RESTAURANT REVIEW : Hot Out of the Tandoor : Somi Rehil’s latest Indian food outlet is turning out savory clay-oven-baked creations in downtown Burbank.

What makes Somi run?

Somi Rehil already owns Indian restaurants in Los Angeles, WesA. and Tarzana. Now he’s opened one a block south of Action Central in newly gentrified downtown Burbank--just down the hill from Crocodile Cafe, Market City Caffe and a huge AMC Cineplex.

Rehil is on the move. The man started with a Pico Boulevard restaurant called Sheesh Mahal, later altering the name to the more descriptive India’s Tandoori. He spotted an Indian food vacuum in this town and promptly decided to fill it. Now there are four restaurants in his empire.

I’m predicting a tandoori boom. Tandoori is a Hindi term referring to foods--mainly meats and breads--cooked in a super-heated cylindrical clay oven (tandoor). Rehil’s restaurants feature a number of tandoori specialties: ruddy, skinless chicken; moist, briskly salted game hen; terrific chops cut from a lamb rack; fine, steamy flat breads stuffed with minced, spiced meat or topped with onion, garlic and herbs. You can get versions of these dishes at other tandoori joints, but Rehil adds almost a dozen more choices.

As at most of our Indian restaurants, the cookery here is the hearty, subtly spiced and meat-rich Mughlai style that predominates in India’s northern regions. What makes an India’s Tandoori stand taller than most of the Mughlai clones around L. A. is plain, old-fashioned honesty. His food tends to be rather salty, but it rarely relies on tired spice mixtures, tawdry food colorings and the unhealthful overuse of oil.

Though the Burbank branch of India’s Tandoori is within a block of Crocodile Cafe, Fuddrucker’s and the rest of the downtown Burbank hot spots, it is not a flashy place. It’s done in rather muted colors, embellished only by some embroidered Indian paintings and a highly visible dish of multicolored fennel seeds ( saunf ) near the front door. Pick up a pinch on the way out and chew them as a breath freshener.

Before you get too deeply ethnic, check out a Rehil innovation called tandoori pizza. You can have it with vegetarian or shrimp toppings, but the choice to go for is the tandoori chicken pizza--a variety I wish pizza places everywhere would serve. The chef tops a good, bready crust with mozzarella and spices, then piles on chunks of roasted chicken and a sweet onion sauce. Bet you can’t eat just one.

Now you’re ready for a few heavy hitters. I just don’t know when I’ve had better lamb than the little tandoori chops this restaurant serves. The four tender, lightly charred chops come crusted with spices, redolent of ginger, garlic and cumin. Eat one with a sprinkle of fresh lemon, a tomato wedge and a slice of onion, and the flavors are transcendent.

More tandoori delights await. Seekh kebab is something like a minced lamb sausage roasted on a skewer: tasty, crumbly, pungent with onion and garlic. Onion kulcha , a partially leavened tandoori bread, is the perfect foil for the dry-cooked chicken tikka .

Fish pakoras are the best non-tandoori appetizer. These swordfish chunks, covered with garbanzo batter and fried golden, are delicious with the crunchy fresh carrot pickle and the mint chutney you get at all the restaurants in this chain.

Among entrees not to miss is the light vegetable zalfrazi. This is cubes of Indian cheese ( paneer ), cauliflower chunks, onions and tomatoes, flavored with garlic, ginger and spices and cooked almost oil-free; new age Indian food, if you will. Bhindi is the Indian word for okra, and as cooked here the vegetable has little of its famous sliminess. The kitchen cuts the okra into small pieces, then sautes dry with onions and chili.

Kofta means meatballs; malai kofta are in fact mock meatballs made from grated vegetables, served in a rich cream gravy. Nargisi kofta , on the other hand, are actual lamb patties, fried slightly crunchy and finished in a thick tomato-based sauce.

A good complement to any meal would be one of the tandoori breads. The simple paratha --multilayered unleavened whole wheat bread--goes with any dish, vegetarian or non-veg. The luxuriant keema naan , a flat bread sprinkled with cooked, crumbled lamb, is perhaps the richest bread here. The light, fresh garlic naan is one more option, and incomparably better than the oily horror show often called garlic bread in restaurants.

India’s Tandoori makes all of its own desserts, and mostly, they are just fine. Ras malai is rather like a cottage-cheese ball submerged in a sweet cream and almond sauce. The ever-popular gulab jamun, fried cheese balls in syrup, are only worth a try when hot and made fresh that day.

But the homemade saffron- and pistachio-flavored ice creams would do nicely without the respective additions of weirdly artificial orange and green food colorings. Honest.

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WHERE AND WHEN

What: India’s Tandoori, 142 N. San Fernando Road, Burbank.

Suggested dishes: Tandoori game hen, $4.95 and $8.95; rack of lamb, $13.95; vegetable zalfrazi , $5.50; malai kofta , $6.95; onion kulcha , $1.95.

Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Saturday; 5:30 to 10 p.m. Monday to Thursday, till 10:30 p.m. Friday to Sunday.

Price: Dinner for two, $22 to $37. Beer and wine. Street parking. American Express, MasterCard, Diners Club, Discover and Visa.

Call: (818) 846-7500.