Quality of Bombay Indian Cuisine - Lawndale

So many red flags. The name, the sign, the strip mall...yet it consistently keeps its spot on Eater LA's list of best South Bay restaurants. 

How, you ask? The Dal Makhani is how. Black lentils and so many spices synthesize a flavor so deep and dark. Beautifully bold, surprisingly smooth, comfort food with a palatal pop. By far the most exciting dal I've had to date. 

Goat Curry is quite nice, with its  hard-hits of garlic and ginger. Not their best dish but no regrets whatsoever.

Opt instead for Butter Chicken. It's impossibly creamy, to a level I didn't think even butter chicken could achieve. 

Palak Paneer is the one thing I don't think they do well. The paneer is dense and hard, and the spinach is dark and dull, unlike neighbor Al Noor or Bollywood Zaika, which has the best.

That Chana Masala, though. Aromatic, smoothly spiced, earthy curry with a gentle nudge from the garlic and ginger. I can't describe it well, but it's just a lovely, well-balanced dish. 

My Garlic Naan is rather soggy on top, the garlic not so cooked. Skip in favor of rice, especially the Lamb Biryani. The lamb game is good, the meat is so tender, and every grain of rice has soaked up all the savor. 

There are only a few little tables inside this small corner stop, but it dispenses the best takeout in town. Call ahead then grab your bag and take it home to enjoy. I know all the Indian food is supposed to be in Artesia, but all, I've had here, I'm pretty sure Lawndale can compete. 

Great Full Gardens South Meadows - Reno, NV

It's one of those days. You long for the lightness of veggies stir fried, the moist but slightly dry shreds of chicken cooked correctly with not so much salt and oil not butter, the delightful surface-level desiccation of something minimally oiled and oven-roasted. But today you want that home-cooked charm without having to cook it. 

Enter Doordash with a bag full of Great Full Gardens. Straightforward, wholesome food that tastes like you could have made it...if you were an excellent cook. Simple and often understated, plates packed with veggies and fruit, mostly, if not all organic. Food so approachable, so utterly relatable that it all sounds a bit boring, but in this case, boring isn't bad. 

You get straightforward meals like the Teriyaki Bowl, a sauce-sweetened protein on a base of brown rice. There's no shortage of mushrooms, cabbage, carrots, and broccoli, and the pineapple rings on top are the best. It's the kind of thing you'd make after a farmer's market forage if you had either the time or inclination. 

The Stuffed Shrooms are not something I would normally make, but these leave me inspired. Portobello caps are always awesome, and my first encounter with Gardein makes me forget that these have no meat. They really do season it impressively well. Add some melted cheese to glue down the carrots and microgreens, and we have a winner. 

This is the most legit Grilled Cheese I've ever had anywhere. Hot, fluffy, sourdough bun-bread makes a 4-cheese hoagie, perfectly toasted, spread with a rich aioli. Grilled cheese is usually something you get for your kids, but this one is fully adult. 

I really like this place. Great-tasted everyday food made with fantastic ingredients so everything tastes like a farmer's market. Fine dining it is not, but for healthy homemade comfort it delivers every time. 

Atlantis Manhattan Deli - Reno, NV

Surprised. Pleasantly surprised. As someone whose Jewish upbringing consisted of homemade meals and deliveries from Second Avenue Deli, I didn't expect to enjoy a place called Manhattan Deli at a mega-resort in Reno. 

But here we are, this forced facsimile of something you'd find on a city street, and I find the food is delightful. There's this giant Corned Beef and Pastrami Double Decker, with heights of meat similar to what you'd get from Katz. You'd never get anything this size in NYC, and never for a reasonable price. Both meats are hot and thinly shaved. The corned beef is a bit more of a solid chew, but both are tender, and the pastrami is fall-apart quality. 

The New York Special is a lot lighter. The corned beef is cold, and savory equals creamy-sweet in a matching layer of coleslaw.

Both sandwiches are substantial, and either could be easily shared, but both are surprisingly easy to eat. Each bite invites another, and though you never forget you're in Reno, the spirit of New York is very much present in the hot, heaping generosity between both slices of bread. 

Atlantis Oyster & Sushi Bar - Reno, NV

Seafood in a landlocked city can only be so good, but Reno isn't so far from shore that they can't fly it or drive it in fast enough. 

It's best to stick to simplicity here - they do a fun Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail, for example. Giant shrimp, nice and cold. Drizzle with lemon, dunk in sauce. 

The Sashimi Salad comes with so many slices of seared tuna, and what looks like most of a can of black tobiko. Lots of green stuff beneath, including seaweed salad, and it makes a pretty good lighter lunch. The tuna itself could be fresher, but it's fine. 

Prefer your fish cooked? Probably a better idea here. The Fisherman's Platter is great for sharing, and all that breading is so filling. There's cod, there's crunchy panko prawns, and even the oysters are a pleasant surprise - not even the least bit fishy. 

Plenty of solid choices here, and they have an AYCE deal if you want to stuff yourself with mid-level sushi. This oyster and sushi bar is a decent one if you're staying at the Atlantis. I wouldn't make a special trip here, but it's a good break from diner or fine dining. 

Atlantis Red Bloom - Reno, NV

Usually casino restaurants are pretty well thought-out, with everything strategically placed, especially at mega-resorts like the Atlantis. Their steakhouse is well-known, and they have a few trendier places that the grandparents love to frequent, including the newer Bistro Napa, but I'm pretty sure Red Bloom was an afterthought. Hey, marketing team, you named your Asian restaurant after the deadly algae that infects shellfish, rendering them unfit for human consumption. 

