Raaga Fine Indian Cuisine & Catering

Typical indian fare but at a slightly lower quality.
My Gripe is that they don’t seem to distinguish between their 2 menu items, Dal Soup and Dal Fry.
I ordered Dal Fry and they delivered a soup.

I really wanted to like this place. It’s close to my work and as a Vegan, Indian food is a safe place to find something I can eat. Unfortunately this place sort of needs Chef Irvine from Restaurant Impossible to come in and do a make over. The décor was a bunch of mis-​matched tables, bad wall paper with pictures that were awkwardly placed. But enough about the décor.
I really wanted to like it because the staff was soooo incredibly nice. That’s why they got two and not zero. Very helpful in deciding what to order. Made small talk with me while I waited for my to go order but the food was soooo disappointing. Like I said, twice already, I really wanted to like it. But the food was dry and lacked salt. It virtually had no flavor whatsoever. Bummer.
I hope Chef Irvine comes to save the day, if not I probably wont’ be going back anytime soon.

They have appeared to have had a change of ownership. The space is now called «India’s Oven». They have also re-​arranged the dining room a bit to move the steam table buffet to the other side of the room.
We ate there this past weekend and we found the food and service to be about the same as before with one exception; they would not ask my wife the usual cordial questions like «How was your meal?» or offer suggestions like «You must try our raita and paneer». Nope, they just seemed to ignore her and made the suggestions and asked the questions to me only… the male of the party.
Hey waitaminute… I kinda liked that for once. :-).

I think they have changed their name to Indian Oven. Whatever they call themselves the food is mediocre.
We stopped by for their AYCE lunch buffet for $ 7.99. The flavors were pretty run of the mill, however their meat quality was pretty poor. I think I had more bones than meat!
The naan was good, as was the service. The owner was extremely nice. They may make it because they are in Chatsworth. If they were on the west side or the other parts of the valley they would be in trouble.

Not the best, far from the worst. Decent service… we were the only people in the restaurant and we sat there for close to two hours. A good Vegetarian selection

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Raaga!
So much so that I have gotten several of my coworkers addicted, and they in turn have gotten several others addicted. Being just a short 5 minute drive from our large professional company, it’s become a fast favorite with many! It’s not uncommon for me to overhear coworkers talking about it before or after lunch, or to bump into them while dining there. And since it’s buffet style, we can leisurely chat and stuff our faces and be back to work in easily under an hour… usually about 45 minutes.
The lunch buffet can’t be beat: $ 8 for a great array of food. It’s my personal fave because of the array of choices. I love the lamb, and the spicy spinach is to die for! I’m not the biggest veggie eater, but I eat ALL my veggies here! They sneak them in with the great spices and you almost don’t notice you’re eating your greens too ;-)
I don’t know WHAT the other bloggers are talking about in reference to the rest of the patrons… I assure you, I’m here regularly and I’ve seen tons of Indian people eating here and it’s always packed at lunch time. I’ve also been in the evening for dinner, and they had a good turn out as well.
The staff is always friendly and professional. They lag a little on bringing the check, but if you flag them down or walk to the counter, they’ll give it to you pronto. Sitting around and waiting doesn’t seem to work as well, which might be related to the fact that it’s buffet and they don’t always know when you’re done eating.
I’m a huge Indian food connoisseur… growing up on it as a kid, and I’m telling you: this place is TOPS!

3.75 stars for the food, and an extra .25 stars for the great service = 4 stars
This is how much I heart Indian cuisine: eating at four different Indian restaurants in 12 days! Raaga was my final Indian food experience in LA and it left a good after taste in my mouth.
When I first entered this well decorated and clean establishment, I read the previous negative reviews and hoped for the best. To my surprise, their lunch buffet ($ 8) exceeded my expectations. All the staff and managers were Indian and they served Northern Indian style.
Now this isn’t Artesia which has some of the best in LA but it did a good job in getting my tummy all curried up. Their buffet line included: tandoori chicken, chicken tikka, fried samosa, goat curry, rice, gobi aloo (minus the cauliflower), lentil dish, salad and gulab jamun (juicy donuts). All of the flavors were good and the goat curry was a bit more spicy compared to the other dishes. The tandoori was good but I had better.
The staff offered either plain or garlic naan with complimentary refills. It was hot, soft and a bit doughy which I absolutely LUV. My water was refilled automatically and they were very pleasant.
Based on the negative reviews you would think this place would be empty but Raaga had many patrons coming in during the lunch hour.
Not the best but very tasty and convenient for me along with great service. Now I can return back to HI reaching my Indian food nirvana.

The food’s not terrible, and I’d come here a few times in the past. The staff is neither nice nor mean, they just come by to fill water and stay away (not the friendliest). Honestly, I would probably still be going infrequently if it weren’t for what happened on my 21^st birthday.
For my 21^st, a small group of close friends and I were wanting to get some Indian food and beer. Unfortunately, neither the waiter, anyone else working, or even the MANAGER whom he called could validate that yes, you are officially 21 on the day of your birthday, not the day after…
They were so uncertain about this trivial fact, that I wouldn’t be served a beer. So with all of our other beers already open and food in the back still being prepared, we left. We gave them fair warning and told them we had been returning customers, but we’ll never go back now. My father even had the courtesy to call the manager to tell him how disappointed he was in their management and gave the guy a chance to make it up, but we never heard back.
If even the manager is this moronic, they don’t deserve any business. Not that they ever had much (I’ve never once seen other patrons inside).
There are much better Indian restaurants (in every respect), definitely skip this one.
To Raaga: You screw me on my B-​Day, now I’m screwing you, don’t you love the Internet?

Don’ waste your time here. I placed a to go order with this establishment, and for the life of me, I had difficulty in talking to the order taker, whom apparently got everything all wrong. My mistake was discovered when I arrived home (my fault for not checking at the restaurant).
Ok, so the chicken curry was all curry and very little chicken, the Brianni (rice dish) had mystery meat instead of the chicken I ordered. I never did get my chicken tika. The one clue I should have noticed was that there was no one seated in the restaurant! Pass on this one. Never again!

Ok, this is likely going to sound offensive… but I’m a little bothered by an Indian restaurant with a Latino front staff. Add to this, the lack of a single Indian patron, and the picture is bleak. I was greeted nicely enough by a guy in his late teens/​early twenties, who happily told me that until this job, he’d never had Indian food (fair enough), and that this place was the best because of all the (mainly white) returning customers. Now there is a substantial Indian community here, there’s a well-​patroned restaurant down the street. But since this place quietly took over from another Indian restaurant that had Satan’s idea of hygiene… there hasn’t been much in the way of Indians there.
So, the food.
Umm, it won’t kill you. The rice is colorful, for those who appreciate color in their food. It has some elements of green owing to the peas. I don’t like peas. The curry? Well, I have tried the Chicken Vindaloo and the Lamb Vindaloo (I need spice). I don’t think I could get «spicy» unless I threatened someone. The last time I tried that (not the threatening part) my curry came to me with what I view a mortal sin — chilli sauce. I basically will abandon a restaurant when I encounter that. If you resort to chilli sauce because you don’t know the art of Indian cooking… then stay out of the &@$$ing kitchen!
So, I’m not a fan. But the front staff is nice if not ethnically correct. Then again, I’m not ethnically correct either… more like a semi balding John Houseman/​cracker type. :)