After all the hype around the James Beard nomination and the dozens of Eater LA articles we really expected much more. We managed to book a table at 5pm when they opened and there was a line waiting to get in. We were excited to try the highly rated food.
Unfortunately, the evening started off badly. We ordered a bottle of wine, but when the waitress brought it, it was clearly not completely full. My wife thought it was a mistake—that she thought we wanted a glass. When she pointed out we ordered a bottle, the waitress insisted it was a full bottle.
We’re no idiots. When someone orders a bottle, you bring it too the table unopened, and only after approval do you open it—at the table. The bottle clearly had been already opened and used to serve a taste to someone else. The waitress also had this pretentious attitude. Strike one. We decided not to make a stink, but it set the tone for the rest of the meal.
The first dish, the lamb kebab sliders, was actually very delicious. However, for $15 they were rather small—the size of two small Kings Hawaiian rolls. The next dish, the fried chicken tenders were way overcooked and dried out. The batter was quite dark, a bit on the burnt side. The dipping sauces were delicious, but they didn’t save the dish.
Next was the malai rigatoni, which had a nice sauce reminiscent of tikka masala. It was a good solid dish.
The other pasta we ordered was tandoori spaghetti, which had rave reviews. It was spicy and had a strong mustard oil flavor that overwhelmed the rest of the dish. We couldn’t eat much of it because it was really unbalanced.
The final dish was the pizza with green chili chutney. This was the best dish of the meal, and was actually very delicious.
Overall the food was mixed. Three dishes were very good, while two were not. The service was the biggest problem, however, which really drives this review. There is also a mandatory 19% service charge which makes it impossible to differentiate good service from poor. It’s hard to see ourselves returning even though we really liked some of the dishes.
The owner is a nepo baby. His daddy owns the Comfort Inn where the restaurant is located. He can afford to pay the LA hype machine.
by queijolouco
46 Comments
Thanks for your honest review!!
Keep driving by and seeing the lines… man these dishes look embarrassing. Those are school cafeteria slider buns.
And as a waiter—that 19% paired with the wine bottle incident is unreal
What was the total cost?
Major Shed at Dulwich vibes coming off that place.
I’m glad the food mostly tasted good because that presentation for $183 looks absolutely amateur. Yikes.
I’m getting reports that my text isn’t showing for some reason, so here it is again:
——
Pijja Palace: LA hype machine strikes again
After all the hype around the James Beard nomination and the dozens of Eater LA articles we really expected much more. We managed to book a table at 5pm when they opened and there was a line waiting to get in. We were excited to try the highly rated food.
Unfortunately, the evening started off badly. We ordered a bottle of wine, but when the waitress brought it, it was clearly not completely full. My wife thought it was a mistake—that she thought we wanted a glass. When she pointed out we ordered a bottle, the waitress insisted it was a full bottle.
We’re no idiots. When someone orders a bottle, you bring it too the table unopened, and only after approval do you open it—at the table. The bottle clearly had been already opened and used to serve a taste to someone else. The waitress also had this pretentious attitude. Strike one. We decided not to make a stink, but it set the tone for the rest of the meal.
The first dish, the lamb kebab sliders, was actually very delicious. However, for $15 they were rather small—the size of two small Kings Hawaiian rolls. The next dish, the fried chicken tenders were way overcooked and dried out. The batter was quite dark, a bit on the burnt side. The dipping sauces were delicious, but they didn’t save the dish.
Next was the malai rigatoni, which had a nice sauce reminiscent of tikka masala. It was a good solid dish.
The other pasta we ordered was tandoori spaghetti, which had rave reviews. It was spicy and had a strong mustard oil flavor that overwhelmed the rest of the dish. We couldn’t eat much of it because it was really unbalanced.
The final dish was the pizza with green chili chutney. This was the best dish of the meal, and was actually very delicious.
Overall the food was mixed. Three dishes were very good, while two were not. The service was the biggest problem, however, which really drives this review. There is also a mandatory 19% service charge which makes it impossible to differentiate good service from poor. It’s hard to see ourselves returning even though we really liked some of the dishes.
The owner is a nepo baby. His daddy owns the Comfort Inn where the restaurant is located. He can afford to pay the LA hype machine.
