Noam Bleiweiss

Tandoori Chicken from The Indian Kitchen

Strip malls come in all shapes and sizes; some can even be a little scary. That's certainly not the case at Crescent Heights Plaza, the West Hollywood strip mall that comes complete with its own valet. The space, which abuts the soon-to-be-open Connie & Ted's, is actually quite nice. There's lots of parking, and all of the attached restaurants have entrances that abut right onto the street. There are no hidden Mexican spots found tucked away, just some hip sushi, non-buffet Indian dining and one of L.A.'s most well-known Russian restaurants.

More »

Rob Inderrieden

Dosa at Mayura

There are as many kinds of dosas as there are moms in South India -- which is to say, a lot. This Indian breakfast and snack food is a thin, crispy crepe made from a lightly fermented batter of ground rice and lentils. The batter is ladled onto a hot griddle and then quickly spread to paper thinness by circling the ladle on the griddle in ever-expanding circles. A homemade dosas might be the width of a dinner plate; a restaurant or street-vendor dosa could be the length of your arm.

A dosa is eaten by hand -- tear off chunks with your thumb and first finger of your right hand while anchoring the dosa with the other three fingers. While plain dosas were used for comparison's sake here, there's no need to limit yourself: They come wrapped around spiced potatoes (masala dosa), spread out even larger and thinner (paper dosa), made out of a wheat batter (rava dosa) and in many more variations. Turn the page for our five favorites.

More »

Badmaash

Chicken tikka poutine at Badmaash

To get a sense of what new Indian gastropub Badmaash is all about, look no further than the three samosa options at the top of the menu -- each one encapsulating a characteristic of the restaurant. Owners and brothers Nakul and Arjun Mahendro, along with their father (and executive chef) Pawan, worked on a menu that would reflect a newer perspective on contemporary Indian cooking.

More »

Google Maps

Ever notice that squish of small Russian restaurants on the corner of Sunset and Fuller? Probably not, considering all the oddball people watching you can do at the Rock N' Roll Ralph's across the street. Well, the next time you're crawling along Sunset (say, on your way to Cochon 555 at the House of Blues), swing your eyes into the parking lot strip mall that sits at the corner. You'll find a few curious-looking Russian spots (one dine in, one casual and one that's basically a takeaway joint), an Indian food place and a relatively new ramen bar. It's an eclectic mix, but then again you are on Sunset Boulevard.

More »

Clarissa Wei

Vegetarian thali: palak paneer, dal makhani, raita, mixed vegetables

Walk into Bhanu's Grocery and Cuisine in San Gabriel and you'll see a grocery store that's slowly being consumed by a restaurant. "We started off with five tables," Richard Harrison, a server at the restaurant, said. Now, there are more than a dozen.

Owned by Mr. Bedi and Bhanu, a brother-and-sister pair from India, the business started off as a catering service. "We owned restaurants in Bombay," Mr. Bedi said. In 2011, they moved into their grocery store on the corner of Huntington and Rosemead.

More »

Flickr/Ron Dollete

Papri Chaat at Jay Bharat

Leading up to this year's Best of L.A. issue (due out Oct. 4) -- and probably beyond, at this rate -- we'll be counting down, in no particular order, 100 of our favorite dishes.

38: Papri Chaat at Jay Bharat.

As sort of shameful as it is to admit, I drove to all the way Cerritos this weekend just to pick up a pre-ordered iPhone (it was the closest store that had them it in stock). Despite a two-hour wait in line surrounded by other exasperated Apple addicts, there was one redeeming factor (in my food-minded estimation) in driving fifty-plus miles on Carmageddon weekend: a stopover along Pioneer Blvd. in Artesia, colloquially known as Little India.

More »

Sam Kane

Chef T.J. Tramonto teaching a class

Looking to improve your cooking technique, or maybe just to have a fun night out while fine-tuning your eating skills? Then grab your toque and set your GPS for Thousand Oaks, where 20 cooking classes are being offered by the Community Enrichment Department, part of the Conejo Valley Adult School.

"We're offering more cooking classes now than we used to," says Christina Alwood, coordinator of the enrichment program. "They are becoming more popular all the time. Our instructors are so outstanding and they get a reputation. They gain a following."

Taught by area food experts, including chefs, caterers and cookbook authors, the classes cover a wide range of topics, from seasonal cooking and baking, to learning how to preserve and can foods. Alwood says among student favorites are three classes that focus on using Trader Joe's products to create new dishes.

More »

Barbara Hansen

a chicken curry taco at 23rd Street Cafe

School's out for summer, which means you have a better chance of getting into the 23rd Street Café without a long wait. This USC hangout is a student magnet for two reasons: Low prices and food that's much more interesting than the same old burgers and fries. Yes, there are burgers on the menu, but also Mexican food, Indian food, and what you really ought to order: Indian-Mexican fusion food.

Owner Gopal Sood came up with the fusion idea last year. He's from Chandigarh in the Punjab and so knows his way around a samosa or two.

More »

Lawrence of India

With the exception of the Kerala-style dishes at Mayura, most of the Indian restaurants clustered along Culver City's Venice Boulevard focus on the same vegetarian-centric, vaguely Southern Indian style of cooking. This is far from a bad thing -- can one ever have too many choices for jackfruit curry, potato dosas or bowls of samosa chaat?

But If you were looking for something more esoteric, the last place you would guess to go would be Lawrence of India, a garish-looking building lit with strings of lights and crowned with miniature Indian flags stuck in a strip-mall sandwich between a Thai BBQ and one of the neighborhood's older trattorias.

More »

D. Gonzalez

Roti with green curry sauce at Gindi Thai

Somehow, food always seems to taste better when it's shared. And not just as it's passed around a table, but also when it travels across borders. The South Asian subcontinent has passed down its plates far and wide, providing the inspiration for new dishes through its native ingredients like pepper, ginger and cardamom, as well as incorporating itself into a wide world of meals through its unleavened flat bread, roti.

From South Africa's Cape Malay roti to the Caribbean's wrap roti, just as the use of spices spread across the globe, so has the use of roti and roti-like breads. Yet our favorite takes on roti don't wander too far from home. In L.A., some of the best roti comes from Southeast Asian restaurants like Gindi Thai, Simpang Asia and Penang Malaysian Cuisine.

More »