The Best Indian Restaurants in Los Angeles

Though easy to miss just east of Melrose Avenue’s hip fashion/dining strip, Anarkali has thrived for nearly 45 years through consistent quality of cuisine and service. Founded in 1980, it’s one of the oldest family Indian restaurants in Los Angeles, boasting a loyal army of regulars doubtless encouraged by a charming habit of giving out discount coupons for your next visit. The quietly exotic elegance of Anarkali’s pillared facia is continued in a dining room that’s a lesson in the atmospheric use of a small space. Comprising two rows of booths, each beneath its own arch and further separated with lattice screens, it’s a setting both intimate and exotic, apt for both a hot date or a hush-hush business meeting. But it’s the regional dishes from India and Bangladesh that really set Anarkali apart, with faves including creamy tikka masala, perfectly textured sag paneer, and perhaps the finest coconut curry citywide.

Venice Plaza is the longtime setting for Annapurna, an Indian vegetarian restaurant with an owner from the southern coastal state of Andhra Pradesh. Named for the Hindu goddess of food and nourishment, it’s a casual spot to savor cultured veggie fare amidst two-tone yellow walls, while evocative Bollywood videos play on a flatscreen TV. Annapurna features an extensive lunchtime vegetarian buffet, which is great for variety and value, but it’s tough to pass up their à la carte dosas, uttapam, and biryani. Spinach masala dosa features a thin, crispy crepe that cradles ground garlic, mint and spinach puree, and chunky potatoes. Paneer & peas uthappam is an airy rice flour pancake studded with marinated and chopped Indian cheese and peas garnished with cilantro. Still, channa batura might be their masterpiece: a special Annapurna fluffy bread that quickly deflates, served with garbanzo beans.

Downtown LA's Baar Baar doesn’t try to impose Indian food on Angelenos, but rather meets them halfway with evolved interpretations tailored to the city’s sensibilities. This sister to the original NYC location opened in 2023 as a hip, upscale Indian eatery with the vibrant spirit of a cocktail bar. Chef Sujan’s progressive “new Indian” menu is a celebration of regional traditions infused with Cali accents through the use of local produce and splashes of LA attitude. Fava & corn kofta brings together spinach, Swiss chard, and lotus root crisp, while the Goan shrimp curry engulfs wild shrimp in to-die-for coconut sauce. Baar Baar’s transporting whole sea bass roast is a pollichathu (fish cooked in banana leaf) with shallots and curry leaf. Another distinguishing feature of this local Indian cuisine scene disruptor is signature seasonal cocktails, each named for a Bollywood movie yet a star in its own right.

Freewheeling restaurateurs Nakul Mahendro, brother Arjun, and their head chef father Pawan opened Badmaash in Downtown LA’s Historic Core in 2013. A Hollywood location, on Fairfax Avenue, followed five years later. Badmaash’s contemporary Indian decor features marble counters, bright walls and banquettes, and an upstairs mezzanine with a mural of “hipster Gandhi” amidst framed Bollywood art. Their menu is similarly progressive, touting local, organic, and sustainable ingredients. Even the pickles are colorful and market-driven, including cauliflower, mushrooms, onion, jicama, and carrot, while Badmaash’s Punjabi Fish and Chips may make you forget the better-known British version of this time-honored combo. While their motto is “eat like you’re Indian,” the Mahendros also stray from tradition with dishes like chili cheese naan, and chicken tikka and channa masala poutines inspired by self-described “drunken spring breaks in Montreal.”

Originally a catering service, Bhanu was opened as a grocery store and café by a brother and sister in a San Gabriel strip mall in 2011. Shelves bulge with ingredients like prized Kesar mangoes, sumac, and cashew cookies. This true mom-and-pop has also squeezed in a dining area with orange, art-lined walls, and flatscreen TVs streaming Bollywood content. Spice-level choices include everything from no spice to (for an additional charge) ghost pepper and Carolina reaper. Mercifully, you can also dial the heat way down for much of Bhanu’s vast menu, which includes oodles of veggie options like eggplant curry, creamy dal makhani, and kadhi pakoda (vegetable pakoras in a yogurt-based curry). The thali combo meals resemble exotic TV dinners, but taste indescribably better, with a choice of main and sides; rice, naan or rotie; and yoghurt. In short, Bhanu’s is a one-stop shop for exquisite Indian fare.

