Natraj Cuisine of India, situated in the midst of the Belmont Shore fun and food zone, is a fine reason not to have to drive to Artesia for a plate of tandoori, some samosas and pakoras, and a heap of naan and roti. Not that I don’t enjoy the restaurants of the Little India section of Artesia, but except for Saturday nights, Pioneer Boulevard can be pretty quiet. By contrast, Second Street is never quiet. Once you’ve found parking, you’re in for an evening that goes on as long as you want it to.
It’s also a restaurant that keeps offering perks that bring diners back, again and again. There’s the daily buffet lunch for $8.95. The Sunday buffet brunch for $11.95, served with complimentary Champagne. The dinner special for two dishes out a lot of food for $36.95. And, perhaps a bit oddly, Indian wines are offered at half price all day Monday and Tuesday, and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
But one of the best parts of the Natraj experience is that this is a family-run restaurant, where the family always seems to be present. There’s pride in their food, which isn’t always the case when it comes to our burgeoning world of chains. On the website, the owners introduce themselves, writing: “My name is Amarjit Singh and I work at the best Indian Restaurant in Long Beach with my wife Bubbly Kaur and daughter Ruby. I am from India and food is the center of our culture, in the state of Punjab. It’s colorful and rather tasteful, arousing your taste buds to the different curries and Indian spices.”
Singh continues to tell diners “Studies show that Indian food is very healthy” and how at Natraj there are many vegetarian and vegetable dishes that can be “a good way to introduce the five-a-day daily recommended portions of vegetables to your family and friends.”
What can I say? You’ve got to love a restaurant with co-owners named Bubbly and Ruby, all of whom are concerned about their diners getting their daily share of veggies. But you’ve also got to feel some serious affection for a place where the food is so soul-satisfying — even if Mumbai and Kolkata are just names on a map.
This is an Indian restaurant where the cooking is wholly classic. If you’ve eaten Indian food before, you’ll recognize pretty much everything on the menu, including that most British of Indian dishes known as chicken tikka masala, which is said to have originated at the Shish Mahal restaurant in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1971. (It’s so loved in the U.K. there’s been a movement to make it the national dish, replacing fish-and-chips in the process.) Whatever the provenance of the dish (it also may have originated in Punjab or Uttar Pradesh), they do a fine version of it at Natraj, where it may well be the single most popular dish on the menu. It’s a plate of boneless tandoori chicken in a gravy of tomato, cream, onion and many spices. It’s so brightly colored, it virtually glows.
Dining at Natraj is like paying a visit to much-loved culinary friends. There are the pakoras — crispy fritters filled variously with veggies, Indian cheese, chicken and fish — and samosas, a cousin of the pakoras, that come packed with potatoes, peas and ground meat. The onion fritter, called onion bhaji, is a longtime favorite and less oily than most. If you can’t make up your mind, there’s an appetizer platter of four different dishes that’s big enough to work as a light meal.
Along with the chicken tikka masala, there’s a lot of chicken on the menu. The chicken competes with the many vegetarian dishes for dominance. Karahi chicken, chicken jalfrazi, chicken vindaloo, chicken madras, chicken korma, chicken malai — the list goes on.
But, for better or worse (better in this case), I’m drawn like a proverbial moth to a flame to the tandoori chicken, which is skinless and reddish-brown, moist and heavy with herbs and spices. There’s also spicy tandoori wings, and of course, a mixed tandoori platter that gives you a taste of chicken and beef and lamb and so forth.
Add on some of the breads, perhaps one of the rices, and you have an impressive meal. If you want a bit more exotica, the yogurt drink called lassi is unexpectedly refreshing. I’m also a great fan of Indian desserts, especially the rice pudding called kheer. Though the flavor of rosewater in the gulab jamun is an experience that’s always far away, even close to home.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Send him email at mreats@aol.com.
