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GuideUpdated July 15, 2026

12 Best Places for Butter Chicken in Los Angeles

Where to find the best butter chicken in Los Angeles — each restaurant rated 4.0★ or higher. Top-rated at 9.8★. Spanning indian and global kitchens. Curated by TastyPals.

The best places for butter chicken in Los Angeles are Lotus Indian cafe, Aromas Indian Cuisine, Flavor of India - Studio City, and more. Start with Lotus Indian cafe if you want the strongest overall first pick.

By Carlos Mendez•10 ranked picks•Published July 15, 2026•Updated July 15, 2026
Methodology•Editorial team
Lotus Indian cafeAromas Indian CuisineFlavor of India - Studio City
12 Best Places for Butter Chicken in Los Angeles
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Top picks at a glance

#1Lotus Indian cafeIndian • Los Angeles • $$$$#2Aromas Indian CuisineGlobal • Sherman Oaks • value#3Flavor of India - Studio CityIndian • Los Angeles • $$

Who this guide is for

This guide covers the highest-rated spots for butter chicken in Los Angeles. Whether you're a local hunting your next regular or visiting and want to eat well, these picks are sorted by quality and review depth.

Quick picks

Lotus Indian cafe
Indian • Los Angeles
On Wilshire Blvd in West L.A.'s dense restaurant corridor, Lotus Indian Cafe has staked out a position that's genuinely uncommon: a kitchen that treats traditional Indian comfort food and globe-hop…
Aromas Indian Cuisine
Global • Sherman Oaks
Aromas sits on the stretch of Ventura Blvd where Sherman Oaks does its unpretentious weeknight thing, and that's exactly the register it plays in.
Flavor of India - Studio City
Indian • Los Angeles
Flavor of India has been doing northern Indian on Ventura Blvd since 1998, and the reason it's lasted is simpler than the awards-circuit places want it to be: the Chicken Tikka Masala has a real cl…
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Editorial details
Published: July 15, 2026
Last updated: July 15, 2026

On this page

  1. 1. Lotus Indian cafeView →
  2. 2. Aromas Indian CuisineView →
  3. 3. Flavor of India - Studio CityView →
  4. 4. Electric KarmaView →
  5. 5. Crown of IndiaView →
  6. 6. Star of IndiaView →
  7. 7. Urban Masala Indian RestaurantView →
  8. 8. India's Tandoori - Hollywood (Halal)View →
  9. 9. Anarkali Indian RestaurantView →
  10. 10. BADMAASH Downtown LAView →

How the restaurants compare

Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Lotus Indian cafe
Google
Lotus Indian cafe
Los Angeles • Indian
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$$$$
Best for
hidden gem
Mood
Special occasion
Aromas Indian Cuisine
Sherman Oaks • Global
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
value
Best for
dinner
Mood
Sherman Oaks
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Flavor of India - Studio City
Google
Flavor of India - Studio City
Los Angeles • Indian
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$$
Best for
date night
Mood
Easygoing
Editorial restaurant image stand-in for Electric Karma
Google
Electric Karma
Los Angeles • Indian
9.9/10
TastyPals Score
Price
$$
Best for
cocktail
Mood
Easygoing

How we chose

We looked for restaurants that feel like a strong fit for the guide topic, not just the most obvious names in the city. The shortlist favors rooms with clear mood, dependable pacing, and enough distinction to help someone decide faster. Read our full methodology →

Room tone

Lighting, pace, and general energy all need to support the reason someone clicked this guide.

Food fit

We favored restaurants that feel best suited for the moment, not just restaurants with broad reputation.

Useful range

The final list tries to give readers enough variation in neighborhood, price, and style to compare real options.

