Bombay Local Pizza

1120 White Horse Rd #132
Voorhees Township, NJ 08043
(856) 375-2246

I recently got an invite to check out an Indian pizza place in Voorhees, and since I LOVE Indian pizza, and free food, I could not possibly turn it down.

Located in a typical NJ shopping center, Bombay Local has been open for about a year. The interior is sparse, but what this place lacks in ambiance, it crushes with fresh ingredients and the best damn marinara I can remember tasting.

Below are owners-brothers: Parig & Sam from Chatanooga, TN. The duo worked in finance for a few years in New York and then decided to open a restaurant closer to Philadelphia, in New Jersey. They base their creative menu on some family recipes mixed with new ideas, focusing on the freshest ingredients.

They recommend I start with the Desi bread served with a side of original tomato sauce. My god this was incredible garlic bread. It was simple, buttery, and packed with fresh flavors. The side of aforementioned marinara was just unreal. They take a traditional tomato sauce and add in a few extra Indian flavors. It's subtle, smoky sweet and positively addicting.

The bread itself had chopped peppers, garlic, and onions on it. It would make a fantastic sandwich wrapper.

They were kind enough to bring out two pizzas, each quarter boasting a different pizza style. So basically it was like getting to taste eight pizzas in one. Perfect.

Baingan bharta below. Probably one of my favorite Indian specialties off of a pizza, it was definitely also a winner on the pizza. "Bharta" refers to dishes in which the ingredients are roughly mashed either before or after the dish is prepared, so here we have a smoky, roasted eggplant mash that's full of garlicy garam masala flavor.

Bombay masala below, my second favorite of the day. The Indian BBQ sauce was sweet and spicy – so robust!

Chili potato below. Nothing too exciting there, but still pretty good.

Four alarm below, with habanero, jalapeno and small Indian chile peppers littering the melted cheese. This one was hot. With a really slow, creeper kind of kick that is also slow to dissipate.

After my mouth recovered from the four alarm, the next pie came out.

Spicy paneer below - it was bit like the bombay masala, but with less sauce and double the cheese.

Chutney paneer was probably the best of the 'paneer' selections. I mean, cheese chunks on top of melted cheese is certainly a no brainer for me, but this one had the fresh tang of mint-coriander chutney to cut the dairy. It's always nice to finish with some acidity...

Paneer tikka below, another take on the Indian-style BBQ sauce, a bit milder than the masala version.

Samosa below. It was like unwrapping a samosa and eating it flat. The flavors were spot on and the potatoes and curry seasoning took me right to the best Indian buffets of my memories.

If you are familiar with Indian food, you will know what each of these variations consist of. Each had their own unique flavors, and I have to say, the quality and freshness of the ingredients was evident in every slice. If I was in Jersey, this would undoubtedly be on my regular rotation. I didn't get a chance to try the Indian hoagies, but I certainly will next time.

Earth Bread + Brewery

7136 Germantown Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19119-1843
(215) 242-6666
Website

When I had been wanting to try Earth Bread, I never took into consideration that it would be a hippie commune. In retrospect, I don't know why I wouldn't have thought that. Anyway, this place would probably fit in better on Haight street than Germantown avenue, but it's nice that they are trying to make the neighborhood a better place.


The mural is bright, festive, and inviting, a nice touch to an otherwise crappy neighborhood.


The restaurant is on both the first and second floors, and has a lot of interior space. They offered three house brewed drafts, including one gluten-free beer. I went with the hand pumped IPA. It only took twenty minutes to get it up to me (the cask is on the first floor).


If you can tell from that picture, it's very dark in there. I also couldn't shake the feeling that most of the waitstaff (and half of the customers) were stoned. That would explain the reason that the service was so laid back, to put it nicely. I figured the traditional pie was a must to get a feel for the food. House-made tomato sauce, roasted onion, fresh mozzarella, garlic, olive oil and basil and topped with fresh greens, dressed with tomato vinaigrette. When it came out, the crust was well browned and the pizza smelled delicious. I initially tried to get a picture, but it was so dark, I had to get up and walk to the middle of the dining room. Luckily my dining partner was okay with it.


Everything on the pizza was good (including the pepperoni that cost extra, but was well worth it), and although I usually love dressed arugula on top of my pizza, the greens in this case weren't really dressed, but more of a drizzle of dressing. I took it upon myself to spread the tomato vinaigrette more evenly. I should also mention that after the pizzas were brought to the table (not by our waitress) she stood about twenty feet away, watching me take pictures in the middle of the room, and then stood at the bar watching us not eat for about five minutes. She hadn't bothered to ask why, until we signaled that we were missing plates and silverware. Pretty basic stuff for a server. She also failed to timely bring out an extra side of the tomato vinaigrette, when it as requested. It wasn't that the sauce was amazing (it was basically tomato sauce with vinegar in it), but I like to have something to dip my crusts into. It did eventually come, but I had been staring at a plate full of crusts for far too long. So anyway, the special of the night came out as well, a pizza inspired by Indian cuisine (and possibly Tiffin etc.). It was good, with chickpeas, chicken, cilantro, tomato slices, golden raisins, and a sauce of spicy jalapenos. I loved the jalapeno sauce, it was spicy, but not overpowering and added a nice flavor profile to the pizza.


Overall, I liked Earth, but I did not see anything I hadn't seen before, but I did really like the crust. The beer was just average, but it would be a welcome addition to any neighborhood. I would definitely go back, but I would not venture out of the city just for their pizza.