Broomfield Restaurant Reviews

There are a lot of restaurants popping up with this pan-Asian theme.  The menus all seem to be pretty similar, offering dishes from Thailand, China, Japan, Vietnam, and sometimes Korea.  Ooka is Broomfield’s latest.  They’ve got pan-Asian down, but also have a respectable sushi bar.

Ooka is located in front of Safeway, in the old Boston Market location.  Beth and I have been there twice now and enjoyed it both times.  And both times we got sushi, which was good.  I was hoping on the second trip to find tonkatsu, but they don’t have it.

The main Broomfield area (not counting the FlatIron Crossing area) now has several restaurants that serve essentially the same menu, this “pan-Asian” thing:  Ooka, Zen, Zo, and Spring Thai.  I can hardly tell them apart, and I can’t see how they can all stay in business doing the same thing with roughly the same quality.  But I said that about our three pho restaurants and they’re still open, years later.

Do you have a favorite?  Leave me a comment.

Ooka Sushi & Asian Cuisine
6485 W. 120th Ave
Broomfield, CO 80020

Beth and I have visited Taru Sushi & Grill twice now, once for supper and once for lunch.  I wish I could say this restaurant was in Broomfield, but alas it’s in Westminster.

The original Taru was in Orlando, but they’ve either moved or expanded to Westminster.  The menu is extensive.  In addition to the usual sushi restaurant stuff, they’ve got more sushi rolls and other Japanese items.  The thing that caught my eye when we went in the first time was that they have tonkatsu.

On the first trip, we stuck with sushi and ordered onion soup, two house salads, the Lady Roll, inari sushi (tofu), sake sushi (salmon), and an asparagus & avocado roll.  The waiter was a little clueless, but the food was good.  Also, we had a coupon for free sake, so we had to try that out, of course.  It was hot and tasty.

The restaurant was pretty crowded for dinner.  I’d guess it was about 80% full.  The soup and salad were tasty, but probably not at all authentic.  The Lady Roll was really good, but I can’t remember what was in it!  The veggie roll was pretty plain, just as it was described in the menu.  The salmon was way good!  I asked Beth how she liked the inari, and she just said “It was OK.”

The manager came by to check on us, and recommended that next time we should try some of the other rolls.  She particularly likes the Mango Tango roll.

On our second trip, Beth and I went for lunch.  Beth just had the Lady Roll again, but I went for a bento box.  Beth liked the Lady Roll again, but the bento box was a real feast and a treat.  It had tonkatsu, a little California roll (which unfortunately was made with krab instead of crab), soup (I opted for the onion soup again), some white rice, a couple pieces of deep fried shumai (I didn’t care for that), and a couple of gyoza.  All that was only about $11!

I’ll definitely go back, if for the bento box lunch if nothing else.  Even though a good friend of ours is a sushi chef at a restaurant in Lafayette, Taru is a lot closer to home and has a wider variety of items on the menu.

Taru Sushi & Grill
303-460-8868
4880 West 120th Avenue #200
Westminster, CO 80020

www.tarusushi.com

Bombay Palace is Broomfield’s newest Indian restaurant.  A few weeks ago, it took over the empty location where Buddha Indian Cuisine once stood, next door to La Casita de Durango and across Nickel Street from Target.

I’ve eaten at Bombay Palace three times now, twice for lunch and once for supper.  Their lunch buffet is above average, I’d say.  In addition to the usual Indian lunch buffet favorites (tandoori chicken, etc.) they have some more interesting dishes I don’t see very often, like noodles and mango custard and eggplant.

Last week, Beth and I went to Bombay Palace for supper for the first time, and we both enjoyed it.  We had rice and papadums and naan, of course.  The naan was sub-par, for some reason.  It just wasn’t fluffy or crispy enough.  For our entrees, we ordered Bombay Special Chicken and Bindi Masala.  We asked for both to be prepared medium spicy, but I thought they were both very mild.  So I’m not sure if their spicy scale is just miscalibrated, or if the cook misread “medium” to be “mild” or something.

