Restaurants
Sunday, August 12 -- Wednesday, Sep 12
12 RESULTS: PAGE 1 of 1 | GO TO: | 1 |
 NAME |
AREA |
GO |
PRICE |
CUISINE | |||||
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| Agra | Silver Lake | Indian-Pakistani |
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| Balti, in theory at least, is a kind of Kashmiri curry with roots in the Islamic cuisine of northern Pakistan, cooked and served in handled metal pots that resemble miniature woks. In practice, the word balti has come to mean almost any fiercely hot curry served to the overwhelmingly English clientele of the baltihouses of Birmingham — food tailored, as a friend says, to the alcohol-deadened palates of drunken football hooligans. Like a Tommyburger, a balti worthy of the name can still be tasted when one is in the clutches of the next morning’s hangover. Agra, an Indian restaurant in Silver Lake, certainly serves cuisine more subtle than that, but there is a considerable list of baltis on the menu, and they are overwhelmingly, punishingly hot, with all the refinement of last week’s 50 Cent remix played at earth-thumping volume from the back of a Scion. “Do you want that American hot or English hot?” sneers the waiter. “I will be warning you: American hot is a little milder than what the English are calling medium.” Open daily for lunch and dinner 11 a.m.–11 p.m. No alcohol. Takeout. Parking lot. AE, DC, MC, V. JG | |||||||||
 4325 Sunset Blvd., Silver Lake, CA, (323) 665-7818 | |||||||||
| Al-Noor | Lawndale |  | Indian-Pakistani |
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Nehari is more or less the Pakistani national dish, an intense, mahogany concoction of lamb shanks flavored with garlic, chiles, and an immoderate amount of shredded fresh ginger. Nehari can sometimes be as genteel as a country French ragout, but the nehari at Al-Noor — also a respectable venue for Pakistani breads, spicy stews and smoky, tandoor-cooked meats — is simmered down to a steaming, creamy mass with the density of a dwarf star, bubbling and glistening with red-tinted oil, a stew substantial enough to fortify three hungry men after a day of hard labor. Tues.-Sun. 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. No alcohol. Takeout. Valet parking. D, MC, V. $12–$25.
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| 15112 Inglewood Ave., Lawndale, CA, (310) 675-4700 | |||||||||
| Al-Watan | Hawthorne | | Indian-Pakistani |
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| A bare, smoky dining room adjacent to a Muslim butcher shop, Al-Watan is the summit of basic Pakistani cooking in Los Angeles, spicy, meaty, and deeply inflected by the flavors of ginger, cardamom and chiles, with some of the most vividly smoky tandoor-cooked meats you will ever taste. First among the stews is haleem, beef braised with shredded wheat until it breaks down into a thick gravy with the flavor of well-browned roast-beef drippings, but as meaty as Al-Watan may be, even vegetarians can be happy here: Navratan korma, a mixture of cauliflower, green beans and carrots stir-fried with chile and plenty of spices, is like a wonderful Muslim ratatouille, the flavors of each vegetable fresh and distinct while contributing to the cumulative effect of the cumin-scented whole. 13611 Inglewood Ave., Hawthorne, (310) 644-6395. Open daily 11 a.m.–10 p.m. No alcohol. MC, V. Indian.Lunch or dinner for two, food only, $12–$16. | |||||||||
| 13619 Inglewood Ave., Hawthorne, CA, (310) 644-6395 | |||||||||
| Ambala Dhaba | Los Angeles | Indian-Pakistani |
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| On a stretch of Westwood Boulevard thick with student coffeehouses and Iranian hair salons, Ambala Dhaba is an outpost of the Punjab, a branch of a restaurant noted on Artesia’s Little India strip for its fiery goat curries and the boiled-milk ice cream called kulfi. It’s probably the only thing resembling traditional Indian food on the Westside. Ambala Dhaba exemplifies the time-honored side of meaty northern Indian cooking: basic, direct food almost Islamic in attitude, Pakistani in intensity of flavor, but wholly Indian in its attention to fresh vegetables, crunchy snacks, and breads. Daily 11 a.m.–3 p.m.' 5–11 p.m. No alcohol. Lot parking. Takeout. MC, V. Indian. (Jonathan Gold)Food for two, $12–$20. | |||||||||
| 1781 Westwood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, (310) 966-1772 | |||||||||
| India Sweets & Spices | Los Angeles | Indian-Pakistani |
