Franklin Avenue

Rate-A-Restaurant, #4 in a series

Restaurant: Electric Lotus

Location: Vermont and Franklin

Type of food: Indian

What we ordered: Bertha (eggplant), Palak tofu (steamed spinach and tofu)

We stipulated: No meat on Fridays during Lent.

High point: After years of trying to find the best Indian food in Los Angeles, believe it or not, we think Electric Lotus is among the best. I say "believe it or not" because it's obviously not your traditional Indian restaurant. For starters, the place now has a thriving bar scene since it renovated about six months ago. And Electric Lotus, while always semi-hip, has even more of a cool vibe now. There's usually a DJ spinning tunes, the place is dark and its populated with Los Feliz hipsters. You might be thrown off by the fact that most of the servers aren't even Indian. But rest assured, it's still run by an Indian family-- and the food seems to get better every time we go there. This time out, because it was Friday, we stuck to non-meat dishes. And we didn't miss the meat at all.
Then there was the price. It came to just $20 for the both of us. After I flashed by KCRW card-- first time we got to use it!--it went down to $17.

Low point: We arrived with no reservations, so we had to wait about 20 minutes. But after that, service was fast.

Overall impression: We're pretty lucky to have this place as our neighborhood-within-walking-distance Indian restaurant.

Chance we will go back: It's now one of our staples, so yes.