by Richard Foss
One of the cliches of the advertising industry is slapping a sticker that says “New! Improved” on a product that hasn’t actually changed.
I’m used to seeing this play out in the local restaurant scene, with some eateries sending out excited emails with many exclamation points over the fact that they’ve added two new items to the menu. Others are more laid back in their approach, making changes with little fanfare and assuming their customers will notice and spread the word.
Longtime South Asian stalwart India’s Tandoori has taken a middle ground, with a banner on an exterior wall that announces new ownership. This raises curiosity if you drive by, but is not indicative of what has actually happened here. Though you wouldn’t know it from their severely out-of-date website, they have changed most of the recipes and now serve some Tibetan and Nepalese dishes, items that are otherwise unavailable in the South Bay.
The interior hasn’t changed at all, and it didn’t have to – it has always been a pleasant environment, nicely decorated with draperies, folk art, and a central shelf of ornamental pottery. Most people enter through the rear parking lot, but the front door that was long kept locked is now available. The menu is heavy on North Indian classics, with some modern novelties like tandoori buffalo wings and a few items from the high Himalayas. The owner and the chef are both Nepalese, so you might expect these to be high-profile, but they’re blended among other items on the menu and don’t appear at all on their website.
I have visited three times since the change in ownership, twice in the evening and once for the lunch buffet, and can attest that the cooking has improved markedly. Standard items like the saag paneer have fresher, more vivid flavors, and when I mentioned this to a server he nodded with satisfaction.
“They are using better ingredients, particularly better butter,” he nodded sagely. These and other Punjabi dishes, which are the backbone of American-Indian menus still have a vivid spice background when ordered mild, not hot but fragrant. They do take one shortcut I object to, making the samosas with a flour tortilla instead of handmaking the dough, but most restaurants outside Indian communities use that shortcut. They’re good anyway, little turnovers of spiced ground lamb or seasoned potatoes that whet the appetite at the start of a meal.
We tried two items from the tandoor, a mixed grill and the Tibetan-style lamb. The mixed grill was a standard item done very well, barbecued chicken, lamb, and seekh kebab that arrived atop a hot plate with sizzling grilled onions. This is a fine main course for two people, and a bargain at $25. I highly recommend it.
That said, the Tibetan lamb is even better. Tibetan food is simpler in spicing than the food of the lowlands for obvious reasons – it’s far from the major spice trade routes, in an ecology where fewer things grow locally. Their primary seasonings are garlic, ginger, and mint, often mixed with yoghurt in marinades that tenderize as they add flavor. This boneless lamb required no knife and was delicious, and it came over onions with a festive arrangement of carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli. Broccoli is native to the Mediterranean and unusual in Indian restaurants, but some chefs use it and it worked very well here.
Momos are offered, the chicken and ginger-stuffed dumplings that are the most popular item in Tibetan cooking, but we decided to try the chow mein with Tibetan noodles instead. After it arrived, I asked our server how Tibetan noodles are different from standard chow mein noodles, and he stopped to think for a moment. “They’re made by a Tibetan, but otherwise the same,” he replied. And so they are. This was a fairly standard chow mein with subtle seasonings that included ginger, cilantro, and garlic, good but not essential.
We also tried standard dishes like malai kofta, ground vegetable balls in a savory curry, a toothsome chicken makhni (butter chicken curry), and a vegetable rice pullao that arrived topped with a mound of fried onions.
They were out of most of the items on the wine and beer menu, but did have Old Monk 10,000, an excellent amber beer from India. If you like German or Czech-style beers, this is an excellent choice that pairs well with this cuisine. They also offer a few Champagne cocktails, which we didn’t try on this visit but intend to explore in the future. My wife preferred the mango lassi, whose velvety, creamy coolness is always a good accompaniment to spicy food.
I’m not usually a fan of buffets, but make an exception for Indian food because many items in this cuisine are stews that only get better as the flavors marry. The buffet here had an impressive variety and included a very good medium-spicy goat curry. Goat is not a widely popular meat in America and is more expensive, so if a restaurant includes it, they usually have an Indian clientele. If you haven’t tried goat, this is the place to do it – the rich flavors of curries show the full-flavored meat at its best. As is usually the case, they offer freshly made garlic or regular naan to accompany the feast.
A meal at India’s Tandoor is very affordable – dinner for three with beer and lassi ran $140 and we left with a sack of leftovers. Those who dined here a year or so ago and found the cooking dull should give it another chance – it’s new and improved, for real this time.
India’s Tandoor is at 916 N. Sepulveda in Manhattan Beach. Open 11 a.m – 11 p.m. daily. Parking in rear, wheelchair access okay. Wine and beer, some vegan items, sound level low. (310) 374-7300. Inaccurate menu at indiastandoorimanhattan.com. ER
