Surya

I'm back in Los Angeles, and for my first meal out, a friend and I went to Surya on Third Street. Surya was recommended by Chantal as her favorite Indian restaurant in Los Angeles, so since she had such great restaurant suggestions in Miami, I had to try her L.A. spot.

I ordered the tandoori prawn dinner ($24) pictured above, which came on a bed of raw onions, alongside dal, spicy chick peas, rice and warm nan. Everything was spicy but not overwhelming, and freshly prepared. The only fault I found was the shrimp were not warm by the time the plate reached the table.


Timing delivery of dishes is a crucial key to a good kitchen staff, and I think my friend's order of chicken tikka masala ($18), cooked in a mild fenugreek tomato sauce took longer to cook than my dish, so the kitchen had trouble coordinating the delivery of both our dishes to our table at the same time without one suffering from a temperature fluctuation.

The dinner portions were ample to feed a very hungry person, and although we were both full halfway through our meals, we kept eating a just one more bite until we had finished everything, even sopping up every drop of the delicious fenugreek sauce with the nan. We had no room for dessert, so that will have to be left for a future trip.

Overall the food was well executed, the service was attentive (especially since there was only one server on a busy night handling about 10 tables), and the decor was as warm and exotic as the food.

Surya is a nice neighborhood find, even when it was found on a trip to Miami!