This place was on my radar because the smoke from the tandoor is so appetizing. Went because they’re open late and it seemed unlikely to be overrun with St. Patrick’s Day drunks.
Lamb chops (forgot to take a photo until we’d already grabbed two) were fine, not as smoky as I’d hoped from the aroma of the tandoor. Naan was very good.
Nice beer-cap Austrian Zweigelt went very well with the food.
I went for the first time a week ago and really liked it. Enjoyed both of the curry dishes we had, and the rosemary naan was ridiculously fragrant and tasty. Decent beer selection to boot.
Should check out their poutine. Kind f odd but they do probably the most legit version in LA. The chefs are from Canada oddly enough. Seems like a weird order but it’s actually a legit poutine. Though I realize not everyone is into poutine… Hah if you are… That is the place to get it
I had a craving for poutine, and ended up at Badmaash. This is one of the best dishes in the city. Nowhere does a poutine even close to this honestly. Of course it has the fragrant tikka chicken spices and cilantro permeating it, so it’s not precisely original poutine, but the base: the super crispy, double-fried fries that stay crisp under the heavy, beefy gravy, and the squeaky cheese curds of irreproachable quality is a perfect Québécois poutine. It’s just fucking perfect. The juicy, tender, and fragrant chicken is tastier than the $38 chicken at Republique honestly. The QPR of the dish is outstanding at $15. It’s massive, and every element is done with immense care, thus imparted with tremendous flavor on their own, and when combined form a prodigious gestalt of sublimity. Three words: utterly carnally satifying.
House gin & tonics made without gin, but with an awesome white port and house lemon tonic hits the damn spot incredibly well along with the magnificent poutine as well.
This place is criminally underrated for delivering that poutine alone to the city. I love that the Canadian side of the chef won out over the Indian side since it’s beef gravy, real beef gravy, which obviously is something Indians mostly wouldn’t eat. The heretical nature of the dish just makes it that much better though haha
I need to go back and order a bunch more stuff here, I just couldn’t possibly eat anymore after packing away the glorious poutine.
I finally made it to Badmaash last night after having wanted to go for quite some time.
The space was bright and felt open despite it being quite a small space. I’m sure part of the openness came from the fact that we went early before going to see a show at ACE Hotel, so there were only a couple other tables occupied. But I can imagine it feeling cozy rather than crammed even when at capacity. The service was also very friendly and willing to chat through the menu.
Food-wise, as @Aesthete so aptly described it, the Chicken Tikka Poutine is glorious. It comes in a heaving bowl, with the fries bursting out and camouflaging the lake of gravy that lies beneath, waiting. The cheese curds are the cheese curds by which I will measure all future cheese curds. I, admittedly, do not have much experience in the cheese curd realm, but I thought these were fantastic.
The Lamb Burger was a delight, as well. Great flavor and held together well as a burger, which I appreciate. This would be a great summer backyard burger. Picture of the burger by @PorkyBelly from a previous thread here.
I also had a bite of the Butter Chicken Samosa, which was tasty.
If you can’t get a table at Redbird, head over to Badmaash. I saw a table with more traditional Indian dishes, and they looked great, so I’d love to go back and try more.
Makes sense. Probably necessary to get a reservation. Or put your name on the list and head over to Redbird for a cocktail at the bar as you wait for your table to be ready.
Thanks for the recommendations. I said to my two friends, maybe we should have just gotten six lamb burgers, and one said, yeah, I could have eaten six of those.
Am I the only person who thinks that this restaurant is mediocre? It’s under-spiced Indian food lacking any creativity or refinement served in small portions with slow service, yet it’s priced more highly than other Indian restaurants.
For upscale Indian (which this is not), I think Spice Affair is much better. For more authentic Indian, I would say that every restaurant
The environment is totally different from, and (for me) better than, other Indian places in LA that I have been to. As already noted the alcohol selection is far better than usual as well. Those things are the draw as much as the food. Also the fusion is fairly unique — I have not seen chicken tikka poutine, which is excellent, anywhere else. Agree some of the traditional dishes are wanting but that’s not the draw for me as much as the other aspects.
