Vegan-friendly
Lacto
Indian
Buffet
Beer/Wine
Delivery
Take-out
Chandni means "moonlight" in Hindi. Vegetarian Indian restaurant with daily all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. A la carte dinner menu offers a range of dishes, from appetizers and assorted fresh hot breads to vegetable and lentil dishes. Casual dining. Park behind the restaurant. Reported closed March 2024.
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1909 Wilshire Blvd (at 19th St), Santa Monica, California, USA, 90403
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Last update on 01 Mar 2024 by eric
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18 Reviews
First Review by emurphy
Kajka
Points +18
Bland food - Edit
Really dissapointed with this food. Didn’t taste like indian food at all. Tasteless. The waiter was kind tho.
Read moreGuest
JaneRichards
Points +141
A vegan-friendly gem - Edit
All vegetarian restaurant with many vegan options. Make sure you ask the friendly waiters as they don't indicate on the menu.
Read moreGuest
Shanticlare
Points +472
Good but salty - Edit
I honestly am not a big fan of salty food but other than that they are a great place! My friends and I went there and they all liked it but I thought it was a bit salty.
Read morePros: Mostly vegan
vtraveller
I think you're too sensitive to salt.
Read moreGuest
FlareHunter76
Points +13
great - Edit
love it so much its great
Read morePros: great lunch buffet, very kind people
Guest
Prema
Points +16
Chandni Rocks! - Edit
I love Chandni. Since discovering this place we eat here at least 1-2x a week. This is not a fancy overpriced Indian restaurant. It is very down to earth and affordable. The food is wholesome, delicious, and very authentic. You know you are eating authentic cuisine when a large percentage of the customers are Indian. The staff is very sensitive to vegan needs and will go out of their way to prepare the food according to any dietary needs or preferences. I love eating in a place that serves no meat because I just don't have to worry. But best of all are the wonderful people who run this place. Mahesh, Kumar, and the whole gang - these are kind and spiritual people. Several times a year they do a free community feeding (Narayana Seva). Free to everyone and they take great joy in being able to give back to the community. They have a daily lunch buffet which is delicious. I don't usually eat buffets because I don't like stuff that has been sitting around - but they cook the dishes in very small batches and continually refresh them throughout lunch. They walk around with freshly made naan bread and are very attentive. If you want delicious, veggie/vegan, conscientiously prepared food served by kind people you can't beat Chandni.
Read moreUpdated from previous review on 2015-09-12
Pros: Authentic, Delicious Food, Wonderful Staff, Very Affordable
Prema
UPDATE: I wrote this post several years ago and Chandni continues to be one of the best Indian restaurants you can find. This place is a gem! Family-run, high-quality, authentic, vegetarian Indian food in the heart of Santa Monica! The food is always fresh and the people who own and run the place are not only super nice - but very generous. They continue to do free lunches several times a year to thank their customers. They have been in business for over 25 years and it is clear why. The food is delicious and healthy. The lunch buffet is a steal for the variety and high quality of food they offer. We have been eating here for several years and it is full of loyal regulars. Whenever we take a friend - they quickly become a regular too. The atmosphere is comfortable, casual, and inviting and you are always made to feel welcome. We are so grateful to have this restaurant in our neighborhood!
Read moreGuest
GráinneO
Points +118
Dairy Ingredients not listed - Edit
Large menu, but be careful to ask for vegan; the descriptions don’t call out when dishes are made with cream / cheese. Due to this, I could only taste one dish, which was bland.
Read morePros: Large menu
Cons: Dairy Ingredients not listed
Guest
julzzz
Points +92
They can make almost anything vegan! - Edit
We've been going to Chandni for take-out for several months now. We love it because not only do they have several vegan dishes, but they are very cool about making vegetarian dishes vegan if asked. The only thing they can't do is Naan (as that has yogurt in it), but they have a vegan bread option!
Read moreGuest
isabellapiga
Points +20
best prices best tastes - Edit
Cooked with no Greece perfect Indian food
Read moreGuest
The Veggie Cook
Points +1201
Indian vegetarian - Edit
Easy vibe, big menu. Food is mildly seasoned. Ask for vegan.
Read moreGuest
Chia
Points +3635
Vegetarian Indian Food - Edit
I had first read about this place on happycow years back and have eaten here a handful of times. Here's my Chandni review update.
Read moreFor years this has been the only pure vegetarian Indian food option on the Westside. And it seems as if Chandni's has stood still in time as far as the interior style, feel, and service is concerned. The vibe is old school and serene, the servers familiar. Free parking is in the back.
The kitchen and dining room is run entirely by Indian men. The food tend to be on the mildly spiced side, tailored for American taste buds. Can ask for more spicy. All breads contain dairy of some kind except for roti.
