Address - Tokyo-to, Suginami-ku, Zenpukuji 1-1-21 Opening hours - Open lunch and dinner every day 11 am to 11pm Map - See directions Telephone - 3394-4558 Menu - In English and Japanese CC - No

Nishi Ogikubo, cute as it is, isn't a place where most people go often, so I doubt this review will cause much of a stir, but to those who live there Ama should prove a godsend, because it's definitely a very good Indian/Nepalese restaurant. Alas, located as it is along the Ome Kaido, it's very far even from the JR Nishi Ogikubo station, but you who live in Ogikubo, try going anyway in those days when you don't feel like fooling around with pots and pans, because it's worth the trouble.
As usual in these cases, although nominally both Indian and Nepalese, Ama is more readily classifiable as the first rather than the second. There are minor Nepalese entries in the menu, but its backbone is Indian.
I don't know why this should almost always be the case: the Nepalese seem to be convinced that foreigners prefer Indian food, which is absolutely not generally true. Sometimes at Yeti I see a Nepalese eat something very unusual and which I am certain is not on the menu. I ask the owner, who knows me VERY well, what it is, and he replies with a smirk: "You wouldn't like it".
In any case, whatever they have is good.
At lunch the place is full of locals who take advantage of Ama's excellent sets: cheap as they are (all less than 1000 yen), they are every bit as good as the stuff you eat there in the evening. Let me assure you this isn't always so. Nataraj in Ogikubo, for instance, is excellent in for dinner, very mediocre for lunch. At Ama, 750 yen will get you a salad, rice, tandoori chicken, an excellent curry of your choice and a naan.
At nights you must spend a bit more, but you enjoy a much wider choice.
Pretty standard fare, so you will have few surprises. Bills, as we have seen, won't traumatize you either, so relax and enjoy.

Getting there:

From Nishi Ogikubo station, go to the Ome Kaido, turn left and after a couple of hundred meters you will find Ama right in front of you in a brown building.