Notice I said “cook.”  I’m pretty sure there was only one person working in the kitchen, with the waitress occasionally going back there to help out.  It took quite a while for our food to come out – long enough for Beth to start getting very impatient.  But once the food arrived, it was good.  The Bombay Special Chicken, though mild, was very good.  It was marinated chicken cooked in the tandoori oven, and then served with an orange colored cream sauce on the side.  The sauce was super yummy, and the flavors mixed really well.  Bindi Masala is okra, sauteed with onion, ginger, tomato, and spices.  We couldn’t finish it all, so I brought the rest home.  I liked it, but wished it had been prepared spicier.

So, my overall impressions of the place: better food than the other Broomfield Indian restaurant, needs more spice, supper took too long to cook.  I’ll definitely go back for lunch sometime, and maybe for supper again.  Our server also said they’re going to start having a dinner buffet on the weekend starting in a few weeks.  I’d like to try that and see how it is.

300 Nickel Street
Broomfield, CO 80020
720-887-0400

Oh, and they have a website: http://www.thebombaypalace.com

Note: I wrote the review below on February 1, 2009.  However, when I drove by the restaurant on February 15, 2010, I noticed they had changed their sign.  It is now called “New Port” instead of “Heaven Star.”

My wife Beth and I visited the long-awaited Heaven Star twice in their first week.  Though things were shaky both times, we’ll be back.

The first visit was on Wednesday January 21, the day after they opened.  We went in the evening, when they’re serving dinner from a menu.  To get dim sum, you must visit during lunch, between 11 AM and 3 PM.  The dinner menu was extensive, and included favorites of Americanized Chinese food (sesame chicken, for instance) as well as things that I can only assume are authentic (various tripe dishes).

We ordered scallops with vegetables and sesame beef.  I wanted some hot and sour soup, so I ordered a cup of that.  We also ordered a pot of tea.  The server asked what kind, and they serve three different types, but I can’t remember what they all were.  All I remember was they didn’t have chrysanthemum tea (which I like from King’s Land in Denver) and so I ordered jasmine tea.  I wanted steamed rice, but Beth wanted fried rice.  The server said that would be no problem.  But it turned out to be.

The hot and sour soup was fine, but nothing out of the ordinary.  I could’ve been from any Chinese restaurant in Broomfield.  They brought the scallops and vegetables out first, and at first I waited for a bit for the other entree to arrive before digging in.  But after a few minutes, it was clear the beef wasn’t following right behind so I started serving up the scallops.  About five minutes later the beef finally arrived, and kept right on going.  Apparently, the person running plates to the dining room didn’t know that plate was supposed to stop at our table, so Beth had to go flag her down.  When Beth asked where the fried rice was, she got a blank stare – the universal sign of “I don’t speak English.”  So Beth grabbed another server who came by to refill our water glasses and asked for the fried rice.  Another five minutes went by and some fried rice appeared.  So, we did eventually get all the food we asked for, but it was a confusing mess.  Negative points for service.

The food itself was very tasty, though.  Both entrees were nice.  The fried rice was pretty boring, however, and made us wonder if it was really worth the trouble of having to order it twice.

On this visit, it was pretty clear the restaurant opened about a week before it should have.  Many of the interior decorations were just sitting on the floor in the lobby, the walkway from the parking lot to the door wasn’t finished, and the servers were poorly prepared.

Our second visit was Sunday morning, just four days later.  We went for dim sum at 11 AM with some friends.  In just those four days, they finished the interior decorations.  We were able to get a table with only about a 5 minute wait, but I’m glad we arrived when we did.  By the time we finished and were on our way out, there were people crammed into every nook and cranny in the lobby, and it was almost impossible to move through the crowd waiting to be seated.

