Al-Watan’s decor barely registers, with mirrored walls and tile floors, so I’ve included this exterior shot. Thankfully, chef-owner Mohammed Mumtaz’s Indo-Pak cooking left a stronger impression. The restaurant opened in the nondescript LAX-adjacent hamlet of Hawthorne in 1984. Mr. Mumtaz purchased the restaurant, which roughly translates as “Your Homeland,” in 1989. It’s remained a family-run operation ever since, and now there’s even an adjacent halal butcher shop/grocery store.
On Saturday nights, Al-Watan hosts large parties, mainly families. While waiting for a table, we drank a vivid mango lassi ($2) and the milk-tea blend known as Al-Watan Tea ($1).
Each meal comes with an iceberg lettuce and cucumber salad, served with a dish of spicy chili-flecked mint dressing.
The sizzling platter of Mix Tandoori ($11.99) featured a mountain of tandoor beef and chicken served on a bed of oily, caramelized onions. It’s hard to imagine a better plate of food. The spice-crusted bird and cow meat included big hunks of smoky Chicken Tikka, orange from the tandoor, plus the succulent, casing-free minced beef sausages known as Seekh Kabab, and beyond-tender marinated hacks of beef known as Beef Boti Kabob. The meats that touched the platter developed a phenomenal spice crust, and the meats on top of the pile were nearly as good. With each bite, the flavor kept building until I was in gastro-ecstasy. I thought I had eaten good Pakistani food before. Turns out I hadn’t.
We already ordered what must have been two pounds of tandoor meats, but no Pakistani meal would be complete without a good lamb dish. Lamb Dal ($6.99) featured tender chunks of lamb, cooked with chili pepper-studded spiced lentils. Great dish.
Bhindi ($5.99) was a dish of okra cooked with sliced jalapenos in an oily brew of spices and onion. This was an intense dish, yet the nubs of okra somehow managed to remain crisp, and not slimy. Okra is often slimy, since it’s notoriously difficult to cook.
Sesame naan was a good, pull-apart vessel for Al-Watan’s saucy, spicy cuisine.
We split two desserts, which went well together. Gajer Ka Halwa ($3) featured ground carrots and milk cooked together, served hot. It almost tasted like the filling for a good sweet potato pie, minus the crust; Kheer ($2) was an eight-ounce cup of rice pudding, served cool. It was a little soupy, but the flavor was good. Was that cardamom I tasted?
Going in, I knew Al-Watan had a good reputation for tandoor dishes, and the tandoor meats were indeed sensational. Happily, the rest of the meal was almost as good, from the excellent mango lassi to the lamb and vegetable dishes, all the way through dessert. Plus, since I was sitting next to one of the TVs, I was able to catch up on my Indian soap operas. Not bad. Not bad at all.
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