The food is not unfit for human consumption...only unfit for enjoyment, starting with a sad salad. This Vietnamese Chicken Salad has flavorless white chicken, and shredded things, all of which were so incredibly soggy. There was supposed to be a housemade fish sauce, but it seems to have drowned like the salad. 

Shrimp Hargow fell apart immediately. 

Salt and Pepper Chicken Wings are alright. They did taste freshly fried and were quite crunchy. Not much in terms of seasoning, but this was absolutely okay. 

Mongolian Beef and Beef Bulgolgi are interchangeable in flavor and appearance, one slightly sweeter than the other, and the former has some little crispy bits on top. It's fine, it's stir fried respectably, but PF Chang's it is not. 

Service is slow, but it's lunch on a Tuesday so I can cut them some slack, but what I can't forgive is the sake. We ordered it at the beginning, and it came as our dessert. Unfortunately, we did not order dessert so we were stuck awkwardly sipping sake with no food to eat. I have no idea what took that long - I doubt they ferment it themselves. 

Do not eat here. You will not be happy.

Atlantis Purple Parrot - Reno, NV

Oh boy, I never thought I'd have a problem with a greasy-spoon diner in a casino.

They are what they are, and usually that's just fine, but when the grease is so old it permeates all your food, then it becomes a problem. 

A Fresh Vegetable Omelet would have been good as the ingredients were actually fresh vegetables, but nothing could save it from the awful oil. The hash browns had the same aftertaste, like either the oil hadn't been changed for days or the griddle hadn't been cleaned for weeks.

The Biscuit with Gravy wasn't bad. Fine biscuit, fine gravy, hits your hangover like a Vegas buffet. Nothing special, but no complaints. 

I don't know what to think. A dirty grill? Bad oil? Whatever it is, I'm just glad I only ordered one thing. I won't be ordering anything else. 

Knife Pleat - Costa Mesa

What does a one-Michelin-star tea look like?

Small. Little bites, lithe and light, delicate, exquisite.

There's not a single ingredient that doesn't get to sing, and everything serves a purpose, whether it primes your palate, tickles your taste buds, or just makes magic in your mouth. No nonsense, no fillers, just a concise three-tier and some sandwiches that prioritize top-notch quality over uncomfortable quantity.

Start by selecting a single tea from a carefully curated list. I went Grand Earl Grey and got the cleanest, truest earl grey I've ever had. It's a shockingly straightforward cup of bold and woody, strong and simple, with a less harsh finish no matter how long it steeps. It's undoubtedly elegant and gracefully self-assured, but it's my bestie's Jin Xuan Oolong that floats with floral and fruity notes, a breezy bouquet as beautiful as its drinker.

Start with the sandwiches before you fill up on everything else. The Maine Lobster Eclair is a brick of a baguette, an all-butter shell with a shattering crust. It's reminiscent of a Red Lobster cheddar biscuit...if Red Lobster were run by Michelin-starred chefs. The filling has the full, sweet succulence of a delicate lobster with some crunch from small bits of celery.

Gravlax Salmon is a slick and meaty fish, sweetened by a sheet of cream cheese with a lift of dill on an earthy rye-caraway bread. 

Bright Persian Cucumbers crunch across an herby cream cheese, and even the Radish & Watercress has some pop, with a dry and bitter radish to offset the thick slab of butter beneath. It is a masterful chef indeed who can make radishes remotely interesting.  

Take that Deviled Egg from the top tier, and bite into that creamy concoction. The yolky mix is seamless, a balance of density with uplifting herbs offset by a few pops from the dill smoked trout roe on top. 

The middle tier has more savories; meet the Green Circle Chicken Barquette which holds the best chicken salad my bestie has ever had. There's savory chicken, crunchy celery, some sweetness from the apple, and just enough curry to give it some grit without turning it into a heavy hitter. 

The Winter Crostini is a pile of cold roots: celeriac, carrot, butternut squash, and yellow beet, all beautifully cooked and topped with some tangy pomegranate to sweeten the deal.

My favorite is always the Sunchoke, a sweet, roasted root with a simple, buttery tart shell and a dollop of cream on top. 

Desserts are very dessert-y, but the lower amounts of sugar show restraint. There's a simple little Strawberry Cream Puff, with a cake so fluffy and light. There's a Lemon Cake a la Sansa Stark, and my favorite is this Cacao Pod of chocolate mousse with fragrant hazelnut and a tangy layer of passionfruit. I've never seen anything so beautiful or tasted anything so complete. The Financier has a lovely pistachio with a base of brown butter cake. My least favorite has to be the Rhubarb Tartelette. This vibrant setting sun is more like a very light jelly, and it strips the rhubarb of a lot of its tartness. It might make it more palate-pleasing and far less jarring, but it takes the barb out of the rhubarb.

Just around the edge of a flawless black sesame Macaron sits a Diamant Chocolat Sable, basically a rich chocolate cookie, a perfect ending accompaniment to any tea. 

It's a lovely tea service that ends entirely too soon. I loved every moment and cherished every bite, and I left fully satisfied but felt like I could always have one more. It's beautiful but it's not cheap, and it's something most people can rarely afford to replicate. Still, I think I'd choose it again, even over other great tea services that might cost half as much. Afternoon tea is already very elevated, so why not splurge on the very best?