The upstairs dining room of Mumbai Chopstix

Newly launched Mumbai Chopstix (254 Newbury St, Boston), has a few identities.

One is its Indian-Chinese cuisine, very popular in India, yet seldom seen in Boston restaurants.

But I’m still not sure of Mumbai Chopstix’s true identity deep down. The logo and name suggests fast casual, but the space is very cool, even rather ambitious. The jury’s still out on the food, but their menu looks like a promising mix of classic Indian-Chinese dishes.

Based on their launch party edibles, I’ll hazard a few descriptions. In some cases, it was very close to American-Chinese food, like the glossy, cornstarch-thickened sauces on fried chicken and fried paneer, along with 5 incarnations of dumplings ranging from traditional Chinese to Chinese with heavy notes of coriander and cumin.

Most successful were the juicy Manchurian meatballs served on bites of naan bread, and a very traditional chili chicken was delicious, if skirting terribly close to General Tso’s chicken but dialing down the sweetness and tweaking the spice.

Lobster balls were not as lucky in the fusion process – they tasted entirely of starch, except for a fishy, lingering aftertaste. Vegetarian momos had far too heavy a hand on the spice. Oversized fried lollipop chicken was fine, as were the spring rolls (served with tamarind dipping sauce).

Perusing the menu with Lena (photo by Sam Lipoff)

Manchurian meatballs with naan (photo by Sam Lipoff)

lobster balls (photo by Sam Lipoff)

Several Boston restaurants already feature classic fusion dishes – chili chicken is one – but this is the first restaurant to focus solely on the genre. It’s owned by One World Cuisine, the same people who put out Mantra, Mela, Bukhara Indian Bistro, and Cafe of India in Harvard Square.

But food aside, the space is a real draw. I wouldn’t mind setting up camp in their upstairs dining room, unmistakably a renovated living room. There’s the wooden staircase, a carved nook for the bar, a fireplace, a pot of ersatz bamboo; it feels very much like a dinner party in the home of your hip, successful artist friend.

And there’s the table, which boasts a rainbow grid of spices under its glass countertop. It pops with whole, dried red chiles, sticks of cinnamon, brilliant orange turmeric, garbanzo beans, the green of bay leaves. My friend was also entranced by the bar mural downstairs and tried to hire the maker to repeat it in her apartment.

Who knows how this cross-cultural marriage will turn out, but man, the couple lives in a nice house.’

The table (photo taken by myself, with Sam's camera)

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