Not opening the wine bottle at the table is *wild*
To give a contrary opinion, I overall enjoyed it there. It wasn’t the best place I’ve ever been but the food was delicious and I liked the sports bar vibe. The pizza was def the best thing I agree and I also liked the wings.
Thank you for the thorough and honest review! Though I could barely even make it past the wine incident lol. Can’t believe they would bring an opened bottle of wine to your table.
I feel like that snooty attitude of the server is so indicative of an LA hotspot with lines out the door as you mentioned. I guess they just build up this attitude of knowing there’s countless people eager to take your seat if you’re unhappy. I’ve experienced it at Bestia, The Tasting Kitchen and Gjelina in the past as well.
You know there are several places in Houston that do Indian Italian and are super cheap. You could get this meal for like $25 or maybe even less.
I thought I was crazy for really disliking this place! Love the concept, hated the service and found the food to just be okay.
Looks bad
Went last Nov and liked it a lot. To each their own.
We didn’t enjoy our experience several months back. Paid $20 for four onion rings and the pizza looked like it have been deep fried in oil – so bad we didn’t even eat the leftovers. From the photos, it looks like they changed up their pizza for the better.
Agree with you on the rigatoni. One of the better pasta dishes I’ve had in recent memory. Everything else was fine I guess. It did go right through me the next day however lol.
Wow I almost fell for the hype, I mean I really want to try the rigatoni and pizza, but I think I’ll be safer sticking with the classics from Al-Noor
TikTok foodvloggers are the worst about these places.
Haven’t tried Pijja Palace yet so can’t comment on the substance of your review, but not sure that I’d call him a nepo baby just because his dad owns the Comfort Inn where the restaurant is located (not exactly 5 star digs). I’m sure there’s some financial advantage to be had from that, but it’s not like his dad is Gordon Ramsey or Thomas Keller, which would actually make him a nepo baby. He doesn’t have a famous family name to trade on.
People aren’t lining up out the door of the restaurant because he has a primo spot at a Comfort Inn let’s be real here.
Great review!!! Appreciate you taking the time. Ty
Yeah, I went a few months ago and it was good but not at ALL worthy of the hype. There was a pivotal Thursday night football game on and this supposed “sports bar” was showing replays of the prior weekend’s games. This and Yangban Society are merely good restaurants that LA food media have blown completely out of proportion
Yeah this place is mid simple as that. Never going back. I keep sayin to my gf that this restaurant is an “industry plant” like it popped out of nowhere and was IMMEDIATELY hyped up and posted all over social media. Super suspicious. Absolutely horrible vibes there
I enjoyed it when I went back around august of last year. I think it’s one of those concept-centric places where you are really getting something you seemingly can’t get anywhere else. It sounds like a good place to keep it under $80 and enjoy the vibe and unique food. Spending anything more than that will probably make one feel a bit overcharged.
Yea no f that
Okay, I feel like we need to have an entire discussion on **those fucking sliders**.
Like… why is it not served on a styrofoam plate as befitting of something my 8 year old niece would put together when asked to “*make something fancy*”? Like, I feel like those sliders not being on a styrofoam plate is as egregious a faux pas as not bringing the wine to the table unopened. I’m just imagining the crunch those rolls have he from still being frozen on the inside because I’m pretty sure they were not thawed. The cheese doesn’t even appear to be melted.
OMG WTF
“we got four dishes. Two were amazing, one was great, one was okay. The waitress was weird about our wine. Clearly they bribed journalists for credit and reddit isn’t being weirdly racist about hype for an Indian place”
You people are so weird.
This place is definitely good but still quite overrated.
*cringing for every indian who has seen this*
Pijja palace is indian food for American white people, too sweet and not enough spices for anyone else. Best way to put it is upscale dominos with the word indian mixed in.
Ok so I’m of South Asian decent. Usually when I see fusion type places related to our cuisine I’m very skeptical and the vast majority I’ve tried were not good to me. I’ve wanted to try this place recently after all the hype it seems to be getting from multiple reputable places from James Beard and the LA Times. I’m curious if other people who are very familiar with Indian cuisine can comment on the food.
Most of these owners and chefs of the hype restaurants are nepo babies so not surprised there at all.
