primary focus is on healthfully prepared dishes that can be enjoyed quickly and with minimal fuss. In that regard, it’s succeeding beautifully, just as the best Americanized-but-no-less-enjoyable Chinese restaurants have all over the country.

That’s the good news. The bad is that there’s risk involved: By sanding off the more idiosyncratic edges of the food to make it appealing to a wider audience, the soul of some of the dishes is lost

Mumbai Bistro [Philadelphia Weekly]
Mumbai Bistro [Official Site]