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People who love to eat will appreciate the work Shavinder Singh puts into making her restaurant a success. Cupertino's Bombay Oven has an extensive menu of Indian specialties that will make lovers of the cuisine drool. For those who haven't tried it, Bombay Oven has a range of seafood, lamb, chicken and vegetarian dishes that can be seasoned for mild, medium or hot palates.
Singh opened the restaurant in 1993. Weekdays, she arrives by 9:30 a.m. and stays through the lunch hour. Then she goes home for a few hours to be with her three children, ages 11 to 16, and returns just before 5 p.m.
Singh says, "Sometimes I get tired, but I like to keep busy." And busy she is. In addition to her weekday schedule, Singh opens the Bombay Oven on Saturday and Sunday, too.
She came to the United States from India 15 years ago. At that time, her husband Jabar owned the India Cook House on Castro Street in Mountain View. The couple sold the Cook House and then opened the Bombay Oven. Since Jabar died four years ago, Shavinder operates the restaurant with the help of her extended family. Two of her nephews, a niece and her brother-in-law all work there. But not her children. "My kids are studying, so the rest of my family helps a lot. We are a family business," she says.
It's a traditional family, as well. Singh, whose own marriage was arranged by their parents, dresses in a sari at the restaurant. Every year or so she returns to her homeland for a vacation with her children. The children are very American, she says, but they love to go to India on vacation.
Since Singh hails from Punjab in northwestern India, Bombay Oven serves northern-style food. She says, "Everybody likes our palek paneer. It's a combination of spinach and cheese." But at lunchtime, people come for the all-you-can-eat buffet. It's a bargain at $7.99, Singh says.
"Sometimes we have big lines out the door," she says. That's good news for Singh because she admits business suffered during the tech wreck and subsequent recession. But now, "It's doing very well. We are going up," she says.
Meals at the Bombay Oven are on the hearty side. For example, an order of shrimp curry will come to the table with either rice or nan, an Indian flat bread. Dinner entrees are served with soup of the day, fresh vegetables, nan, basmati rice, salad and dessert.
Since Bombay Oven has a large parking lot, there's plenty of room for customers' cars. Inside, the dining area is in a light, cheery room made to seem larger by a long mirror overhanging the buffet area. Tables are both large and small and set with white tablecloths.
Bombay Oven is located in Cupertino at 20803 Stevens Creek Blvd., between Stelling Road and De Anza Boulevard. The phone number is 408.252.0520.
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Photograph by Sean Penello