Place: Bombay Chow Wembley
Location: 299 Harrow Rd., Wembley
Cuisine: Indian & Chinese
Meal: Dinner (with family)
On: Saturday, 24 October 2026
Bombay Chow Brasserie in Northwood happens to be one of our favourite restaurants in this part of town. So visiting their sister restaurant in Wembley seemed like a no-brainer. We first came here with family in October 2024 but had a mediocre experience. Giving it the benefit of the doubt, and not wanting to judge based on one such experience, we were back again, two years later, but it wasn’t any better.
We walked in as a group of 5 at around 8:00 PM. The restaurant in Wembley is divided into two parts, one under the Bombay Chow umbrella, and another with a lounge, called Station31. While there was seating available on the Bombay Chow side, we were led to Station31. The former was dimly lit and had a subdued ambience, whereas this side was brightly lit, with a sports bar kind of atmosphere. We didn’t ask to be moved, and in hindsight we should have, given how slow the service turned out to be. That said, the brighter setting actually suited our group, with more space to ourselves, as we were one of the few occupied tables in this part of the restaurant.
Their menu is more or less similar to their Northwood branch, and having liked their Lotus Root, we ordered a portion of it, along with Chilli Garlic Mushrooms and Tai Pai Paneer.
The food was served in about 15 minutes. First came the Lotus Root, followed by the others, and this was as good as in our previous visits to Northwood. The root was well cooked, and the sauce was tangy, with a touch of spice.
Their Chilli Garlic Mushrooms, unlike the fried mushrooms in sauce that you usually find in other restaurants, was breaded mushrooms fried and tossed in a chilli garlic sauce. While this sounds good on paper, the coating was so thin that the button mushroom separated from it upon digging in, and so you ended up eating the coating and the half-cooked mushroom separately. The taste was good, but this wasn’t a great dish for this reason. We couldn’t taste the garlic in the sauce either.
The Tai Pai Paneer was decent, with paneer in the same tangy sauce used for the other two dishes. However, the paneer was a bit chewy for my liking.
What was surprising was that all three dishes had the same base sauce, so it felt like we were eating mushrooms, lotus root and paneer in the same sauce. Thankfully, the sauce tasted good!
For the mains, we ordered a portion each of Schezwan Noodles, Hakka Noodles and Mushroom Fried Rice, along with Cauliflower Manchurian.
Without any change of plates, the mains started coming in, all at different times. First, the Hakka Noodles were served. The portion size was really small, and they looked and tasted more like chow mein, with a savoury Chinese profile rather than the tangy Indo-Chinese hakka noodles type. No one on the table was particularly impressed with them.
The Schezwan Noodles were similar, but thanks to the schezwan sauce, they tasted much better. They weren’t spicy as such, and definitely had more vegetables and bold flavour compared to the Hakka Noodles.
The Mushroom Fried Rice was the best of the mains. Again, the quantity was minimal, but the rice was well cooked and tasted good with the mushrooms.
The Manchurian was served last. Compared to the starters we ordered earlier, this looked much different, with a darker texture, thanks to the soy sauce. The outer layer was alright, but the cauliflower itself was undercooked, and this made the dish the least favourite on the table, with barely any takers.
Given the mediocre mains, our little one ate very little, and to make her happy, we decided to order two Sizzling Chocolate Brownies for dessert.
It took a while for this to come through, and it was well presented, with the chocolate sauce being poured at the table for the sizzling effect. However, the brownie itself tasted very stale, and the chocolate tasted more like caramel, making the dish very gooey. The small vanilla scoop didn’t help either, for it wasn’t enough ice cream for the brownie. We should have just ordered one!
Overall, a very mediocre meal. The starters were decent, albeit with the same sauce, but everything thereafter went downhill. With us sitting on the Station31 side, away from the main restaurant, the service wasn’t great either. We constantly had to wave to get the staff’s attention, even with so few tables occupied, and it’s hard to justify a 12.5% service charge when there was barely any proper service. The small portion sizes didn’t help either.
That said, there is potential here. The Lotus Root, Schezwan Noodles and Mushroom Fried Rice show the kitchen can get things right, and the sauce on the starters tasted good. A few changes would make a real difference: a bit more variety in the starter sauces, a fresher brownie, and a server assigned to the Station31 side. This was the second time in two years that we’ve had a bad experience here, and unless things change, I don’t think we’ll be coming back to Wembley. If you’re nearby, I’d suggest trying their Northwood branch instead.
Food: 6.5/10
Service: 6/10
Ambience: 8/10
Meal for 5: £91.40
Verdict: 6.5/10
PS: Bombay Chow is part of the same group as Fatt Pundit, the well-known Indo-Chinese restaurant with several branches in Central London.