Beth wanted to order “something new” in addition to our usual dim sum favorites.  One of our friends had eaten dim sum before and the other was a total newbie.  So we had three different opinions on what we wanted.  All I can say is the quality was good; to me, it’s about the same quality as King’s Land, which is my favorite.  But this restaurant is only 3 miles from our house, instead of 30, which is nice.  The service didn’t seem as random as our dinner trip, maybe because dim sum served from carts is always a little chaotic.  I definitely got my fill, and we had most of my favorites, so I left happy.

Oh, as an aside, I did make my treacherous way through the mob in the lobby to use the rest room once.  I think Heaven Star has the nicest rest rooms of any Chinese restaurant I’ve seen, and definitely the fanciest of any dim sum restaurant.  We’ll see how long they stay that nice.

Overall, I’d give Heaven Star a thumbs up for both dinner and lunch.  I can’t wait to go back, in fact!  I just worry that with a dim sum restaurant so close to home, it may not seem so special to me any more.  But until then, more dumplings!

Heaven Star
6700 W 120th Ave
Broomfield, CO 80020
(303) 635-1688

By the way, there are a few early comments about Heaven Star over here on my post about the fact that it’s coming soon.  I also see that Yelp already has 6 reviews of the restaurant, located here.  But I haven’t seen any reviews by Westword or the other newspapers yet.

Can you believe Broomfield now has not only one but two Indian restaurants?  As of three months ago, we’d never had even one (as far as I know) and now we have two!  I already reviewed Buddha’s Indian Restaurant, and my wife and a couple weeks ago we just went to the other new one, called India’s Grill.

They’ve been open about 2 months.  When we were there, it wasn’t very crowded, with maybe only 2 or 3 other groups there for dinner.

At India’s Grill, they make their own chutneys, except the mango.  Their mint chutney is very spicy.  I really liked their onion chutney.  It was yummy and crunchy, and I took home an extra order of it in a little side dish container.

I started the meal with a pineapple lassi, which was really tasty and something I’d never had before.  It was quite refreshing.

Beth wanted vegetarian samosas, so we ordered some for an appetizer.  The filling had more of a curry flavor than most samosas I’ve had, and I liked that change of pace.  They were served on a plate with greens and some alfalfa sprouts, which was a nice touch.

For the main course we had lamb saag and chicken korma.  They were both pretty good, I thought.  They were served with mostly plain white basmati rice.  And of course we had naan.  The lamb seemed a little overcooked to me.  The korma sauce on the chicken was thinner than what you usually get at Indian restaurants in our area, but it seemed to have a homemade flavor that I couldn’t really put my finger on.  The naan tasted a bit different to me, too.  It reminded me more of Navajo fry bread for some reason.  Is that because of the flour used or the baking powder or what?  I have no idea.

Overall, I think I liked India’s Grill about as much as Buddha’s, so since Buddha’s is closer to our house I’m probably more likely to eat there.  But both are good choices for Indian food, and the only choices you have within the Broomfield city limits.

India’s Grill

2420 E Midway Blvd

Broomfield, CO 80020

(303) 404-9505

—-

Update: This restaurant went out of business sometime in summer of 2009.  So I’m marking it with the dreaded “Now Closed” category.

The Armadillo Mexican restaurant in Broomfield went out of business a few months back.  H.K. is a Chinese guy I work with, and he’s from Hong Kong, the world center of dim sum.  He told me he heard that a dim sum restaurant was moving in there, and I was so excited!

You see, ever since being introduced to dim sum on a business trip to San Jose, CA about 12 years ago, I’ve been really fond of it.  But the nearest dim sum to Broomfield is way down on Alameda, where apparently almost all the dim sum restaurants in Denver are.  I’m a fan of King’s Land, myself.  H.K. says it’s the most authentic.

But then weeks came and went, and I started to wonder.  I did a little research and couldn’t find any information at all about a dim sum restaurant.  I did find the public record of the sale of the property.  I think it was in 2007 and the new owner didn’t have the kind of name I’d expect from a dim sum restaurantier, if you know what I mean (it was something like George Leonidas).  So I gave up.

