India's Restaurant: A New Delivery Option for Silver Lake and Los Feliz

India's Restaurant, at the corner of Fountain and Hoover

It's safe to say that few were upset at the demise of Point Dume, one of many local mini-mall Chinese restaurants that infuriated in its inability to offer better-than-mediocre Chinese food. Though one might have hoped for actually good Chinese or possibly updated, creative Indian in the Wat Dong Moon Lek mold, India's Restaurant sticks with the familiar Indian restaurant formula. So far, we're happy  just to have another delivery/takeout option in the neighborhood, and our first takeout experience gets a B+.
India's Restaurant is owned by the same folks who own India's Tandoori on Wilshire near La Brea, as well as restaurants in Manhattan Beach and Torrance. The menu is nearly identical (and in fact similar to pretty much every other Indian restaurant in these parts) but adds Balti dishes to the familiar biryanis, tandooris and curries. Balti, which are also a specialty at nearby Agra, are "rich and hearty stews" with tomato and ginger and come in chicken, lamb, shrimp, fish and mixed varieties. Actually, the menu and prices are near carbon copies of Agra, so perhaps a taste comparison is in order.

We tried green coconut chicken ($10.95), a mild and creamy curry in which the chicken takes on a slightly alarming shade of green, hopefully from the herbs and not from a bottle. There's plenty of vegetarian selections of course, and we asked for Alu Gobhi ($8.95) - cauliflower with potatoes - to be medium-spiced. We sopped up the flavorful, mildly spicy sauce with garlic naan, and I appreciated that brown rice is available. There's an entire lamb and goat section of the menu, so someone please let me know if Goat Vindaloo, described as a specialty of the chef, is worth a try.
The interior is textbook old-school Indian, complete with white tablecloths and fussy gold brocade curtains. I don't really care what a restaurant looks like if the food is good, but aren't places like this missing an opportunity to update the look and diversify the menu a bit?
There's also a lunch buffet for $10.95 on weekdays, $12.50 on weekends, and a $7.95 lunch special, and free delivery in the area.
India's Restaurant
4366 Fountain Ave.
(323) 912-9320

Treasures of the San Gabriel Valley: Spam musubi croissants, fine falafel and innovative Indian

Spam musubi croissant

Everyone knows that the San Gabriel Valley is the place to go for dim sum, dumplings and sumptuous Chinese seafood banquets. But with a roiling hotpot of cultures in the valley, there are plenty of other places to discover. Bloggers GourmetPigs, FoodGPS E*starLA and I were invited recently to try Azusa's Mediterranean spot Falafel Me! and we managed to fit in two other terrific stops.

Taza Coffee is at 11 West Huntington in Arcadia

Coffee pairs with fusion pastries at Taza

First up was Arcadia's Taza Coffee House, which brews artisan coffee from Ritual Roasters, Handsome and others, and in all likelihood brews the best coffee between Intelligentsia in Pasadena and in Coffee Klatch in San Dimas. On weekdays, they make dense, chewy waffles with interesting toppings.
But weekends are when you want to go, for fascinating fusion pastries from Sharon Wang, a former Bouchon baker who has her own Sugarblooom pastry company. A Spam musubi croissant was an inspired combination of the down-home Hawaiian poor man's sushi and Parisian savoir-faire. Two logs of Spam are combined with kimchi and enrobed in delicate pâte feuilletée, then sprinkled with nori seaweed for a crunchy, salty flavor bomb that could probably pair well with some hot green tea.
The bacon maple scone is perfectly executed, just right to order with a cappucino. There's also miso-butterscotch cookies, again deftly playing the umami-meets-Viennoiserie game with finesse. But the real revelation was the pretzel croissant, a pastry which I didn't even bother taking a picture of, instead starstruck by Spam and miso. (FoodGPS has a good one.) Made with whole wheat flour and sprinkled with sesame seeds that toast on top of the lye-washed croissant, it's a slightly earthier pastry with a toasty brown butter flavor that I absolutely could not stop eating. Again, the pastries are served only on weekends, so combine a trip to Taza with the nearby Arboreteum, Santa Anita Racetrack or just REI or the mall.

Have a kebab at Falafel Me, 1123 Alosta Ave., Azusa

Fresh falafel, beefy kafta at Falafel Me!