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| The Âbasic unit of consumption at IS&S; is probably the $3.99 dinner special, a segmented foam tray laden with basmati rice, dahl, tart raita, pickles and a vegetable dish of some kind, ladled out cafeteria style from tubs in a long steam table and crowned with a whole-wheat chapati that hangs limply as yesterday’s tortilla. For an extra buck, you get a leaden, potato-stuffed samosa and a crunchy papadum; for an extra two, an Indian dessert and a mango lassi. The dinners are cheap, filling and tasty. But while the steam-table food (unless you catch it just right) is basically steam-table food, not especially different from what you’d find on any local Indian buffet, the made-to-order dishes are delicious: freshly fried bhaturas, balloon-shaped breads, served with curried chickpeas; the thin pancakes called parathas, stuffed with highly spiced cauliflower or homemade cheese; the South Indian lentil doughnuts called vada, served with a thin curried vegetable broth. Lunch and dinner seven days, 9:30 a.m.–9:30 p.m. No alcohol. Lot parking. Cash only. Food for two, $8–$12. Also at 1810 Parthenia, Northridge, (818) 407-1498; 9409 Venice Blvd., Culver City, (310) 837-5286; 2201 Sherman Way, Canoga Park, (818) 887-0868. Indian. (Jonathan Gold) | |||||||||
| 3126 Los Feliz Blvd., Los Angeles, CA, (323) 345-0360 | |||||||||
| Rajdhani | Artesia | | Indian-Pakistani |
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What the owners like to call Gujarati dim sum might more properly be called a bottomless thali, the cooking of the Indian province overwhelming you with labyrinths of flavor and a profusion of perfumes, a 10-course combination platter constantly refilled in all of its components. After 45 minutes, your plate will probably look exactly the way it did before you started eating, save the odd drip of lentil dal. But when the waitress bearing khandvi, tart, fermented-batter crepes smeared thickly with puréed lentils and coiled into slender jelly rolls, comes around again, you will probably beg for another portion no matter how full you may be. The concept of too much khandvi simply does not exist. Lunch and dinner daily. No alcohol. Lot parking. AE, D, MC, V. $
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| 18525 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia, CA, (562) 402-9102 | |||||||||
| Shahnawaz Halal Tandoori Restaurant | Lakewood | Indian-Pakistani |
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| The best dish at this Pakistani redoubt may be mirch ka salan — a thick, tan curry of fresh jalapeño peppers, heady with the scents of garlic and ginger, bound with a pungent, grainy mortar of ground spice. On weekends, there’s a very nice biryani, basmati rice cooked with butter and sweet spices and tossed with chunks of lamb. And consider the tandoori-mix plate: a rare lamb chop, subtly smoky, crisp at the edges; a few pieces of bright-red marinated chicken tikka that spurt juice like chicken Kiev; a ruddy whole chicken leg; several inches’ worth of clove-scented minced-lamb kebab; and a tart pile of yogurt-marinated roasted beef. Open. Tues.–Sun. for lunch and dinner. No alcohol. Lot parking. AE, D, MC, V. Pakistani. JG $ | |||||||||
| 12225 E. Centralia St., Lakewood, CA, (562) 402-7443 | |||||||||
| Shan | Artesia | Indian-Pakistani |
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| The Artesia restaurant caters to a large Muslim clientele, big family groups powering through sauced mutton feet and grain-enriched lamb stews, the sizzle from a dozen tandoori platters drowning out the droning Bollywood soundtracks. It’s probably the only place on the Little India strip that boasts of halal meat, and it draws a mostly Pakistani crowd, eager to get its hands on the highly spiced mutton chops crusted black from the grill, the delicious tandoor-cooked chicken, the creamy, Mogul-style chicken korma. Shan is not a bad place to try the fiery lamb curry called nehari or minced-lamb seekh kebabs. And, of course, there is biryani, a splendid plate of food, a giant heap of rice stained yellow with saffron, a little shiny with grease, sizzling with stinging handfuls of cinnamon, cloves and garlic, and enough cardamom to flavor your breath for days, plumped out with what must be a half-pound of crisped lamb — or vegetables, if you insist. It may not be the delicate dumphukt biryani that is currently fetishized by England’s glossiest food magazines, but Shan’s biryani is powerfully delicious. , Artesia, Open Tues.-Sun. 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Lunch buffet, $7. No alcohol. MC, V. (Jonathan Gold)Dinner for two, food only, $18–$24 | |||||||||
