I honestly don’t know. But the food has been enjoyable, so I’m good either way. I will pay more attention on my next visit and will ask.
One point I forgot to mention: if you like the spicy food at Taj Tandoori, be sure to let the owners know. The place gets great reviews on Yelp, but they’re starting to get a handful of complaints by people who can’t handle the heat.
@Nemroz I’m gonna guess no charcoal. Have you found a place here in LA that uses charcoal in the tandoor?
@PaulF LOVE Jasmine Market. I’ve been going to Zafran Pot lately because I slightly prefer their chicken biryani and they serve paneer butter masala. But the weekend lamb biryani at Jasmine Market is superior imo.
A bit off-topic, but @maccrogenoff and @PaulF, what do you like at Tara’s Himalayan? I went there for the first time a few mos ago. Can’t recall what I ordered (I was meeting a friend, was running late, etc.), but I remember thinking for the food was only okay. I think I might’ve ordered one of the goat dishes?
I really can’t recall which dishes we loved or anything, we don’t go there that often.
I do think we order that yak chili because it’s freakin’ “yak chili.” I just like saying it. (They get their yak from Colorado, btw, not from Nepal.)
The food there is only “ok” but sometimes “ok” is okay if that’s what you’re in the mood for. The vibe is nice there, I’ve more or less enjoyed my meals there. They have beer. I dunno – I can’t recommend it as a place that blows me away. It’s just a spot we go to maybe a couple of times a year, if that.
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Thank you for the recommendation. I’ve never been to Zafran Pot.
Mayura uses charcoal and you know right away if a place uses charcoal… the smoke makes tons of difference for tandoori… honestly that’s my only criteria with this cooking method… i may be militant about it but i dont care.
I guess I don’t - ignorance is… 
I haven’t been to Mayura in ages. Your taste buds are true. I know the owner is pretty persnickety about his dishes. His grand daughter and my daughter used to go to school together. I would see him only periodically when he would pick up his little jewel from school. Reason being is he was always making trips to India, to pick up specific ingredients he felt were necessary to make the food up to his standards. He said he usually went at least once a month. Long haul for such things - shows his dedication I guess.
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Oh, wow, good to know! Don’t think it ever occurred to me to try the tandoori chicken there. I’ve stuck with the vegetarian and/or South Indian dishes the times I’ve been. Might have to do a bang-bang the next time I’m at Zafran Pot.
The owners of Jasmine are Indian, but lived in Myanmar. That’s why they have both Indian and Burmese dishes on their menu. We go there every so often, and the owner and my dad talk in Burmese and reminisce about the Burma from the old days.
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You’ve never been to their lunch buffet? It’s really quite amazing. Always smokey tandoori chicken in there. Mostly veg. Do get the free dosa on offer
Maybe I’m missing something at Zafran Pot, but their lunch steam table stuff was pretty disappointing the last time we went. 
I didn’t understand what the excitement was about.
We felt Bawarchi (at its high point) was much better.
I really love Mayura’s Kerala special fish curry with appam.
I have not. Not a big buffet guy. If I hit one at lunch, I’m pretty much done for the rest of the day. Might just have to check it out on your rec, though.
By “high point,” do you mean when Chef Sabharwal was still there cooking vegetarian food? If so, I probably agree. However, I felt like Bawarchi took a nosedive after they started serving meat.
Hi @Bigmouth,
Thanks for the tip on the chicken biryani. Will have to try it next time.
“Yes,” when Bawarchi was vegetarian only. We felt their dishes (and steam table offerings also) were much better. Definitely agree about the meat-transition period, we noticed that too!
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definitely fell apart after the transition to meat.
now, it is under completely different management.
went in there once since the change in management and the food looked unappealingly greasy/oily to me so just backed out
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I don’t eat meat or poultry, but my husband has been happy with the goat dishes at Tara’s Himalayan. I like vegetarian momo, okra, mustard greens, jackfruit curry, bamboo shoot curry and salt lassi. I haven’t had anything there that I didn’t like. I suspect that if you found the food only okay their cooking probably just isn’t your thing.
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Just curious: why did you differentiate the two? Isn’t poultry meat?
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Some people don’t view meat as poultry. I eat fish, so it’s easiest to say I don’t eat meat or poultry. I used to say that I don’t eat red meat or poultry until people started arguing that pork isn’t red meat.
And I consider seafood to be meat - it is protein! 
Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec considers seafood to be almost a vegetable. My carnivorous daughter agrees and doesn’t consider seafood worthy of a meal.
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And so you have it. No matter how I describe my diet, someone will correct me. On this board the only reason I describe my diet is so that posters will know why I haven’t tried a certain dish.
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