Review of Star of India in La Jolla (San Diego), CA

 [Note:  I am not the originator of this posting.  I'm simply passing
 this on as a favor to a fellow netter who does not have access to
 sdnet.eats and is sufficiently annoyed about the time he had at the
 restaurant to ask that I post this to sdnet.eats.  One small
 typographic problem was corrected, otherwise, this is as I received
 it.  Follow-ups to rec.food.restaurants. -- spl]

 Subject: Review of Star of India in La Jolla

 Thanks Steve for posting this. All comments/flames to [email removed]

 Star of India (NOT!!!!) La Jolla

 Two years back when my brother-in-law got his MS degree from UCSD, we
 had celebrated by having brunch at Star of India. Last weekend his
 wife graduated from SDSU and past memories and a pleasant experience
 drove us back to this place for a celebratory dinner. WRONG CHOICE!

 Star of India (SOI) had moved from its original subterranean location
 to a newer larger place across the street. At 7:30pm on Saturday it
 was pretty full. But we were assured of quick seating even though
 we had 12 in our party (9 adults and 3 children). While waiting at
 the tiny holding place near the door, perusing the usual rave reviews
 of the restaurant in the local papers, I noticed a remarkable absence
 of Indians in the whole place. That should have tipped us off.

 We were seated soon enough at a long booth along the main wall - 4
 tables joined together. Chairs were comfortable and the place
 settings were clean. I was handed a wine list in addition to the
 menus that all of us got. The list seemed reasonable, if a bit
 overpriced.

 Unfortunately, I have to say each and every menu item was extremely
 pedestrian cooking on display. Even the corner shop Indian fast food
 restaurant makes a tastier Tandoori chicken. The lamb meat was very
 sinewy with a number of tough pieces. The chicken tikka masala was the
 only item that stood scrutiny. The mattar paneer had exactly 3 pieces
 of paneer in it - at $9 a criminal act. The kofta was also passable.

 Naans at $2.50 is unheard of - at least in LA.

 SOI includes a 15% gratuity on their bill for parties of 6 or more.
 I had half a mind of foregoing any gratuity that night, but decided
 against dumping on the waitron when what I wanted to do was choke the
 owner.

 I am surprised that there are enough people patronizing this dump to
 keep it in business - where are the good Indian restaurants in SD?

 On the positive side let me mention at least three good Indian
 restaurants in LA for those times when you have to make a trip to LA
 for some reason:

 1) Rajdoot Indian Cuisine in Artesia - I have not been to this one but
 have heard good things from friends and also it has got some very good
 reviews in LA Times.

 2) Bombay Cafe - Santa Monica at Bundy - this one is quite good - try
 their lamb frankies and sindhi chicken which you will not get anywhere
 else - they also have a very large selection of chutneys to sample -
 one added bonus is that Lejonet and Bjornen (Lion and Bear in Swedish)
 a little further west on Santa Monica Blvd. makes excellent ice
 creams, particularly with their fresh fruit flavors.

 3) Khali's Indian restaurant - this is a gem of a find in a little
 town of Montrose (near JPL in Pasadena) - their Balti meat dishes and
 their chilli paneer are unparallelled.

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 Siddharth Dasgupta ([email removed]) (818) 397-2725
 Materials & Molecular Simulation Center, Beckman Institute, CALTECH,Pasadena
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