| 18621 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia, CA, (562) 865-3838 | |||||||||
| Surya | Los Angeles | Indian-Pakistani |
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| Surya’s tall walls are painted saffron yellow, chile red, mint-chutney green, and the owners of this nouvelle Indian café are as warm and cheery as the décor. The chef, born in Nepal and trained in Japan, prepares his own healthful and imaginative kind of Indian food: Try his tandoori-seared tuna sashimi, tandoori lamb chops with rosemary, low-fat aloo gobi. Both service and kitchen (and even the valet) flounder during weekend dinner rushes, but Surya’s virtues bloom in slower, quieter times. Lunch weekdays noon-2 p.m. Dinner Sun.-Thurs. 5:30-8:45 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 5:30-9:45 p.m. Beer and wine. Valet parking. AE, D, MC, V. Entrées $7.95-$15.95. Indian. (Michelle Huneven) $ | |||||||||
| 8048 W. Third St., Los Angeles, CA, (323) 653-5151 | |||||||||
| Uzbekistan | Hollywood | | Indian-Pakistani |
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| A giant, blistering-hot bialy served with cream cheese, baked dumplings called samsa stuffed with lamb, Korean-seeming hand-cut lagman noodles with lots and lots of carrots — Uzbekistan is probably the best Central Asian restaurant in Los Angeles, a living, garlic-reeking souvenir of the city Tashkent in a dining room that could double as a set for one of those ethnic disco parties on channel 18, and a vodka-drenched social center for some of the least subtle expats on earth. The great dish here is plov, the grandfather of all rice pilafs, dense and slightly oily, more like fried rice than ordinary pilaf, spiked with long-cooked carrots and crisp-edged chunks of lamb, flavored with a peculiar sort of Uzbeki cumin seed that is halfway between cumin and caraway. Open daily 11 a.m.-mid. Full bar. Lot parking. AE, DC, Disc., MC, V. (Jonathan Gold) |
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| 7077 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA, (323) 464-3663 | |||||||||
| Woodlands | Chatsworth | | Indian-Pakistani |
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| Broad as knotted carpets or the infield at Dodger Stadium, dosas are the only snack that might as reasonably be sold by yardage as by weight. And these days, the biggest dosas in town may be found at this south Indian vegetarian restaurant. The butter dosa, a half acre of crunchy brownness jutting off both ends of a rather long platter, is rolled around a slug of gently curried potatoes that you may not run across until you’ve been eating the thing for 15 minutes. This is dosa heaven. They serve the usual south Indian starches too — iddly, uttupam, pesarat — served with the usual complements of sambar and chutney. In the afternoons the buffet tends to have the most exotic array of vegetarian Indian food in town. Tues.–Sun. 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–10 p.m. $7.95 lunch buffet Tues.–Fri., $9.95 brunch buffet Sat.–Sun. Beer and wine. Takeout. Lot parking. AE, MC, V. (Jonathan Gold) |
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| 9840 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Chatsworth, CA, (818) 998-3031 | |||||||||
| Woodlands | Artesia | | Indian-Pakistani |
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| Broad as knotted carpets or the infield at Dodger Stadium, dosas are the only snack that might as reasonably be sold by yardage as by weight. And these days, the biggest dosas in town may be found at this south Indian vegetarian restaurant. The butter dosa, a half acre of crunchy brownness jutting off both ends of a rather long platter, is rolled around a slug of gently curried potatoes that you may not run across until you’ve been eating the thing for 15 minutes. This is dosa heaven. They serve the usual south Indian starches too — iddly, uttupam, pesarat — served with the usual complements of sambar and chutney. In the afternoons the buffet tends to have the most exotic array of vegetarian Indian food in town. Tues.–Sun. 11:30 a.m.–3 p.m. and 5–10 p.m. $7.95 lunch buffet Tues.–Fri., $9.95 brunch buffet Sat.–Sun. Beer and wine. Lot parking. AE, MC, V. (Jonathan Gold) |
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| 11833 Artesia Blvd., Artesia, CA, (562) 860-6500 | |||||||||
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