4.10.2006

Restaurant Review #124: Hurry Curry, Mar Vista



At Hurry Curry, you can get a lunch special with one vegetable and one meat entree plus rice for $2.99, according to the sign. Yet for some reason, my lunch was $3.99. Even stranger, I didn't question this. I have bigger things to worry about than $1.00, of course, but the principle of the situation normally would have made me mad.

My food would have made me mad under ordinary circumstances too (I bought two cheap lunches from two different restaurants, in case one was bad). The yellow curry with cauliflower and green peppers tasted like cigarettes. I thought I was crazy, so I took about five more bites just to make sure. Yup. Cigarettes. It was inedible.

The peas and mushrooms were better, only because they were edible. The curry itself had very little flavor though, and the mushrooms, which were so plentiful as to convince me that they had multiplied on the drive home, were the slimy canned variety that cause most folks to steer clear of mushrooms altogether. The best thing I could probably say about my food is that the peas were bright green and the rice was okay, though it was on the moist side.

After an excellent $5.50 experience at India's Sweets and Spices the week before, I actually thought good Indian food for $4.00 was within reach, especially because so many people had mentioned Hurry Curry to me. In retrospect though, I don't think anyone was raving about the food so much as the ridiculously low price.

There are plenty of tables for sitting down. The slightly run-down minimalist look of the place and bright midday sunshine reminded me of Mexico. I also had the good fortune of finding street parking right out front--free, unmetered street parking. What a steal! The restaurant was pretty empty, but it was almost 3:00. I was just glad they were open. Taking the food home in my car was a bit of a challenge, since my generously filled styrofoam container had only a thin layer of paper bag between its high leak potential and the floor of my car.

If you're starving and nothing else is open, go ahead and chance it--just don't order what I did. If it's Indian food you crave, go somewhere else. Anywhere else. Hurry!

Hurry Curry
12825 Venice Blvd (NE corner of Venice and Beethoven)
Los Angeles, CA 90066
310-398-2948
Website

4 comments:

El Bandini said...

Ever since the ownership change(about 8 years ago) they have been serving food that is barely edible.

It's sad what happened to this place. The food was never great but at one time you could get a decent curry.

I went there about 6 months ago to see if things had changed. I ordered vindaloo and it was so foul I threw it in the trash after 2 bites.

Anonymous said...

Ha! Vindication! Thanks, Bandini.

Anonymous said...

I'll admit that I am no food critic and I have only visited this place once. But that one experience was amazing. Now I don't know which India Sweet and Spices you visited, but the one I used to frequent smelled curiously like Indian desserts mixed with antibacterial soap. The food was atrocious. Maybe I visited Hurry Curry on a good day, but the food was amazing. I am a big fan of the cheese nan. And the mushroom curry was delicious. So was the chicken. I really enjoyed it!

Anonymous said...

I have to say that I strongly disagree with this review. As a life patron of Indian food consumption (ie, as an Indian, I've eaten it my whole life with my mom's cooking), I can attest to the autenticity of Hurry Curry's Indian food. The food is full of spices- I could never label the food as lacking flavor, and I have no idea how the food could be labeled inedible. Everyone I know thoroughly enjoys Hurry Curry, from the delectable mushroom curry, to the undeniably delicious cheese naan. I have been there multiple times, and I have never been disappointed! So, I urge everyone to eat at Hurry Curry, and decide for themselves about the food!