Pijja Palace is massively overhyped. I really had high hopes for the place. When I went, we sat at the bar and recognized the bartender from a previous bartending job she had so we ended up with good service. However, the hosts were definitely standoffish and the food was mediocre. I liked the pizza, but everything else was just meh and far too overpriced. Given how tongue and cheek the menu was, I expected to be blown away by food but we left feeling underwhelmed. I wouldn’t go back and don’t see this place surviving as a business.
Also it’s a white tablecloth sports bar? The place seemed to be having an identity crisis
I wish people could review restaurants without bringing in “the owner is so and so and is bad because of xyz” unless the owner is a confirmed pedo I don’t really care. Agree 100% that the food does not look up to par with the prices it charges but the owner comments just make the review look childish.
Not gonna lie, you are way more patient than me for letting the wine thing slide. Especially with *mandatory* service charge. We would’ve had problems if that happened.
Bummer to hear and appreciate the review.
We had a solid experience there this week, but I wouldn’t say it was amazing. I really liked all of the flavors and crazy combinations, with the exception of the wings (which were cooked perfectly but didn’t have much flavor). The pizza was awesome and the rigatoni was delicious. Realy enjoyed the okra fries and onion rings. The slider we had was spicy but didn’t quite pack the flavor punch that everything else did. Service was fine; again not great, but luckily no funny wine business :).
Overall, bang for the bang was okay, but I don’t think we’ll be rushing to go back.
Haha Eater LA forgetting to tag their 30 Pijja posts with a *sponsored tag again.
IDK why so many people in L.A put so much stock into what some publication says. It’s always some trendy bullshit that gets over hyped and is full of “influencers” taking pictures and being obnoxious. There’s a ton of good food everywhere in town. A lot of it is in the “hood” or in not so desirable neighborhoods but many people won’t venture out there. They’d rather take recommendations from some hipster transplant with too much money and not enough sense. Get your shit together, L.A 🤣
That layer of oil in the tandoori pasta is disgusting
Finally someone speaking the truth about this place. I know we don’t have great Indian in this city and still, this place is so so far from one of the best. The fusion component feels so elementary too – like let’s mix the most basic Indian with really mediocre Italian..
I think if it were more casual and easy to pop in on moments notice on a weeknight, it would be ok. The level of quality is definitely weeknight, too lazy to cook vibes — not reservations in advance vibes.
I believe you when you say the food is mediocre but the son of the owner of a comfort inn is hardly a nepo baby. A child of immigrants who worked in hospitality does not a nepo baby make….
What is insane to me is people will actually pay 180 for pizza, two slides, plate of pasta, and some chicken tenders. I could have made all of this at home for about $25-30. I get it, its the experience bit holy fuck are restaurants getting brazen serving borderline junk for outrageous $$$. This is so rampant i have basically stopped going out unless its a place i know really well or have more than one good reco from.
I have long turned a side eye to James Beard winners. They are not all up to standard as they claim to be. They give them away like Grammys.
As an Indian…I avoid places like this. They can’t make traditional shit good so they fuck around and make try to pass off mediocre at best food as some bullshit fusion.
As an Indian (who truly doesn’t mind fusion food I actually love it), this place is the kitschiest worst iteration of it (some of the dishes make no sense to me flavor wise). Thank you for the review!
Y’all wild. This place was dope.
I’ve been there and liked it. However my table’s order was pretty much the opposite of this. We had no overlap at all with this post and we all thought the dishes were pretty solid. The wine thing is wild though… I do remember the service being so-so
Eep sorry about the wine! I went went they first opened, before they spent money on the hype machine. Service was subpar and the only dish I enjoyed was the malai rigatoni. I much prefer Badmaash, they’re tried and true.
I have never heard of this happening with wine anywhere. If that was the first thing that happened to me somewhere, before anything else can put, I would simply leave.
I’m definitely not as anti-Pijja Palace as this sub is. I thought it was fun and approachable, we got the last seat at the bar so had no wait. Got a pizza and the onion rings.
My biggest gripe with this place is it calling itself and having the media call it a “sports bar” – this place is not a sports bar. You don’t need Resy to get into a sports bar, a sports bar doesn’t play the same thing on every TV. This is a restaurant that is using TVs as decor.