Unlike its cousin city San Francisco 400 miles to the north, Indian food options are limited and appear to be uniformly mediocre in LA. Mexican choices, on the other hand (and for obvious reasons), are outstanding!
Agra Indian Kitchen on Lincoln Blvd in the Venice/Marina Del Rey area offers decent fare. Importantly (for me!), they offer yellow daal tarka. Which brings me to one of my pet peeves; for the life of me I can't figure out why so many Indian restaurants will only offer the Daal Makhni dish that is made with masoor daal (known as "lentils" in the USA). The overwhelming majority of India eats tur daal on a daily basis. Anyway, back to Agra. All their dishes are quite tasty; the only drawback is the occasionally the food feels not quite as fresh.
Akbar on Washington Blvd in the Culver City area is OK. The Okra dish is good and their breads are excellent. Everything else feels like their cooks are not of Indian descent; the spice balance is off, and there is nothing inspired about any of their dishes. But the food seems to be always fresh.
Artesia/Cerritos is probably the most overrated "little India" area anywhere in the world. Every single restaurant we tried - north Indian or south Indian - has been disappointing to put it mildly. The wadas and samosas from Sukhadias were absolutely unacceptable. And I would be shocked if the Udupi restaurant on Pioneer Blvd has a South Indian cook on the premises. The sambar tastes like its been made with store-bought sambar powder that reflects North Indian tastes more than South Indian. The Idlis were OK and the medu wadas were acceptable. But I knew we were in for a disappointment when of the many dosa orders we placed, the onion and chilli uttappam was the first to be delivered to the table. Utappam takes the longest to cook if prepared right; the cheese dosa should have been the fastest!
The utappam was flat (not fluffy like it should be), the sambar was spiked with salt (a definite no-no for anyone watching their sodium intake), and the coconut chutney was OK. The best dish we had at the Udupi was the Special Rava dosa which is usually the most reliable dosa dish anywhere one goes because it is the least complex to make. But I cannot end without talking about the "Aviyal" at Udupi. I had the bright idea of ordering Besi Bele Bhath with Aviyal. What a mistake. The Besi Bele was made with some strange combination of spices that I've never experienced before in a Besi Bele Bhath. And the Aviyal tasted like Kurma (mostly made with cauliflowers - as anyone from South India knows, it would be quite the surprise to find cauliflowers in Aviyal). So I asked the waiter whether they had served me Aviyal or Kurma. He said they were the same dish because the owner did not like coconut gravy and used cashew gravy (with garlic - in Aviyal!) for both dishes!!!!! I could not believe what I was hearing and decided that the best course of action was to avoid the place in the future rather than do battle with folks who clearly had no commitment to authentic South Indian food.
We've been told that Woodlands serves very good South Indian fare. So we are hoping that is true.
Agra Indian Kitchen on Lincoln Blvd in the Venice/Marina Del Rey area offers decent fare. Importantly (for me!), they offer yellow daal tarka. Which brings me to one of my pet peeves; for the life of me I can't figure out why so many Indian restaurants will only offer the Daal Makhni dish that is made with masoor daal (known as "lentils" in the USA). The overwhelming majority of India eats tur daal on a daily basis. Anyway, back to Agra. All their dishes are quite tasty; the only drawback is the occasionally the food feels not quite as fresh.
Akbar on Washington Blvd in the Culver City area is OK. The Okra dish is good and their breads are excellent. Everything else feels like their cooks are not of Indian descent; the spice balance is off, and there is nothing inspired about any of their dishes. But the food seems to be always fresh.
Artesia/Cerritos is probably the most overrated "little India" area anywhere in the world. Every single restaurant we tried - north Indian or south Indian - has been disappointing to put it mildly. The wadas and samosas from Sukhadias were absolutely unacceptable. And I would be shocked if the Udupi restaurant on Pioneer Blvd has a South Indian cook on the premises. The sambar tastes like its been made with store-bought sambar powder that reflects North Indian tastes more than South Indian. The Idlis were OK and the medu wadas were acceptable. But I knew we were in for a disappointment when of the many dosa orders we placed, the onion and chilli uttappam was the first to be delivered to the table. Utappam takes the longest to cook if prepared right; the cheese dosa should have been the fastest!
The utappam was flat (not fluffy like it should be), the sambar was spiked with salt (a definite no-no for anyone watching their sodium intake), and the coconut chutney was OK. The best dish we had at the Udupi was the Special Rava dosa which is usually the most reliable dosa dish anywhere one goes because it is the least complex to make. But I cannot end without talking about the "Aviyal" at Udupi. I had the bright idea of ordering Besi Bele Bhath with Aviyal. What a mistake. The Besi Bele was made with some strange combination of spices that I've never experienced before in a Besi Bele Bhath. And the Aviyal tasted like Kurma (mostly made with cauliflowers - as anyone from South India knows, it would be quite the surprise to find cauliflowers in Aviyal). So I asked the waiter whether they had served me Aviyal or Kurma. He said they were the same dish because the owner did not like coconut gravy and used cashew gravy (with garlic - in Aviyal!) for both dishes!!!!! I could not believe what I was hearing and decided that the best course of action was to avoid the place in the future rather than do battle with folks who clearly had no commitment to authentic South Indian food.
We've been told that Woodlands serves very good South Indian fare. So we are hoping that is true.
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