But just last week, after several months of nothing, a sign went up on the building:

Heaven Star Chinese Dim Sum Coming Soon

That’s all.  No date.  But I have noticed that some mild and slow-paced remodeling has been going on there over the past couple weeks.  So, I’m back to feeling optimistic that we’re going to get dim sum.  I don’t know if this is strange or not, but this dim sum restaurant will be almost at the exact geometric center of Broomfield’s 3 pho restaurants, and no more than 300 yards from any of them.

I’m even thinking of inviting Jason Sheehan (the restaurant reviewer for Westword) to go have dinner with us on opening night, as a way of celebrating.  But I doubt he’d stoop to dine with mere mortals.

—-

Update: The restaurant opened January 20.  I visited twice in the first week and wrote this review of it.  So I’m disabling comments on this post now.  Please leave your thoughts about Heaven Star over here.

Update: As of December 2008, it looks like Buddha Indian Cuisine has gone out of business.  They didn’t even last 6 months.  So sad.

—-

Broomfield has its first Indian restaurant!  Hurray!  Beth and I had to try it last week on opening night, of course.  She’s the one who first introduced me to Indian food, and we both like it.  This new restaurant is called Buddha Indian Cuisine and it’s across Nickel from Target, in the location where Khow Thai used to be (Khow Thai opened and then went out of business within just a few months, before I had time to write a review of it).

Well, Buddha Indian Cuisine’s grand opening was last week, and it was a little shaky but good.

We had a free basket of very crispy papadums as I looked over the menu, which listed a couple of very interesting-sounding non-alcoholic drinks.  One was a mint cooler that sounded ideal for a warm evening (the air conditioning either wasn’t working or not working very hard) but they couldn’t make that one for me.  So I saw another drink that is listed as Adrak Limbo Ka Ras, “a ginger and lemon drink that will leave your taste buds wanting more.”  I asked for that as a backup, and the waitress said they didn’t have that one either!  So I settled for water.

For entrees, we went hog wild, ordering paneer korma (mild), fish jalfrazi (medium), chana masala (spicy), butter chicken (mild), and an order of roti bread.  Before the entrees were brought out, the server brought two big dishes.  The rice was a little weird, and I don’t think it was the usual basmati rice.  And on top of the rice were cold peas (maybe canned).

When the entrees arrived, the first thing I noticed was how big they were.  The portions are much more generous than some Indian restaurants we like.  In fact, they were probably the biggest portions of any Indian restaurant I’ve seen in Colorado.

The chana masala was actually spicy, which made me happy.  I was a bit afraid they were going to crank it down and make it too mild, but that wasn’t the case at all.  It was too hot for Beth to eat, which is about how I like it.  The butter chicken was very creamy, and probably the best sauce we had.  The other dishes were also good, though the bread was nothing to write home about.

We had lots of leftovers, and I think I got two more yummy meals out of it through the week.

So yesterday, I decided to go back and try the lunch buffet.  The first thing I asked for was the ginger drink – “adrak” – and this time they had it.  It was tasty, but sweet enough that I didn’t really want a refill.

The food was a fairly typical Indian buffet.  This visit the rice was definitely basmati style.  The buffet included tandoori chicken, chicken tikka masala, lentils, spinach (without cheese), vegetable samosas, veggie lo mein, and green salad with ranch dressing.  Sound like every other local Indian buffet?  Yeah, I thought so, too.

The buffet was $8.95 so I tried to eat my fill.  I couldn’t really complain about any of the food, but I was hoping for something – even just one thing – out of the ordinary.  I suppose you don’t see lo mein at most Indian buffets, but although it was good, it didn’t satisfy my desire for something new and extraordinary.

I asked a few questions of the servers and learned that it’s a family owned business.  The family’s name is Gurung, and they’re from Nepal (which I had guessed earlier since they didn’t really look Indian to me and looked more like the Sherpas I’d seen in TV shows and movies about Mount Everest).  There were two sisters and one brother serving food, and Dad is the cook.  Mom works there too, though I didn’t see her at lunchtime.

