This Indian restaurant from Coconut Grove has finally opened a second spot in Miami-Dade
An Indian institution in Coconut Grove is now serving old favorites to a new audience in Doral.
Bombay Darbar, the Grove restaurant that originally opened as a small spot in Commodore Plaza in 2011, is now part of the growing number of restaurants in Downtown Doral, joining spots like Bulla Gastrobar, Pisco y Nazca and, later this summer, a location of Kendall’s popular FreshCo Fish.
The new restaurant, a busy, lively spot with a sleek bar and attentive servers, will serve lunch and dinner and offer catering services. Its welcoming design includes a seven-foot tall statue of Buddha presiding over the dining room.
The original Bombay Darbar was sold in 2017 and purchased by Agrawal and Hwang, and shortly thereafter it moved to a larger space in the Grove at 2901 Florida Ave., near the Mayfair House and Garden Hotel. Agrawal and Hwang also opened a second location on Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale in 2018.
The pandemic, of course, slowed the brand’s desire to open a second restaurant in Miami-Dade.
“We did actively look,” Hwang says. “But the retail market, along with the real estate market in Miami, caught on fire. Everything was going up, and there was so little availability.”
Agrawal said the time was finally right to expand.
“We were always looking to expand in Miami, and the right opportunity presented itself,” he says. “Doral is a market that has been expanding rapidly, so the timing was pretty good.”
Ana-Marie Codina Barlick, CEO of Codina Partners, the group that’s developing Downtown Doral, said that the “local favorite” was a great fit for the development.
“We’ve been polling the greater community on the type of cuisine they wanted to see next at Downtown Doral, and there was an overwhelming interest in Indian,” she said in a statement. “Bombay Darbar was the clear choice to satisfy this demand.”
As Doral is home to a large number of offices, lunch specials will be on the menu, which will more or less copy what’s available at the Grove and Fort Lauderdale locations: specialties like mango chicken curry, tender butter chicken, lamb biryani, as well as vegetarian dishes like dal makhani and vegetable korma.
“Everyone is able to find something they like,” Hwang says.
As for Doral, he calls it the “next frontier in Miami.”
“We had a lot of customers who come from all over Miami who kept asking where the next location would be,” he says. “We’d get customers coming in with their luggage on the way to the airport. Now we’re 10 minutes from Miami International Airport. This is a good area for us to be in.”
Bombay Darbar Doral
Where: 8405 NW 53rd St., Suite E101, Doral
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., 5:30-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., 5:30-11 p.m. Friday; noon-11 p.m. Saturday; noon-10 p.m. Sunday
More information and reservations: www.bombaydarbar.com or 786-741-2222