10 ranked picks

Lotus Indian cafe — On Wilshire Blvd in West L.A.'s dense restaurant corridor, Lotus Indian Cafe has staked out a position that's genuinely uncommon: a kitchen that treats traditional Indian comfort food and globe-hopping fusion as equally legitimate pursuits rather than putting one in service of the other. The late hours — open until midnight most nights — signal who this place is really for: the post-gym crowd from the nearby Westside neighborhoods, South Asian diaspora diners who want the butter chicken they grew up with alongside something they haven't tried before, and groups who need a kitchen that stays serious well past 10 p.m. That's a real constituency on Wilshire, and Lotus has positioned itself to serve it. The menu is organized around a tension that actually works in its favor: verified signatures like butter chicken, samosa chaat, and biryani anchor the familiar end, while Indo-Chinese classics and fusion items like naan tacos and butter chicken pasta push toward the experimental. The samosa chaat is the dish that most honestly captures what the kitchen is doing — a street-food classic refracted through a full-service setting, layered with chutneys and texture in the way that diners consistently single it out alongside the richer, cream-forward butter chicken. The biryani rounds out the core three as the long-cook, aromatic centerpiece that regulars appear to treat as the baseline test of any Indian kitchen. Fusion items like butter chicken pasta read as genuine attempts at cross-cultural playfulness rather than novelty for its own sake, which is a meaningful distinction. The practical move here is to anchor your order in one of the three signature dishes and use the fusion items as your second round rather than your first — the kitchen's reputation is built on the traditional side, and the fusion reads better once you've established that baseline. The midnight closing time makes this one of the few Indian kitchens on the Westside where a late dinner isn't a rushed compromise. Walk-ins appear workable on weeknights; weekend evenings closer to 11 pm are when the late-night crowd fills the room, so arrive earlier if you want space to linger. View restaurant →
Aromas Indian Cuisine — Aromas sits on the stretch of Ventura Blvd where Sherman Oaks does its unpretentious weeknight thing, and that's exactly the register it plays in. This is Manoj Kumar's place — twenty years of chasing the right spice balance, now aimed squarely at the clay oven, which does most of the heavy lifting here. The butter chicken is the house's most-ordered plate for a reason: rich, creamy tomato with real warmth behind it, $17.99 and worth it. If you want the vegetarian version of that comfort, the paneer tikka masala ($17.99) grills the cheese first, so you get char under the sauce. The tandoori chicken ($13.99) comes out smoky and bone-in, and the lamb seekh kebab ($19.99) is the move if you're feeding someone who thinks Indian food means chicken only. Start with the samosas ($7.99), two fat triangles and chutney. Entrees mostly land in the high teens to low twenties, combos climbing toward $28 — solid value for cooking that isn't cutting corners. No mood lighting, no attitude. Just a neighborhood tandoor doing honest work. View restaurant →
Flavor of India - Studio City — Flavor of India has been doing northern Indian on Ventura Blvd since 1998, and the reason it's lasted is simpler than the awards-circuit places want it to be: the Chicken Tikka Masala has a real claim to being one of LA's best, and the Butter Chicken backs it up. Owners Darshan and Tarsem Singh run a home-style kitchen — natural spices, no shortcuts — and Darshan's range from northern to spicier southern dishes means the staff will actually dial heat up or down for you instead of nodding politely. Don't skip the Peshawari Naan, which is genuinely hard to find done right around here and they nailed it. The room is more comfortable diner than fine dining, which is exactly what you want for a relaxed twelve-top. The $24 weekday lunch buffet (11:30–2:30) is the smart move for a first visit; happy-hour $4 drafts make it an easy after-work landing. À la carte runs mid-range — portions tend generous, though a few diners find smaller plates pricey. Order the Shahi Paneer if you're going meatless. View restaurant →

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Electric Karma — Electric Karma has been running Third Street since 2004, and it wears its two decades like a favorite kurta — soft, familiar, still stylish. Brothers Pamma and Lucky Singh built this Punjabi-leaning room on their mother's cooking, and the Chicken Tikka Masala is her recipe, tender in a tomato sauce that earns its reputation. Get the Masala Dosa too: a thin, grilled rice-and-lentil crepe filled with spiced potatoes, arriving with lentil soup and a sweet coconut chutney that I'd happily eat by the spoonful. Butter Chicken is the safe, creamy crowd-pleaser; samosas ($7.95) do the crunchy opening act. Curries hover around $16.95, which keeps a group dinner honest. The move here is the sky-room patio with traditional floor seating — Bollywood films flicker silently over the main dining room while a Delhi Margarita, built on house ginger syrup, does its work. It's the kind of place staff greet regulars by name, ideal for a date or a low-drama twelve-top. Order the cheese naan for the table; nobody regrets it. View restaurant →
Crown of India — Crown of India occupies a specific and useful lane in the Los Angeles Indian dining landscape: mid-range, weeknight-ready, and built for the diner who already knows what good Indian food tastes like and will notice immediately when a kitchen is taking shortcuts. This is not a chandelier-and-ceremony room angling for anniversaries. Based on what the menu signals and what regulars consistently report, Crown of India cooks for the person with actual expectations — and that specificity of intent is exactly what makes it worth attention. The tandoor is clearly the kitchen's anchor. The Chicken Tikka is widely cited as a centerpiece dish, known for the kind of smoky depth that comes from high heat and proper marinade time rather than food coloring and shortcuts. The Lamb Seekh Kabob reportedly leans toward a coarser grind and a brighter, herb-forward profile rather than the cumin-heavy renditions that dominate lesser menus — a meaningful distinction. On the curry side, the Butter Chicken has a reputation for restraint: a tomato backbone underneath the richness, distinct from the neon-orange, cream-saturated versions that have become a cliché on American Indian menus. The Chicken Tikka Masala, ordered alongside it, apparently reads as a genuinely different dish rather than a near-duplicate — two tomato-based curries that diners use as an inadvertent side-by-side study in range. The Tandoori Salmon rounds out the tandoor section, a less conventional order that makes sense given how the fish's fat content is generally understood to respond to that kind of direct, dry heat. Practical approach: lead the table with kabobs, follow with gravies, and come on a weeknight when the room has room to breathe. The price point means there is no need to overthink it. View restaurant →

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Personalized city picksCleaner shortlistsBuilt for iPhone and Android
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Smarter follow-through after the guide: better restaurant context, quicker narrowing, less second-guessing.
For tonight
Date night spots with warm rooms and polished service
Next step
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