Tara's Himalayan Cuisine

I’ve always wanted to try one of the ethnic restaurants on Venice Blvd. so I was happy to see Tara’s Himalayan Cuisine on my foodie group’s monthly outing. Parking was a bit of a nightmare. They have a small parking lot but it was full. Our group was pretty big and some daredevils parked at Ralphs! There’s nothing fancy about Tara’s restaurant but their food. This restaurant was hopping on a Wednesday night. There was a wait for a table around 8.

G & M organized an amazing ten-eleven course dinner for $25 including drinks, tax and tip! Killer deal! I just wished they told us what dish they brought out…I believe we started with Paratha. It’s the only “crisp” bread I see on the menu. Oddly this was the spiciest item on the list…

I ordered a strawberry Lassi. I am told that mango Lassi is the traditional one but I prefer strawberries over mangos. It was good, not too sweet.

The Pakoras (“lightly battered delicately spiced and deep fried veg oil”) tasted like Samosas.

Next came out the chicken Momos and vegetable Momos with fresh tomato achaar.
Momo = dumplings. They were tasty.

The green beans with himalayan spices were delicious. It was definitely one of my favorite dishes of the night.

The garlic tofu (vegetarian) was good. It could use more garlic though.

The Khotey momo panfried chicken served with fresh tomato achaar was my favorite dish. I could eat this again!

I believe this is a picture of the chicken curry….the lamb curry looks the same thing. I didn’t try the lamb curry but the chicken curry was ai-ght. It wasn’t spicy and went well with the rice.

The Aloo bodi tama (“bamboo shoots, potato and black eyed peas with himalayan spices “) was an interesting dish...it's a vegetarian dish.

The Yak chilli was ok. The yak meat was chewy and slightly dry. It tasted like beef…jerky. I was glad that it wasn't spicy.

The Gulab jamun (“sweet custard balls made with milk and cream, dipped in sugar water”) tasted like baklava. I ate half a ball and it was enough for me.


Overall, I had a great time at Tara's Himalayan Cuisine, and Tara is a sweetheart! I'll definitely be back!

Address: 10855 Venice Blvd, LA, CA 90034
Phone#: (310) 836-9696
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Cowboys & Turbans

Thanks to my friend Shaz, I have a new addiction: Cowboys & Turbans' chicken soft tacos and ice chai tea. I'll have to admit I was a bit nervous trying their food because Indian food does not sit well in my tummy and is at the bottom of the list. There are two locations, one next to the El Rey Theater and the other is at a stripmall in Silverlake; it replaced my favorite pizza joint in Silverlake - Andiamo.

The first time I dined at Cowboys & Turbans was at the Silverlake location about two months ago.

The wall color is the same as the Andiamo days but decorated with an Indian flair. Intead of bread, they gave us pita chips (which I found out later is more their naan bread - don't order any naan bread) with three different sauces. There are two spicy and one sweet; I stucked to the sweet sauce since I'm a wuss --actually it's just too painful to eat spicy food...ok, fine, I'm a wuss. Shaz turned me on to their ice chai drink, which is homemade and no dairy. We shared the Masala Cheese Fries, which were so rich that I probably I could have skipped out on the chicken tacos but managed to finish them...

Beware Cowboys & Turbans tacos look small but they're actually much bigger. Below are fish tacos from the El Rey location. I prefer the chicken tacos over the fish tacos.

Oh, the difference between the El Rey and the Silverlake C&T is that the El Rey is tiny with 3 or 4 small tables making it more of a to-go location --hence the paper plates. Food is great but the service at the Silverlake location is incredibly slow; you would think that you're at a French restaurant.

Address: 2815 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036
Phone#: (213) 483-7778

Address: 5515 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036
Phone#: (323) 936-7070
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TANZORE

The first time I tried Indian food was in San Francisco, I consequently spent hours in the bathroom. The next time I had Indian was in London as it’s the best cuisine there at the time. I learned my lesson and stuck to rice and naan bread. As you can see, I hate Indian food and try to avoid it all cost. A good friend wanted to have her birthday at Tanzore…Indian food. I digress. Friends suffer for each other.

Party started at 8:30pm and the menu was supposed to be….
**Crispy Naan Chips served with hummus and spicy tomato chutney
**Spicy Chicken Wings –Tender quail cooked in Tandoor –oven served with fresh champagne mango chutney
**Chicken Tikka Salad –Tandoor cooked juicy chicken tikkas served over a bed of baby spinach leaves, tossed in honey-yogurt dressing
**Teardrop Caprese & Goat Cheese Skewer
Endless red & white wine, abovementioned appetizers for $43 per person

Yikes, $43 per person for Indian food is a lot. One might think it’s a great deal since it’s unlimited wine, but you have to think it starts at 8:30pm (most of us had something to nibble beforehand) and the restaurant closes at 11pm. I have to remind myself I am going for a good friend who I have known since ‘99, even though she was unable to make it my birthday party...
Tanzore is in 90201, and I guess that why the food is so damn expensive. The interior is beautiful and modern.

One can easily find metered parking on Wilshire after 7PM. There’s a room in the back that we’ve rented out and they did a nice job decorating it. The back room has a flat screen TV playing Bollywood films.


The appetizers came out and I was hugely disappointed as we were completely misled. We didn’t get the Chicken Tikka Salad, Spicy Chicken Wings, and Teardrop Caprese & Goat Cheese Skewer. We rec’d a platter of cheese, crackers, and fruit, vegetarian samosa with two dips, chicken kabobs, and lamb kabobs.

There was nothing special about their naan chips which were more like pita chips at Trader Joe's.

The brown sauce, which was more like a BBQ sauce went well with the samosa, but my stomach could only handle one before it…

Luckily the chicken kabobs weren’t marinated with anything so I chickened myself out that night.

I’m not a fan of lamb, so I didn’t bother taking pics, and plus it wasn’t pretty. The cheese/fruit platters probably came from Trader’s Joe….


Plenty of wine for us…I had 3 or 4 glasses…

If you have a KRCW card you get 10 or 15% discount off your food, but they claimed that we got a great deal so I couldn’t get an additional discount. I don’t know what the total was…but $43/person? We were raped. They were lucky to have us there because it was quite dead on a Friday night. Who wants expensive Indian food? Suckers. Us.

Address: 50 N La Cienega Blvd (between Clifton & Wilshire) Beverly Hills, CA 90209
Phone#: (310) 652-3838
Rating: 1 out of 5