Kasturi Halal Meat & Grocery

🇧🇩 BANGLADESH
📍 3580 W. 3rd Street, Little Bangladesh, Central Los Angeles
🅿️ Small parking lot
🥤 No Alcohol
🌱 Vegetarian Friendly

The ramshackle nature of Kasturi's exterior probably would not be the type of place to pull you in while driving through 3rd Street's Little Bangladesh district. The halal meat market and South Indian grocery store has only been around for a bit more than five years, but it has the appearance of having lived on the block for generations.

Like many of its neighbor markets, this Bangladeshi-owned grocery has a steam table restaurant inside. Unlike the others it also has a spacious dining room attached, which is helpful for anyone that wants to eat immediately but not inside their car. This also has the feel of being around a while, with smiling faces that all seem like longtime regular customers.

There are also more people enjoying food outside during warmer months, what first started as a tent and tables during 2020 has eventually grown into a permanent wood structure. They all come for Kasturi's wonderfully spicy and flavorful foods, some of the best in the neighborhood. Eating food here feels like being in the kitchen of your neighbor rather than at a restaurant, the ultimate home cooking experience.

And this home cooking does not make any compromises for people that do not have the palates of a Bangladeshi or Bengali. The great thing about steam table operations is that spice levels and everything else are not up for debate or choice. This probably keeps some people away, but for the groups of mostly South Asian people eating here this seems to be to their benefit.

There is no menu to guide you if you are new to the restaurant, but it would probably be misleading anyways. What is available is right there in front of you, steaming up the windows in colder months, and the staff is all quite friendly and happy to explain all the dishes that have been prepared. Ask for a plate with rice and two options ($12.99, above) and get a sampling of more than one item.

You can buy everything à la carte as well in three different sizes, but eating here and having all the juices and curries leaking into the rice is always going to be the most enjoyable way to enjoy Kasturi's food. The plate above has a wonderful lamb curry with delightfully fatty tender chunks of the meat still pink inside and cooked just right. Even spicier is the vegetable mix which is eye-opening especially when it is your first bite of the day.

Besides the many curries and stewed dishes on the steam table, you will also see a few options for pastries like the mughlai paratha ($2.49 each, above). Between two sheets of the namesake bread, this pastry is stuffed with ground chicken and egg that is laced with peppers and onions. Seemingly simple, this is the type of food that will change the entire shape of your face when you take the first bite as it is so delicious.

Stuffed with the same ingredients, the samosa ($2.49, below) is also tasty, but the paratha is what makes the above dish the better option. That being said, the wrapper is well made and this samosa would probably fly if it were not overshadowed by the mughlai paratha, the ultimate Bengali street food.

On a recent visit there was an appealing tray of meatballs that called out for attention, all swimming in a deep orange-brown gravy. The counterman said this was comparable to the sauce of chicken tikka masala, but this could not have been further from the truth. That dish can be delightful, especially when enjoyed in London, but these chicken meatballs were even better.

The sauce is full of peppers as expected, barely sweetened from tomatoes, and like an orchestra of flavor. The next time this is part of the steam table, the name will have to be asked for, so as to give this dish more research and credit. For now it will just be known as chicken kofta curry, and probably sits firmly in the "must order" category at Kasturi if you happen to see it.

Even though Bangladeshi is the third cuisine listed on the awning that tries to cast a wider net, what often sets this and Pakistani food apart from Indian, at least in the States where there is less regional specificity, is the presence of beef dishes. There is usually at least one beef curry ($11.99 large, above) available any day you come, and always enjoyable.

Like many of the other dishes at Kasturi, it is worthy of a large order if you are grabbing takeout. But better yet, take a Limca (below) from the small fridge and enjoy your dishes in the dining room. Eventually the owner might stop by to make sure you are enjoying everything, and you can grab more for takeout once you are stuffed anyways. Once you enjoy your meal, it is hard to leave without doing just that.

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