Before having a meal in India, Hindus say the short prayer, “Anna hai poorna brahma,” which means “food is divine.” This saying will be resonated 8,000 miles from India in Starkville with the addition of the Bombay Spice Kitchen Indian restaurant on Martin Luther King Drive.
The Bombay Spice Kitchen features selected cuisine from India. Pradip Patel, owner of the Bombay Spice Kitchen restaurant and a business graduate from Mississippi State University, said suggestions from his friends and his love for cooking inspired his decision to open a restaurant.
“Typically, most Indian restaurants use frozen ingredients. Everything we use here is fresh and cooked every day, and nothing is frozen. We keep a limited stock of what we need and we make sure it is fresh,” Patel said.
Gregory Wheeler, a recent graduate from Mississippi State University said he went to the restaurant with his wife and friends and highly recommends the samosas.
“We’ve been waiting for Starkville to get an Indian restaurant since forever. We all ordered the Thali, which was delicious. You get a pretty big portion and a lot of Naan, but we ate it all because everything was so good. They kept apologizing for the service saying it was their first day, but I didn’t have any problems. I thought the service was great,” Wheeler said. 
Bombay Spice Kitchen opened for business Jan. 11 and received great support, according to its Facebook page update which said, “Due to the overwhelming response, our food inventory is depleted. We will be open tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. Thank you!” 
Simone Cottrell, Starkville resident, said her mother is Cambodian and she has always been interested in South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine. Cottrell said making international friends at MSU broadened her palette in distinguishing different Asian foods.
“The complexity of flavors in Indian food is astounding. Whenever I eat Indian food, it’s like my whole body is waking up. I really enjoy heat in my food, and Indian cuisine has the perfect balance of heats and spices. The fragrance of basmati rice, the coolness of cucumber raita, the indulgence of a really good naan, the savoriness of tandoori chicken –you can’t beat really awesome Indian food,” Cottrell said.
Few people who visited the restaurant on the first day faced adversities, including waiting for a table.
Sulagna Saha, a graduate student at MSU, said opening day for the restaurant was hectic. Saha said there was a huge crowd and less seating arrangements, so most customers had to stand and wait for an empty table.
“They only have two employed waitresses that seem untrained. It took more than an hour to bring out food and drinks. People were very restless. It is a small place with less amount of space and location isn’t that great. The menu has fewer items. Their service is extremely bad and slow,” Saha said.
Patel said they were overwhelmed on the first day and the reason for the one-page menu was to test the market and to see how people will react to this new venture.
“We will be starting a buffet next week including our six-page menu, we have had great reviews on the food we serve, but the problem has been on the delay in time, but we cook the Tandoor after we get the order. We are working on it. Just give us a little time, and I am sure we can make it,” Patel said. 
For additional information on the restaurant, call 338-1788.