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(12021 W. Pico, at Bundy, 310-473-3388) Most Indian restaurants in Los Angeles serve food that originates in northern India, such as tandoori (meat, chicken or fish marinated in a yogurt-herb sauce, then cooked in a clay oven), biryani (rice with meat or vegetables) and kabobs. Bombay Café serves outstanding versions of all of those dishes, but it also offers many foods that come from other parts of the country. Masala dosas, for example, are crepe-like pancakes, filled with a potato-vegetable mixture, which originated in the south of India. Even better, Bombay Café offers its own variations of street foods found in Bombay (or Mumbai, as the city was renamed in 1996). Known collectively as "chat," these snacks include bhel puri (a mixture of puffed rice, onions, potatoes, mint, cilantro and chutney), pani puri (tiny round breads filled with vegetables, which you splash with mint-laced water just before you toss them into your mouth) and the especially wonderful sev puri (small handmade
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(7013 Melrose Ave., just east of La Brea, 323-934-6488) Anarkali is a simple, typical, but very good Indian restaurant, with cuisine in the northern tradition. Most ethnic restaurants offer their own variation of chips and salsa, and at Anarkali, as soon as you sit down, you're brought a dish of lentil crackers called papadum, along with a trio of condiments: tamarind sauce, lime-mint-cilantro sauce, and a relish of onions and tomatoes. (The toppings are particularly delicious when you mix them all together on your plate, then scoop up the result with a shard of papadum.) The Mulligatawny soup, which comes with full lunch and dinner combos, is a mild vegetable soup that is merely adequate, but the other items on the menu are much more impressive. The restaurant's tandoori chicken is moist, with just a hint of spiciness, and is served with lime -- a nice variation; the Vegetable Masla is a satisfying vegetable melange in a thick, orange-colored sauce -- very much Indian comfort food. Raita, a cooling yogurt dip, is especially tasty here, as is the mango lassi, a blended fruit shake made with mango and yogurt. Anarkali is open seven days a week, 11:30 a.m. until midnight.
(5225 Lankershim Blvd., N. Hollywood, 818-506-0130 or 818-506-0755) While some diners fear Indian food for its often ferocious spiciness, others believe the burn is the whole point. In the Valley, where fire-eaters once flocked to the late Canard de Bombay for its incendiary curries, Salomi offers its own blast to the taste buds -- the Volcano, which comes in meat, shrimp, chicken and vegetable versions. Though they seem innocuous at first glance --the Vegetable Volcano appears to be no more than a well-made curry, filled with vegetables and a variety of beans, from lima to garbanzo -- if you leave your fork in the plate long enough, it may melt. We've heard that the best way to extinguish the fire of a spicy dish is with dairy or alcohol, and you can rescue your burning flesh with the restaurant's very good raita or lassi, or with something from the extensive list of alcoholic beverages. And if you choose to avoid the heat altogether, there are still plentiful choices on the menu, including the particularly good Bombay Potato and the Tandoori Fish (swordfish or salmon, the day we were there), which was superb -- tender and zingy, with a perfect balance between the tandoori and fish flavors. The restaurant is open from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and from 5-10 p.m. and offers delivery services.
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