When I was in high school, we used to frequent a place on Pico Blvd. called the Hungry Pocket. Probably mostly because the liquor store behind it would sell booze to just about anyone, but I remember the food being pretty solid too. The guy who started Hungry Pocket, Robert Atallah, has since sold it, but he went on to found the big CedarLane natural frozen foods company. Well, now he's back in the restaurant business, and the first outlet of his fresh Med concept is Falafel Me! in beautiful downtown Azusa. Falafel sandwiches come in Mexican, Greek, Italian and Indian varieties, while the Kafta kebab is a huge and hearty plate of freshly grilled ground beef skewers and rice. Of course there's beef and chicken shwarma, grape leaves and the like, and a garlic sauce to rival Zankou. For maximum flavor punch, get the chicken shwarma sandwich, a large garlic-laden roll that's way more than the sum of its parts. Look for more Falafel Me's in possibly more central locations soon, and don't forget to check out the wacky art on the walls. (This stop was comped.)

Dosa from Ashirwad, 583 E. Foothill Blvd., Upland

L.A.'s best Indian? Maybe! 

So FoodGPS sat next to a guy on an airplane who told him the best Indian food in the L.A. area, in fact the only Indian restaurant where he would deign to eat, was located in Upland. I might have shrieked "We're going all the way to Upland?" when Josh first told us, but hey, if you're already in Azusa, then why the hell not? Ashirwad means The Blessings, and it was indeed a blessing to find about this clean little strip mall gem with a friendly owner, featuring Gujurati specialties and other vegetarian Southern Indian dishes.

fenugreek leaf roti

Among the dishes we tried were Bhel Puri, a cold snack with deep-fried dough pockets doused in fruity chutney and puffed rice, and stuffed with potatoes and onions. Khichdi with khadi is known as Indian comfort food, a Gujurati specialty made with rice, lentils, chilis and subtle spices, served with poppadums and yogurt soup. Shak, thepla and dahi comes under the Gujurati specialties section of the menu -- it was a deeply-flavored eggplant and potato curry served with a dish of tangy, thick fresh yogurt and a plate of fenugreek roti bread.

Khichdi

Made with fresh fenugreek leaves, these unusual flatbreads had an herbal flavor that was a great combo with the smoky curry. Rava masala dosa wasn't the burrito-like type of dosa, but rather a plate of beautifully lacy pancakes incorporating onions and chiles, surrounding a potato filling. Some of us dabbed on a fiery mango pickle on some of them to up the heat quotient -- the owner is very accomodating about racheting down the heat depending on your tolerance. The intricate seasonings and less-familiar dishes at Ashirwad makes it a welcome departure from the familiar tandoori 'n curry menu.

And definitely try to save room for some sweets afterwards. The housemade Indian sweets include a milky ladoo, walnut burfee, and Adad-Yo, a nutty-tasting winter energy food with Ayurvedic remedies to fortify you during the cold season.

Naya: New look, new name, same Tantra chef

Naya's dining area goes white-on-white

 Most restaurants could use a little freshening up every few years, and after 10 years as Tantra, the Sunset Junction Indian spot has gotten a re-do as Naya. Naya's grand opening is on Monday. We stopped by for the preview night and saw that the menu is similar to Tantra -- same coconut prawns, for example -- but with more "fusion" touches like a curried goat cheese medallion salad and lemon chili scallops with pomegranate chutney and black rice.
Spacecraft's Kristofer Keith has given the space a total makeover, swapping the dining room and lounge areas and swathing the dining room in billowing white curtains with white booths. Meanwhile, the new lounge has a more gothic look, with Moroccan/Indian carved wood arches and a marble bar. In back, a large tiled patio has been added with built-in fireplaces soon to come.
 
Still to determine: If Naya will become a place for locals to stop by for a drink and a lamb kabob (specialty cocktails like the Hot Yogi and the Buddha's Bed are $12).
Naya
3705 Sunset Blvd.
Silver Lake

Radhika's expands to South Pasadena

Radhika's, which used to have a location in Pasadena, is opening a "modern Indian bistro" in the Mission Ave. space formerly occupied by the Little Parlor and 750 ML. It will certainly be the only Indian spot in the immediate area -- did anyone trie Radhika's when it was on Shopper's Lane where the Counter is now?

Cowboys and Turbans: Yippiyay for the naanwich

A very filling chicken naanwich is $7 including spinach, salad or masala fries.

