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I just finished my last final of junior year in 35 minutes when it was scheduled for three hours! Which means I can now blog about restaurants!
Tandoor India is another in a long list of mediocre Indian restaurants--nothing spectacular but hardly unsatisfying. The food is fairly bland but okay. The prices are satisfactory. The outside completely belies the inside.
You expect some pretty good hole-in-the-wall authenticity, and I kinda love the neon window painting, but inside the decor is like the inside of your grandmother's very pastoral home with a few token Indian motifs thrown in. Plus, it is way too dark.
They automatically serve you this chip-like bread before your meal. I don't like them at all. They are so crispy that they quickly disintigrate into crumbs and don't have much taste. They are a bit spicy but don't have any real flavor.
See how those two bowls of chicken curries look exactly the same? Well, they are according to the menu two different dishes. They do taste the same though, except the Chicken Makhni, which is the one in the upper right corner, tastes a little buttery. At the risk of being too repetitive, the sauces don't have enough flavor and the naan is too greasy. I do have to hand it to them, though. Those little bowls manage to disguise a very good amount of chicken.
Tandoor India 2622 Pico Blvd Santa Monica, CA 90405 (310) 581-9964
A review of Tacos La Flama is coming, but for today we'll talk about its neighbor, Chutneys Indian Fast Food. The idea of Indian fast food is great. I love Indian food and am frequently in a rush. However, I already have a favorite Indian restaurant (Nizam) which has a lunch buffet for $7.99 and you can eat that pretty quickly, too. I went into this ready for a new place, but Chutneys didn't win the challenge. I don't imagine myself going back unless Nizam is closed for some reason.
The above picture is what Rachel ordered. They do have a lot of vegetarian options, so yay for that. Nevertheless, I don't think she enjoyed her meal. Perhaps she will weigh in in the comments.
I ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala. Overall, it was satisfying, but it wasn't great. The sauce was too watery and oily--which you can see in the above picture was kinda grossly separating as it sat there. Also, there wasn't enough chicken in it. It did come with an ample amount of rice and salad and naan for quite a reasonable price. It was also very speedy. Their restaurant name is, indeed, correct. But it just wasn't good enough.
The 0% juice Lemonade was also a bit disconcerting. ;-)
The restaurant has a Barrington address but its door faces Pico, so it still counts.
Chutneys Indian Fast Food
2406 S Barrington Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90064
Beware, the parking lot is a disaster.
A Tuk Tuk is a Thai automobile rickshaw, especially popular in highly congested areas like Bangkok. Tuk Tuk is also a delicious restaurant on Pico Blvd where it crosses Swall.
First, you must admit that they have pretty good signage--in addition to the tuk tuk jutting out of the wall! The atmosphere on the inside is pretty great. Little tables with high-backed wooden banquettes on one side fill up the very small space, but it doesn't feel cramped. The tops of these banquettes are filled with little tuk tuk sculptures, super cute. One complaint is that it is a bit too dark, even in the middle of the afternoon. Hence, the following picture is of obvious low quality since I had to manipulate it a lot to be anything other than a big dark mess.
Nevermind the graininess, in this picture you can see my favorite dish--the one that has brought me back to this restaurant three times since I first tasted them! These are the Thai curry shrimp and scallop dumplings. It should be known that scallops and shrimp are my favorite seafood (in that order, too). If we were eating Dim Sum, my favorite would be Har Gow (shrimp dumpling) and whatever the real name of the shrimp and scallop dumpling is. So when I first went to Tuk Tuk several years ago, I immediately ordered whatever had scallops in it; this dish did not disappoint. The dough is light but substantial, the filling is hearty, and the carrots provide a nice crunchy counterpoint to the smooth texture of the dumpling itself. The most important part of this dish, however, is the Thai curry sauce. Oh man, it is amazing. After finishing the dumplings, I make sure the waiter doesn't take away the plate so I can use the sauce on whatever else I order--it's that good.
I also recommend the garlic pepper chicken with brown rice. The sauce is really strong but smooth and the chicken works really well with the thicker brown rice rather than the usual white rice. But you definitely need to like garlic for this one.
The prices are slightly expensive but totally worth it. Your best bet is to go with a couple people and share several dishes. You'll probably each want 1.5 dishes.
Tuk Tuk
8875 Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035
P.S. Blogger, thanks for letting me upload multiple pictures simultaneously!
You expect some pretty good hole-in-the-wall authenticity, and I kinda love the neon window painting, but inside the decor is like the inside of your grandmother's very pastoral home with a few token Indian motifs thrown in. Plus, it is way too dark.
They automatically serve you this chip-like bread before your meal. I don't like them at all. They are so crispy that they quickly disintigrate into crumbs and don't have much taste. They are a bit spicy but don't have any real flavor.
See how those two bowls of chicken curries look exactly the same? Well, they are according to the menu two different dishes. They do taste the same though, except the Chicken Makhni, which is the one in the upper right corner, tastes a little buttery. At the risk of being too repetitive, the sauces don't have enough flavor and the naan is too greasy. I do have to hand it to them, though. Those little bowls manage to disguise a very good amount of chicken.
