RESTAURANT REVIEW : Seafood Fare Delightfully Fishy--and Authentically Indian--at Aashiana

Here’s a tip. If you order fish and they give you a choice of fresh or frozen, take the fresh kind, at least at an Indian restaurant.

Recently, a couple I know went to Aashiana, the Indian place in West L.A. with the posh second-floor view of Wilshire Boulevard, and ordered fish tikka. The waiter told them that it was made with frozen fish, but fresh was available if they were willing to pay a couple of bucks above the menu price. Suspecting a bait-and-switch game, they defiantly took it frozen.

It seems to have been a bad move. When I asked them to join me at Aashiana for dinner a few days later, a sort of restless, haunted look came over them.

We all have to overcome our traumas. For their own good, I forced them to come to Aashiana with me and made them order the fish tikka again, only with the fresh fish (the price did go up, from $9.95 to $15.95). This time, though, it was wonderful, a skewer of fresh sea bass faintly flavored with tandoori spices, perfectly cooked in the tandoor oven and altogether moist and luscious.

A strange business, this, even downright weird--offering diners the choice between greatness and mediocrity. Possibly Aashiana is just responding to the fact that there are people out there who habitually order fish, white wine and veggies wherever they go and never notice how any of it tastes.

Whatever the reason, Aashiana is a fine restaurant otherwise, and in particular the other fish dishes are splendid. Fish Goa, for instance, is a subtle dish with a rich and mellow sauce based on yogurt with garlic and fresh ginger (and some musky cardamom, unless I miss my bet) that precisely complements the flavor of fish.

If fish are rare on Indian menus, squid is all but unknown. Aashiana has a fairly remarkable version of calamari, actually a bit European, perhaps even Franco-Indian. There’s browned cumin seed in it, and a mint sauce that included several ingredients (one of them tomato), and also mushrooms, lemon and white wine.

You find the occasional surprise on Aashiana’s lengthy tandoori menu. The chef has a refreshingly simple specialty called pooni kebab, which is roast chicken not coated with the usual tandoori spices but with a paste of ground fresh ginger and garlic. Even chicken tikka masala, that staple of every tandoori house, is a little unusual here. This version comes in a rich, almost French sauce with a lot of butter and a little bit of tomato, and . . . hello. Some raisins too, it seems.

The rest of the menu tends to be a little more familiar, mostly chicken and lamb dishes in the Moghlai style of thick, rich sauces. The lamb vindaloo, for instance, does not come in a thin, stingingly hot sauce but a thick, plush one with plenty of ginger and cardamom, slightly cut by a whiff of vinegar, and just barely hot unless you are very insistent. One of the chef’s specialties is lamb bhuna, which happens not to be on the menu. Even this dish, usually “dry-curried,” comes in a thick sauce, this time with the pickle aroma of bottled curry paste. Some of the vegetable entrees (vegetarians take note, there are 14) have the same heavy richness, like dal palak.

Chicken chat stands out among the appetizers. Chat means “a taste” (it’s connected with the word “chutney”) or a cold, spicy salad-like appetizer. The chicken chat is chunks of chicken and potato with raw onions in an intriguing thin reddish-brown sauce, tart with tamarind juice and funky with asafoetida. There are also the usual samosas (big ones, with potato-and-pea filling) and so on. Whatever you order, you’ll get an unusual carrot pickle (watch out for the green peppers) and mint chutney. Sometimes they bring out some mango chutney as well.

The dessert list is short, and the only real thing to notice is the kulfi, a rather good version of this peculiar sort of ice cream (made with highly condensed milk and flavored with almond and pistachio). There’s also a faintly spicy rice pudding with a bit of texture and the usual warm, doughy gulab jamun balls complete with a decoration of edible silver foil.

Just remember about the fish. Here’s a way of remembering: Indian cookbooks rarely have a chapter titled “Frozen Delights.”

Suggested dishes: chicken chat , $5.95; fish Goa, $11.95; calamari Aashiana, $11.95; kulfi , $3.25.

Aashiana Cuisine of India, 11645 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 207-5522. Open for lunch Monday through Saturday, for dinner daily. Full bar. Valet parking in garage. All major credit cards accepted. Dinner for two, food only, $30 to $65.