East India Grill Lightens Up

In Los Angeles, the California-cuisine aesthetic--light sauces, fresh ingredients, clean flavors--has left its mark on several ethnic cooking styles. First, there was the California-French food; then chefs brought in Italian and Asian flavors, then Latin and Caribbean. Indian food, as cooked at West L.A.’s Bombay Cafe and Hollywood’s East India Grill, lightened up too.

The opening of a new branch of the East India Grill in Santa Monica may signal a widening acceptance of this style of Indian cooking. But for those used to eating their bharta and tandoor chicken in more traditional Indian restaurants, the new East India Grill may take some getting used to. For one thing, it doesn’t look like an Indian restaurant. Then you look at the menu and see things like New York steak, baby back ribs, fettuccine in garlic-cream sauce. What makes this stuff Indian? The steak and the ribs are cooked in a tandoor oven and the fettuccine is curried.

There are some straightforward Indian dishes-- samosas and naan and several different curries--but the waiter assumes you’ve never eaten Indian food before. Everything is explained. “You know the dal has lentils in it?” one waiter asked last week.

Still, flavors here are good and clear. Onion pakoras are nicely fried in chick pea flour. And the kitchen does well with its hot, mild or medium curries. But the marinated chicken wings, called Wings From Hell, were more like wings from heck.

East India Grill, 318 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, (310) 917-6644. Entrees $8.95 to $13.95 .