Perhaps Cowboys & Turbans will be the spot to break the curse on the little restaurant space adjacent to the El Rey Theater. If you ate at Electric Lotus in its first two years back in the '90s or later at Electric Karma on Third, you'll recognize C&T owner Baba, who sold both of those restaurants after launching them to focus on his catering and music businesses (he worked with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and other artists).
Cowboys & Turbans is a more modest spot, offering a compact menu of chicken or tofu naanwiches, chicken or tofu tikka masala, dal with spinach, tandoori tacos and chicken skewers and quesadillas. We walked over from the office to try the chicken naanwich, which is basically what happens when you're eating Indian food and load your chicken tikka masala and basmati rice onto a naan and then fold it up like a sandwich. The tikka masala sauce was very tangy and spicy -- maybe even too much for some people but perfect for me. The spinach was also pleasantly zingy. The naan got a bit soggy on the walk back to the office, and the addition of rice made it a little too filling, since I don't normally like rice in my burritos, either. But this food had plenty of flavor, and Laura's masala fries, which were skinny fries sprinkled with a little curry and paired with curryish tomato sauce, were pretty tasty too. Baba's latest venture is just the spot for a quick lunch or dinner whether you work in this restaurant-challenged stretch of Wilshire neighborhood or are catching a show at the El Rey.
Tip: Ask for lettuce instead of rice on the naanwich; get the naan separately for to-go orders.

Cowboys & Turbans
5515 Wilshire Blvd.
323-936-7070 (free delivery)

Quick bite: Halal Tandoori

eggplant bharta, at right
I know a lot of people in the Los Feliz/Silver Lake area area are desperate for more takeout and delivery options, so I was glad that when I finally got around to trying Halal Tandoori, it turned out to be a solid Indian option. Located in a large, busy mini-mall at 4th and Vermont, next to a Korean pirate pub, it's a modest Indian-Pakistani restaurant with a fairly standard menu, but I think it's a least as good as Agra and likely better than Electric Lotus. We ate in the restaurant, ordering eggplant bharta, chicken biryani and then we thought we ordered lamb madras, but we ended up with chicken madras and decided to stick with it.The garlic naan was fresh and pillowy, and everything was clean-tasting and well-spiced. (Next time, I might try ordering hot instead of medium.) There's no beef on the menu, but plenty of chicken, shrimp, fish, lamb and vegetable dishes to choose from. The biryani seemed a bit boring after the saucy Burmese version we had in San Francisco, but we managed to gobble everything up with just a few shreds of chicken left behind. And there was no heavy sheen of oil left behind like some Indian restaurants seem to have.
Halal Tandoori is open 7 days a week and they said they'll deliver at least as far as Hyperion -- call and see if they'll deliver to your hood too.
Halal Tandoori
401 S. Vermont Ave.
(213) 383-9976

Chakra: Putting the spice in Beverly Hills

I was invited to try Chakra, a new Indian restaurant in the same spot as former Indian restaurant Maurya, and before that, the Manhattan Wonton Co. The Doheny Blvd. location is great if you're going to a screening at the Writers Guild or the Academy, but it seems to be a hard location for people to wrap their minds around otherwise since there's not much else on that block.
Design score: Chakra has added a room full of curtained booths and two private party rooms, so between the bar, the main dining room, the patio and the other spaces, there's plenty of room for parties and events. Decor is exotic sans the kitsch.
Unusual martinis aren't exactly indigenous to the Drinkability: Indian sub-continent, but it was fun trying the Fire on Doheny chili-infused martini and the lassi and watermelon martini. Now, the food: The dishes are Indian fusion or modernized Indian -- we tried tandooori-cooked mushrooms stuffed with paneer cheese (pictured), scallops masala and tandoori chicken in puff pastry. My favorite dish was called Dal Sorba, a perfectly spiced creamy lentil soup with crabmeat.
Who it's good for: It's not for the Chowhound crowd looking for a dirt-cheap Indian dive with fiery food, but if you're looking for a relaxing restaurant in the Beverly Hills area, some exotic cocktails, and possible a sexy curtained booth, Chakra could be the spot.

Shopping trip: India Sweets and Spices

I haven't had much chance to browse the food selection at India Sweets and Spices in Los Feliz, although I've had dinner there a few times. In addition to every type of lentil and masala spice mix imaginable, the store carries lots of types of henna for mehndi designs, some traditional clothing, a video and CD section, British candies and baked beans and those little breath-freshening colored candies with coriander seeds inside that you get at Indian restaurants. At the restaurant next door, I picked up a nice mango kulfi (Indian ice cream) popsicle and some burfi sweets for later. Lately I am obsessed with the burnt milk flavor found in Indian and Mexican sweets.
India Sweets & Spices (Atwater)
3126 Los Feliz Blvd.
Los Angeles