Southern Spice

🇮🇳 INDIA
📍 15651 Hawthorne Blvd., Lawndale, South Bay
🅿️ Ample parking in plaza
🥤 No Alcohol
🌱 Vegetarian Friendly

When you dine at many Southern Indian restaurants in the United States, they usually have a more specific regional specialty and some other dishes thrown in for good measure. But Southern Spice lives up to its broad name with a lively menu full of regional southern biryanis, chicken 65 from Hyderabad, Tamil-style vegetarian plates that remind you of your time in Chennai, and even some northern tandoori dishes for the diners that would feel uncomfortable without at least some on the menu.

The weekday buffet ($17.95) seems pretty standard, but fresh rotis do keep coming out of the kitchen and its popularity probably hints at how good it is. On Weekends, it fills up with even more selections and gets more special, a definite coup for residents that live nearby. After multiple visits, it appeared that every single (mostly South Asian) diner was here for the buffet and not ordering from the menu.

One stand out dish that will be hard to pass on in future visits because it is frighteningly good is called Vijayawada chicken biryani ($16.99, below), named for the city in Andhra Pradesh it hails from. The vibrant spices of the dish are overlaid onto chicken which has a tartness from being marinated in lemon and yogurt. The final dish is also just a bit sweet from fried nuts being added to the sauce.

This is all placed over rice which is cooked separately in this style. Despite being named for one city, the dish is enjoyed all over the state of Andhra Pradesh and beyond, having been adapted from its more famous neighbor in Hyderabad. Recommended.

On weekends, you can travel further south in Tamil Nadu almost to the southern tip of India for another famous biryani. Dindigul thalappakatti biryani ($17.99, above) is a baby goat meat biryani that uses short grain seeraga semba rice, and is one of those dishes where you get a nod of approval from the manager when ordered. Seeraga semba almost looks like broken rice, but this is the full grain and beloved in many parts of Tamil Nadu.

The city of Dindigul is well-known for this biryani style and also its agricultural economy. If you travel there from the high-tech cities of Hyderabad and Bengaluru, it seems like a trip into a completely different world. There are of course many specialists of this biryani in the city, all with their own recipe and slight variations.

Vegetarian and vegan diners usually feel at home in Southern Indian restaurants, but the spices and flavors here are more than just common Tamil stews. The list of 12 vegetarian entrees (some have cheese and are not vegan) all have specific tastes and none are afterthoughts. Common masala dishes like aloo gobi masala ($12.95, above rear) and bhindi masala ($12.95, above front) will act to freshen up your life when these orders seem boring at many takeout restaurants outside of Artesia.

The ennai kathirikai ($13.95, below) is a standout Tamil eggplant curry that should be ordered even by meat lovers. The "gravy" of this dish is full of roasted peanuts, spices, and coconut, and also has a moderate sourness from tamarind. It is another eye-opening flavor coming from this very talented kitchen.

It was clear the manager of Southern Spice also has a taste for northern flavors, on both visits that took place for this article he steered the table toward the tandoori fish ($15.99, above). Tandoori appetizers like this are of course enjoyed all over India these days, so it makes sense for the restaurant to offer some. The fish is no slouch, stuffed full of spicy pastes that permeate every bite when cooked.

He also recommended the kadai options the restaurant offers, and these are no let down either. The goat kadai ($17.99, below) is named for the deep vessel (think a wok without the long handle) it is cooked in, which you may see as karahi depending on where you are dining. The bone-in chunks of goat are even tastier here than in the biryani above, and as with all non-veg and veg entrees, comes with a good portion of basmati.

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