Bombay Palace has been a Beverly Hills staple since 1985 and remains relevant thanks to Deep Sethi, who took over from his brother but has been with the restaurant since its inception. True to its name, it’s a palatial space with dozens of wall cutouts holding golden statuettes of Indian deities and an extravagant marble bar. Longtime chef Harnam Singh presides over a vaunted charcoal tandoor, skillfully preparing dishes like the house specialty Sikandari raan: an entire leg of lamb marinated overnight in a blend of spices and Old Monk rum. Bombay Palace also has a deft touch with vegetable dishes, including well-spiced mushrooms tossed with cashews and garden peas. For dessert, consider carrot halwa, a flourless cake served with coconut pineapple ice cream and sprinkled with crushed pistachios. Yes, Bombay Palace is pricey, but keep in mind that you’re dining in a palace – and in Beverly Hills.

Over its 25 years in Los Angeles, Flavor of India has expanded to three locations and earned a reputation as one (or three) of the best Indian eateries in the city. Walk into any Flavor of India and be greeted with a warm “namaste!” (“I salute the soul within you!”). Brothers Darshan and Tarsem Singh pride themselves on authentic, home-style northern Indian dishes free of artificial preservatives and colorings that are super-flavorful yet low in fat. At the Studio City and Burbank locations, a daily lunch buffet featuring appetizers, chutneys, samosas and pakoras attracts local office and retail workers on weekdays and more social diners at weekends, when champagne or a soft drink is included. Specialties on Flavor of India’s main menu include tandoori treats, masala dosa (a crispy crepe filled with spiced potatoes), butter chicken made with marinated tandoor meat, and a rotating chicken curry of the day prepared in traditional fashion.

When Kumar Jawa founded India Sweets & Spices in Culver City in 1984, it was a pioneering concept combining an Indian eatery and Indian-Pakistani groceries in a single brick-and-mortar store. Today, India Sweets & Spices is a multi-location franchise, but Jawa and his son still operate an international grocery store and vegetarian/vegan café in Atwater Village (and a dedicated Miracle Mile grocery store). At the Atwater eatery, you can grab a huge tray of food – one or two curries, rice, naan or chapati bread, sauces, pickles, and dessert – for under $10. It’s buffet-style counter service with food ladled onto disposable tableware and enjoyed on plain tables amidst the store’s colorful wares, so probably not a prime choice for a first date or to impress a client. But India Sweets & Spices is unmatched for ultra-affordable, healthy Indian fare with the bonus of exotic groceries, apparel, incense and trinkets on sale.

As the largest Indian enclave in Southern California, Artesia’s Little India boasts a broad array of regional restaurants. Among the most notable is Rajdhani, where guests can indulge in the traditional Gujarati experience of a thali – a meal served on a thali stainless steel platter that includes a selection of six different dishes offering exotic flavors, textures, and colors while providing balanced nutrition. Unlike some thali restaurants, Rajdhani isn’t counter service. Instead, you take a seat, are presented with an empty thali, then a line of serves appears bearing the piping hot food that will comprise your meal. Start with crispy papad and fresh salad, then follow with steaming dal and kadhi, farsans (salty Indian snacks), spongy yellow dhokla, and much more. Complementary spicy pickles, green minty chutney, and sweet tamarind paste complete a meal that’s also a culinary and cultural journey.

Raj Ahmed, his father Mahommed and mother Farzana originally hail from Bangladesh. The family previously ran a sprawling restaurant called Golden Gate in Westwood Village and downsized in 2012 with Royal Curry Café. This small restaurant near Universal City features a sleek, uncluttered dining room with a casual café feel. Of course, a visit to Royal Curry Café calls for one of the many varieties offered of its eponymous dish, whether it’s butterfly shrimp coconut curry, fiery lamb vindaloo chock full of potatoes, or chicken korma swimming in a curry crafted with ground almonds and cream. Or try the tandoori hot wings, marinated with spices, roasted in a clay oven, and tossed with a secret-recipe fire-red sauce. Each order comes on a bed of caramelized onions and cilantro and needs carbs to quell the heat, such as RCC’s crispy, pull-apart garlic basil naan.

LA's fanciest Indian restaurant just might belong to Dr. Puneet Chandak and wife Sonia Batra, who debuted Spice Affair in 2014 on Beverly Hills’ Restaurant Row. This elegant, exclusive eatery features an elaborate fountain and flashy bar up front, leading to a dining room with plush brown booths framed with striking contemporary wall hangings. Traditional tandoori classics at Spice Affair include habanero chicken tikka or the house specialty flash-grilled sea bass prepared with Kashmiri chili and turmeric. Perennially popular are Spice Affair’s signature, slow-cooked and irresistibly aromatic biryanis, served in vegetable, chicken, lamb, or shrimp incarnations. And dessert isn’t an afterthought here, with escapist delicacies like rasmalai (soft poached cheese, cardamon-infused milk, pistachio) and rice kheer (Indian rice pudding). Come discover what has attracted the likes of Britney Spears, Randy Jackson, and a who’s-who of Bollywood stars to sample Spice Affair.