Any good Indian restaurants in LA?

Answer 1

Akbar.
5 locations too.

Answer 2

There are 72 Indian restaurants in the LA area. Why don't
you check out Mymenupages.com & pull up LA restaurants
then click on Indian and browse 72 places w/ complete
menus & reviews.

Answer 3

These restaurants are in Pasadena, which is not too far from the city of Los Angeles. New Dehli on Colorado and Lake (within 1 blk east of Lake); Akbar on Fairoaks and Union Avenue in Old Town, Pasadena. See my restaurant reviews by googling "keila310."

Answer 4

Gate of India:
7300 W Sunset Blvd # D, Los Angeles
Again an Indian Punjabi-owned restaurant. The kababs are pretty good. This is always a second choice restaurant for me, and my bias is due to my inherent tendency to either order or go to Makkah Halal. The curries are quite nice. The vegetarian stuff is decent. Spice level can be modified to suit your requirements. Offers staple Indian *pathetic* beers (though I have suddenly started liking Himalayan Blue for some godforsaken reason). There is a Gate of India in Santa Monica as well. I was told it was good, but I found it extremely disappointing - *pathetic more than disappointing* on my visit.

Clay Oven:
14611 1/2 Ventura Blvd, Sherman Oaks
Excellent kababs and biryani - I would say one of the best biryani places that I have visited. I haven't explored the curries as much as I should have (though I did try one of their curries, which was pretty good), and that's because I go there when I want to have strictly kababs and biryani. I think they have a full bar but I am not sure. Another point to note is that the service is usually excellent and the decor is not that bad (though it tends to be typically Indian - with Indian movie songs playing on big LCD's).

Shan Restaurant
18621 Pioneer Blvd, Artesia
I think this is Pakistani-owned. The curries are OK but the kabas, nihari and paaya are fantastic to say the least. I always visit this when I am hungry for nihari and paaya! I am not sure if they serve alcohol.

Noorani Halal Restaurant
14178 Brookhurst St, Garden Grove
This is again on my list of best places for kababs and biryani (which is awesome!)- they make the lahori chargha, which surprisingly is much more delicious in my humble opinion than the usual tandoori chicken. Also, the first place where the chicken tikka tastes different from the tandoori chicken (in most Indian places, you would find that chicken tikka is essentially boneless tandoori chicken). The curries are typically Pakistani - delicious but OILY. The rotis are excellent. No alcohol is served though.

India Sweet House (aka Paratha Place
)5992 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles
Excellent parathas and that's it. Cash only and quasi-fast food. I don't bother trying out South-Indian dishes when the owner is distinctly North-Indian.

South Indian:

Paru's
Sunset & Normandie, Los Angeles
Claims to be the oldest Indian restaurant in LA, and possibly could be. It is pure vegetarian and serves beer and wine. To be precise, I find the taste more Tamil than anything else (Andhra, which is also another style of South Indian cuisine is more suited to my taste as it is fiery). Paru's serves some good ol' dosas, idlis, uttapams - all the usual stuff. I like their rasam soup in particular and their salted lassi (a yogurt drink with corriander, chillies and other interesting stuff).

Tirupathi Bhimas:
18792 Pioneer Blvd, Artesia
TB is Andhra - and they serve "Thali" which is similar to a lunch special (has like 2-3 vegetables, 2-3 sambars/rasam, rice, etc.). Since, its Andhra its spicy and yummy!. Though there can't be any benchmarks (my only ones are home-cooked Andhra meals, to which TB should obviously not be compared to) for comparison as LA does not have any other in this specialty.

Annapurna
17631 Pioneer Boulevard, Artesia
This is one of those places which has all the marks of greatness, yet falls short due to tremendous inconsistency. In three visits, the sambar has gone from Great to OK to Bad. When I say, great, it is as good as anything you could get in South India (and not the Udupi restaurants of Bombay). Interesting choices in the dosas and the uttapams. If it is your lucky day, no one can beat this place. There is also one in Culver City though I haven't visited it.

Curry Bowl
19662 Ventura Blvd, Tarzana
This is Sri Lankan and I haven't found too many Lankan places in LA. Sri Lankan food and South Indian food are close in culinary terms and yet distinct from each other. Anyways, the food is hot as hell and delicious. I remember having a roti with eggs and some really fiery lamb curry (the lamb wasn't quite good and I should have ordered chicken). The dried fish pickle was awesome!

West Indian:

This is essentially Gujurati cuisine as it is served in Los Angeles as I haven't come across anything Maharashtrian.

Surti Farsan Mart
11814 186th St, Artesia
Cheap, consistent and crowded. They serve "chaat", the origins of which are North Indian but is quite popular all over India. Modernist, whose extensive culinary knowledge is of great value to foodies like me, had written an excellent description of Paani-Puri on this board (can't seem to find that link though). This is an excellent place that one shouldn't miss.

Yogiraj Restaurant
3107 W Lincoln Ave, Anaheim
IMHO, this is *THE* place for home-style Gujurati food (they do have competitors in Artesia). Nothing beats Yogiraj - its oily, buttery and delicious. Try the Village Thali (#3), they have a buffet only on weekends. Rasjraj and JayBharat are average clones of Yogiraj in Artesia on Pioneer Blvd. - though JayBharat's Pav Bhaji is better than Yogiraj's (Pav Bhaji is more Bombay food than Gujurati cuisine).