Cheap Eats Auckland CBD: Jewel of Bombay
My previously regarded cheapness, coupled with a desire to continue content on my blog has given birth to The Student's Guide to Even Cheaper Eats, in which I endeavour to satisfy my tastebuds and stomach during my schooling years in Auckland CBD with a meal on no more than $5 a week.
Jewel of Bombay is a chain of restaurants serving Indian food, situated within both University campus cafeterias as well as a few others within the main city area. They serve curries (unsurprisingly), as well as various vegetarian side dishes and mango lassi drinks as extra refreshments (clearly aimed at those with a larger budget than me). As well as the curry-on-rice option is a snackbox offered at only $4.90, a small curry on top of rice, which sounds a good enough meal to spend this week's savings of $6.20.
ORDERING AND SERVICE
I am an indecisive person, and am also the type to ask the server of their personal opinions on the selection to have the best amongst the menu. While this becomes easier to decide in some cases, this was not one of those times. Despite only six curries to choose from (excluding the few vegetarian curry options also available), the server unknowingly placed me in even more misery when he kindly told me that all of their curries were good, and at my continued deliberation only cut me down to half of the choices available. Finally, after several minutes further of panicking (and allowing two others ahead of me in line) he suggested the chicken masala, which I gladly accepted and moved on.
FOOD
For $4.90 it was decent in size, though they could, admittedly, have been a little more generous with either the rice, but the portion of meat was decent for the price alongside the other items so it was nothing I could complain about.
The taste, however, was something more of a disappointment. Though I'm aware that Indian takeaways such as this one would hardly be classified as real Indian cuisine by most Indians the masala lacked a lot of things in the flavour department, the taste reminiscent of food one might find in an airline meal. Tasting very lightly of tomato but little else, it depended on the peppers and onions in the gravy to add a little more flavour, but having been cooked to a consistency where it barely requires chewing to be digested, it left the entire dish with a whole lot to be desired. I wasn't expecting much, but the flavour of the dish made me wonder whether the suggestion to buy it had been a method to get rid of one portion to reduce wastage - if that's the case, the service hadn't been as good as I'd first considered, or the food is sub-par to other Indian dining establishments I've visited.
FILLING-NESS
Initially I had expected it to be very filling. The snackbox option is popular due to its price, such that the two people I allowed in line ahead of me were two teaching staff, both large males with seemingly hearty appetites. One ordered sides with his meal but the other left with just the snackbox, and considering my appetite is relatively small at best (it makes me a bad dining companion at buffets), it left even me a little peckish following my meal. However, the hunger subsided after a few minutes, and the rice was enough to last me a couple more hours before I was truly hungry again - that being said, it wasn't as filling, nor satisfying, a meal as I'd first expected.
FINAL RATING
11/23. A good price, but lowered due to the taste and the general unsatisfactory feeling from the meal. I might try other curries in the future - perhaps it will yield a better result.
Jewel of Bombay
Inevitably, there's always that week or two in the semester where it seemed every day has timing too awkward to escape from campus for a good meal, but I didn't expect this one to come so early. Between lectures, extra activities, and late bus debacles (amongst other things), there wasn't a good solid hour to sneak away and indulge on food with as little money as I could possibly spend. Thankfully, there's always the on-campus dining options, and while some are mind-blowingly ridiculous in their pricing (I'm looking at you, hipster three-coffee-menu, gluten-free-vegan-dining cafes) there is an equal number of choices with a more reasonable range.Jewel of Bombay is a chain of restaurants serving Indian food, situated within both University campus cafeterias as well as a few others within the main city area. They serve curries (unsurprisingly), as well as various vegetarian side dishes and mango lassi drinks as extra refreshments (clearly aimed at those with a larger budget than me). As well as the curry-on-rice option is a snackbox offered at only $4.90, a small curry on top of rice, which sounds a good enough meal to spend this week's savings of $6.20.
ORDERING AND SERVICE
I am an indecisive person, and am also the type to ask the server of their personal opinions on the selection to have the best amongst the menu. While this becomes easier to decide in some cases, this was not one of those times. Despite only six curries to choose from (excluding the few vegetarian curry options also available), the server unknowingly placed me in even more misery when he kindly told me that all of their curries were good, and at my continued deliberation only cut me down to half of the choices available. Finally, after several minutes further of panicking (and allowing two others ahead of me in line) he suggested the chicken masala, which I gladly accepted and moved on.
FOOD
For $4.90 it was decent in size, though they could, admittedly, have been a little more generous with either the rice, but the portion of meat was decent for the price alongside the other items so it was nothing I could complain about.
The taste, however, was something more of a disappointment. Though I'm aware that Indian takeaways such as this one would hardly be classified as real Indian cuisine by most Indians the masala lacked a lot of things in the flavour department, the taste reminiscent of food one might find in an airline meal. Tasting very lightly of tomato but little else, it depended on the peppers and onions in the gravy to add a little more flavour, but having been cooked to a consistency where it barely requires chewing to be digested, it left the entire dish with a whole lot to be desired. I wasn't expecting much, but the flavour of the dish made me wonder whether the suggestion to buy it had been a method to get rid of one portion to reduce wastage - if that's the case, the service hadn't been as good as I'd first considered, or the food is sub-par to other Indian dining establishments I've visited.
FILLING-NESS
Initially I had expected it to be very filling. The snackbox option is popular due to its price, such that the two people I allowed in line ahead of me were two teaching staff, both large males with seemingly hearty appetites. One ordered sides with his meal but the other left with just the snackbox, and considering my appetite is relatively small at best (it makes me a bad dining companion at buffets), it left even me a little peckish following my meal. However, the hunger subsided after a few minutes, and the rice was enough to last me a couple more hours before I was truly hungry again - that being said, it wasn't as filling, nor satisfying, a meal as I'd first expected.
FINAL RATING
11/23. A good price, but lowered due to the taste and the general unsatisfactory feeling from the meal. I might try other curries in the future - perhaps it will yield a better result.
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