Nirvana

This is an Indian restaurant in Monrovia. I've never been a fan of Indian food, but my coworker really wanted to try something different. While I don't like the main spicy dishes typical of Indian, I do appreciate the fried appetizers and naan bread I have had.

They have lunch specials. My coworker got the Tandoori chicken. It comes with rice and veggies and plain naan. I got the assorted appetizers, which Samosas, kabob like meat and what looked like Tandoori chicken cutlets. At the bottom was some lettuce leaves for presentation. The lettuce leaves tasted like there was some plum sauce on it.

The best thing about the appetizers was that they came out fresh, they were very hot! If they had merely nuked it in the microwave, I wouldn't have known. Inside the samosa were potatoes and mushy veggies. The outside was very doughy and hard though. The chicken was a tad dry and the kabob kinda had a funky taste...I'm not sure if it might have been goat or lamb, in which I'm not used to. It came with a green sauce and tamarind sauce, neither of which I was a huge fan of. The garlic naan was good, though I tasted mostly cilantro. I can't say that the lunch was all that healthy for me.

Service is good. It seemed like there were only 2 people serving, the owner and what looked like the owner's mother, constantly making sure your water glasses are full. Decor is pleasant. And entertainment is the TV featuring cheezy Indian romance films shrill Hindi singing.

There were 3 other tables occupied. The table next to us looked like another pair of coworkers. The man was going on about how he had lived in India with his parents and when he was 16 years old he had the run of the house; his parents were always travelling the world and he was free to have house parties with a hot tub and experiment with things generally frowned upon in the Hindi culture. I was not looking at them at first but when the man got up to take an outside call, he was much older than I would have expected. He sounded rather arrogant, some man in his 40s talking about his life in his teens.

I'm not a fan of Indian food. On the other hand, I know I don't hate Indian food, because I have still been thinking about the Himalyan place in Big Bear. Therefore, this Indian joint might not be up to par with my standards, though it is not all bad. If I were to rate it, I would rate it 7 out of 10, due to lack of taste. It is clean though, you don't smell that wierd spicy smell you get at some Indian places. And service was pretty good, though the place was not crowded at all. I would not go to eat by myself, but would be willing to accompany anyone who is interested.