Sitting in the old Sunset Foot Clinic space, the individualism of Pijja Palace is welcome on many levels.
Have you swung by the summer’s hottest dining sensation yet? The sports bar that serves Indian American food in the Silver Lake strip mall where the legendaryThat’s a fun sentence to type, though Pijja Palace is far more joyful to experience in person. Its crisscrossing influences and owner Avish Naran’s we-do-what-we-want irreverence feel innate to the city, but there is also nothing else quite like it in Los Angeles.
Otherwise, the decor upends any cliched notions of a “sports bar.” Beige banquettes, light woods, chairs with rounded backs in a vaguely Midcentury Modern style, smallish tables in pinks and greens: It gives off the air of a business-class lounge in a Scandinavian airport. Noise-wise, it’s the opposite of preflight calming: Cement floors make the small space — which is always packed by 6 p.m.
By the time the malai rigatoni lands, you have reached the center of Pijja Palace’s culinary maze. A simmered mixture of gentle tomato masala and cream blankets the pasta; the reedy twang of coriander seed cuts through all the velvetiness. Some pastas have obvious magnetic appeal. Saffron and the sweet musk of Indian long pepper perfume a dish that otherwise looks and comforts like Kraft shells and cheese. Short, porous tubes meant to resemble the shape of rickshaws — they’re cute — snare cilantro-mint pesto and the scattered cashew bits that add appreciated crunch.
But the inconspicuous sleeper hit? That’s the chaas dumplings. If I’m sharing, I’ll admittedly only eat one of the doughy balls, lightened slightly with yogurt in the recipe. But underneath the dumplings is softly textured dal, heightened by chhonk thrumming with cumin. Its flat-out excellence is a reminder: In a city where one can find countless, specific expressions of global cuisines — Mexican, Korean, Japanese and Chinese at the forefront — we have a dearth of exceptional Indian restaurants.
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