Badmaash

Badmaash (Hindi slang often glossed as naughty or badass) opened Downtown in May 2013 at 108 West Second Street, where the Historic Core slides toward civic buildings. It is a family operation: chef Pawan Mahendro, from Amritsar by way of Mumbai hotel kitchens and a long Toronto chapter, cooks with sons and co-founders Nakul and Arjun. The pitch from day one was Indian food through a kids-of-immigrants, Toronto-and-LA lens rather than a standard curry-house script: street snacks, classic curries, and #BadmaashLA favorites on the same menu.

A Fairfax Avenue room followed in 2018. Michelin awarded Bib Gourmand recognition (OpenTable lists 2022 and 2023 among the citations; press also dates the distinction to 2019). In late March 2026 the family opened a third, more polished outpost on Abbot Kinney in Venice, with a sharper cocktail program and dishes such as lamb neck korma and masala au poivre steak frites. Use the Second Street address as the original Downtown flagship; confirm Fairfax or Venice if that is the night you want.

The Infatuation rates the Downtown room 8.0 and treats chicken tikka poutine as the must-order: masala-spiced fries, gravy, and tikka that critics describe as a Toronto-to-LA signature. Butter chicken samosas, Goan yam and pork curry, and ghost chili lamb vindaloo also land in that rundown; traditional plates are called solid rather than revelatory next to the fusion hits. Michelin’s guide copy (when the Downtown listing was live) pointed to the same poutine, butter chicken samosas, mother’s-recipe saag paneer, and mango lassi in a room of Bollywood posters and a pop-art Gandhi mural.

Eater LA’s April 2026 Venice dining report calls Badmaash LA’s most successful higher-end Indian restaurant and puts prime New York strip steak frites with masala au poivre at the center (shareable, with a heavy price tag noted), alongside dahi puri, Punjabi fried fish, tomato-forward butter chicken, saag aloo, and Chowpatty-inspired kulfi. First-timers still get steered to the chicken tikka poutine. Public chatter across locations echoes poutine, samosas, lively rooms, and the sense that this is date-night or group Indian more than a Pioneer Boulevard thali stop; some diners who want strictly regional traditional cooking find it more Americanized by design.