Address - Tokyo-to, Toshima-ku, Minami Ikebukuro 2-42-7 Opening hours - Closed on Tuesday. Open from 11:30 to 15:00 and 18:00 to 23:00 Map - See directions Telephone - 3981-9688 Menu - In English and Japanese Credit Cards - OK

I have never been to any of the countries of the Indian subcontinent, and I know its cuisines only from having tried them in some restaurant in Japan or at the house of Indian or Pakistani friends.

Thanks to these friends, however, I am aware that what we have here is almost exclusively Muslim food from the North. Plus, Hindus eat no meat, and that means the Indian food we know must be Islamic or Sikh. Why Southern Indian food should be so rare is a deep mystery to me.
Anyway, that's the reason so many southern dishes like Biryani, Dosa, Sambar, Idli, and curries with coconut milk are almost unknown in Japan.

The discovery of a South Indian restaurant (just the third, including Dhaba India and Ajanta) near Ikebukuro is therefore important, and the day I went there it was with more than a little curiosity.

Once out of the subway, the landscape is kind of desolate, but don't let that deter you because, in spite of that unpromising beginning, my spirit of adventure was well rewarded. The meal was excellent and the Sri Lankan waitress shy, but friendly and kind.

That first time we had what at A. Raj is called a "meal", that is a set including three curries, rice, dessert and chutney, all served on a banana leaf. The whole thing is more unusual than it sounds: the excellent Basmati rice for example was sprayed with some kind of brownish powder, one of the curries was coconut-milk based, and so forth.

As good as that was, after several meals there I can say that if I were you I would try even rarer stuffs, like the biryanis, the idlis, and the sambars, in short, what makes South Indian food what it is. I like particularly the masala dosa and the biryani.
Prices? Not extraordinarily low, but reasonable. Recommended.

How to get there:
From Ikebukuro take the Yurakucho line to Higashi Ikebukuro, get out of the station's A1 exit, turn right and you will find A. Raj's sign after a couple of hundred meters.

February 2005