Pros: friendly service, vegan upon request
Cons: conventional ingredients
Guest
jackie.r.7289
Points +141
Indian Buffet - Edit
This was more of a 3.5 for us, but you can't really beat the deal that is their lunch buffet, so it rounds up to a 4! Their lunch buffet is small, but has just enough options to satisfy. Our favorite part is that you don't leave with a stomach ache, because their food is not too greasy or oily. We've had black eyed peas, daal, aloo gobi, peas in sauce, saag paneer, roti and fresh vegetable salad. Everything is flavorful and layered in spices without being heavy. The buffet comes with naan, but they've whipped us up roti upon request without charging extra. It has no butter and is perfect for dipping in their sauces. Indian food is comfort food to me and this does the trick!
Read moreThe buffet works out to about $9/person and it is unlimited. We've been stuffed each time we've eaten here. I'll say the inside of the restaurant could use some work. As other reviewers have mentioned, it is stuck in another era and hasn't been updated in many years. The inside is definitely clean, but doesn't feel quite as sparkling clean as other restaurants in the area. We've also gotten takeout when we had family in town (for dinner), and the servings were quite hefty we were given and everyone was satisfied. Not too much cream but lots of flavor. Service has been friendly each time we've gone too.
Guest
Gabe
Points +117
buffet - Edit
I don't know if they were having an off day when I went, but these positive reviews don't ring true to me. The buffet had only three options, and all were tepid and bland for Indian food. My wife ordered her favorite Indian dish, chana masala, and was charged extra for a small serving of steamed white rice.
Read moreGuest
syrupofipecac
Points +114
Love it! - Edit
I loved the food, and the buffet is so cheap! Only around 8 dollars. I would eat here all the time if i lived in LA, not only for the great food but also because of the wonderful staff! Our waiter was just so nice and helpful!! He told us that the buffet was gonna be free the next day because it was an indian holiday, unfortunately we were leaving LA and couldn't come back. But I mean, what restaurant offers free buffets? It's amazing! And if you go here you MUST MUST MUST try the mango lassi. It's really the best one I've ever had.
Read morePros: Mango lassi, Friendly staff, Great food
Guest
kfinlato
Points +42
Simple flavors, calm ambiance, great service - Edit
We took our lunch here on Monday March 22, 2011. We arrived at 11:40, pulled into the alley that runs parallel to Wilshire to access the restaurant's parking spaces, and headed in through the back for a wonderful lunch. Their buffet consists of a 4-dish menu that rotates daily along with white basmati, salad, raita, rice pudding, and naan. Call ahead if you want to know which day they offer a particular dish. On Mondays they offer Chana Masala, Saag Paneer, a Pakora dish, and "Aloo Bell Pepper". Overall, the approach in the Chandni kitchen appears to involve using slightly less spicing than usual (although there was some heat in the chana) so as to let the ingredients speak for themselves, so if you want really spicy pakora or really salty salt lassis then look elsewhere. We liked the Chana Masala the best as their version brought out the chana flavor more deliberately than usual, without adding a lot of bells and whistles. The raita and rice pudding were great too. We strongly recommend arriving slightly before noon partly so that you can get parking, and partly so that you get their tasty naan straight from the oven--yumm!
Read moreThe quiet and thoughtful ambiance matches well with the reserved approach to spicing, and the mellifluous chants that they played in the background were great for calming us down.
The price for two buffets and two lassis was $22.81 without the tip. We would return regularly if we didn't live outside the LA area.
Pros: super-friendly staff, excellent plain naan, calm ambiance
Cons: small parking area
Guest
thetalkstops
Points +76
great little find - Edit
This place is one of the better indian joints I've been to lately. Prices are super reasonable. The garlic naan was great. The waiter was also super great at directing us to which dishes were vegan and even had the cook modify a dish to make it vegan for us. the whole experience was really nice.
Read moreThe only hard part was finding it. Google gave us the right address but plotted the location about 3 blocks west of where it actually is. It is on the block between 19th and 20th if anyone else has this problem
Pros: tasty, friendly staff
Guest
craigmc
Points +34178
naantastic - Edit
great restaurant. the staff were giving us plenty of banter about slumdog millionaire, telling us it was helping business.
Read moregood north indian cuisine, with good selection of breads. reay nice waiter, who we chatted with at length. it's a bit of a way out of town, but worth the trip.
Pros: great staff, great food
Cons: location
Guest
gr8vegan
Points +2363
Outstanding Vegan Friendly and can do Oil Free! - Edit
Wow first time and they are so nice and polite. They write VEGAN on your ticket and are very knowledgeable. They even did our dishes oil free!!!! WOW! That is SO RARE in LA's fatty vegan restaurants. I'm going to be a regular for sure! We did the Papdam / Roti / Alogobi / Moong Dal and Basmati Rice all were fantastic. Next time we'll get them spicier, though! Parking in the back!!!
Read morePros: vegan friendly, can do oil free, parking in back
Guest
emurphy
Points +11
Great food! - Edit
Great vegetarian food at a reasonable price. My son and I were visiting Santa Monica and read the reviews on this site, so we tried it. We had a wonderful meal. If we were in Santa Monica again, we would go out of our way to eat at this restaurant!
Read morePros: great food, fast service, friendly waiters
Guest
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