On my way out, I chatted a little with the siblings and asked if their father considered serving some special dishes from Nepal.  The son said he’s considering making momos.  In my opinion, that would be a nice addition to the menu, since the only thing I saw that wasn’t stock Americanized Indian food was the lo mein on the buffet and the two special drinks.

Next time I definitely hope to try the mint cooler.  Yes, we’ll be going back.  But too bad they don’t offer delivery!

Buddha Indian Cuisine
300 Nickel Street
Broomfield CO 80020
303-993-8036

One last thing: While researching this review, I learned a couple things.  First, traditional Nepalese food is closer to the Indian food we see in American restaurants than I thought.  Second, though the family name is Gurung, that is also the name of an ethnic group (presumably their own).  I’d read about something similar where the Sherpa people (also of Nepal) use “Sherpa” as both a family name and an ethnicity.

Taigun is my favorite sushi bar in Broomfield. That’s not saying too much, I suppose, since we’ve only got maybe four places in the whole city to get sushi. But hey, being first out of four is sure better than being last out of four!

Taigun is located near the FlatIron shopping mall, not far from CB & Potts. Unfortunately, it’s not at all visible from the main street, and you have to drive way around back to find the place. I think they changed hands a couple years ago, as the menu and staff completely changed between two of our visits. They were awesome before, but they’re still good.

The sushi at Taigun is always pretty good and the service is polite, though often not speedy. But I also like the rest of the menu. They have a variety of Japanese dishes other than sushi. I sometimes get the katsu, which is a fried cutlet with a special sauce. They also have shumai and gyoza, which are two different types of dumplings. We also enjoy the variety of sake they offer. Of course, there’s the usual Japanese restaurant hot sake, but they also have some premium cold sakes.

535 B Zang St.
Broomfield, CO 80021
(720) 887-0306

A couple years ago, when the three pho restaurants opened all within a block of each other, I thought, “What were these people thinking? This can’t last. Broomfield’s never even had one Vietnamese restaurant, and suddenly we have three! I’m sure one will win out over the others and the other two will be out of business in six months.” Well, those six months ended well over a year ago, and all three seem to still be going strong.

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, it’s the three Vietnamese restaurants along 120th just east of Main. Pho 120 is on the north side of the street, right behind Good Times. Pho Duy and Pho 79 are both on the south side of the street, near the Pacific Ocean Market and The Armadillo. Pho, for those not already acquainted, is Vietnamese beef noodle soup. All three restaurants specialize in it, and they all make it and serve it generally the same way. You pick the size of bowl you want – small, medium, or large. And you pick what you meats you want in the soup. All the soup bowls come with beef broth, rice noodles, and onions, and you always get a dish on the side with lots of fresh basil, some herb kinda like cilantro, bean sprouts, cut limes, and jalapenos. It’s up to the individual patron to decide which of these veggies to put in the bowl, along with hoisin sauce, fish sauce, and/or hot sauce.

The main differentiating factor between the three pho restaurants is probably the broth. Personally, I like the broth at Pho Duy the best. But I also regularly visit Pho 120 because the atmosphere is a bit quieter and more mellow most days. Pho 79 has the biggest menu, with more non-soup dishes than the others. Pho 120 has a liquor license, though I’ve never felt like ordering any beer or wine with my noodle soup. And Pho Duy has boba smoothies, which are frozen drinks that come in a variety of flavors, with tapioca balls (boba) mixed in.

Eating pho always makes me feel good. It’s a healthy feeling meal – relatively lean meat, tasty broth, and lots of fresh veggies. Plus, you can get a filling meal for about $6 to $8, including a drink. All three restaurants area open every day of the week from 9 AM to 9 PM. I guess some folks eat pho for breakfast, but I never have. It’s a nice lunch and an especially good deal for supper.

Pho Duy
6600 W 120th Ave
Broomfield, CO 80020
(303) 438-7197

Pho 79
6650 W 120th Ave
Broomfield, CO
(303) 439-0028

Pho 120
6765 W 120th Ave
Broomfield, CO
(303) 466-6346