Since India’s history has been so interrelated with England for the last two centuries, it is seemingly somewhat sympathetic synergy that this Bollywood Indian restaurant is located as noted above on Hampshire.

You see, the Hampshire district in England is also an upscale foodie area located on the Isle of Wight off the British coast.

Multitudes of Indians live in England, having migrated there since the reign of Victoria  and thus there are more of their restaurants in England than the rest of the world combined and many are reputed to be very good.

I did dine in one in London long ago in The Chelsea district and vaguely seem to recollect that it was above the average for food served in Britain at that time. In fact for many years, most self acclaimed food sophisticates felt that Indian cuisine was the only edible restaurant food to be found on The British Isles. 

Oh yeah!!! There were also a few Hong Kong inspired spots that were  very good. 

The real life Bollywood  is the  Hollywood  style city of Bombay nee Mumbai. that produces hundreds of films yearly such as Slumdog Millionaire or Monsoon Wedding.

"Our" Bollywood  is located next to that mini waterfall in the lower level of the famed  "Water Plaza" office complex  on Hampshire, just west of Westlake Blvd. Many think The Water Plaza  is that  Tarzan like  elephants burial ground of restaurants.

The failures over the years have been a veritable  United Nations, comprising of,  Franco-Asian,  a previous Indian, Italian (twice), Persian Chicken (??) and  Sushi eating spots. Only the remarkable "Pookies Westlake Thai" succeeded and now  thrives on that lower level in an enlarged location along with the ducks 75 yards away from Bollywood.

But Bollywood does seem to do have done some things right. It successfully now operates two other hi-volume  Indian restaurants, though paradoxically both are in Studio City  ..  just south of that  very infamous North Hollywood.   They have done a fine job of  remodeling that gives this small Westlake room a warm comfortable quiet Asian feeling including a small bar. Every server was very friendly, competent and alert . They had been obviously well trained.

Again, I must admit that while I have been to most parts of Asia, I have never been to India. Further, the choices in this area and the entire state have been so sparse for their food that my previous experiences with Indian food were at The Clay Pit in Westwood (good but not great), once at Kohinoor, once in Agoura, and once in Woodland Hills. My recollections in the last three cases were uniformly forgettable.

I have not dined at  the two  highly rated Indian restaurants in the Beverly Hills area (The third is in Torrance) at $50 plus per person. But based upon my previous experiences above, I felt that there are at least four other ethnic choices that seem to offer  more interesting food  for less.

                                                                           Maybe that's why there are still 6 times as many Chinese, Thai and Japanese dining spots  all over Southern California than there are Indian restaurants. The same can also even be said for the  upscale Silicon Valley in spite of that very large Indian Hi- Tech population around the area.

We dined recently on Castro Street, the main business area in Mountain View adjacent to Stanford's worldly  campus with Google, Yahoo, Oracle  and Apple close by.  There were perhaps 20 Asian restaurants on both sides of the street  on the two main blocks!!!!!!!  One was Indian???   Does that mean something? Perhaps??

We do however seem to detect a slight change.

Bollywood’s classic and basic Naan bread is very good and the universally appealing  Tandoori chicken and Lamb Curry were pleasant as were the vegetables. All  the other main dishes we sampled seemed somewhat uninspired and not in the ball park with most other Asian food.  Nor are the choices as broad.

However, Bollywood can come in well under $20 a person for a complete meal served to your table by well trained adults . The average substantial portioned dinner plate of Tandoori or Curry a la carte is about $11. Vegetarian main courses are all under $10. And for a $5 upcharge they add soup or salad, rice, naan bread and desert.  Seems worth it. Taj Mahal is the beer of choice.

And the above may be the recent secret ingredient that I missed.   The proliferation of Vegetarian and Vegan foodies seems to have created a new interest in that aspect of possibly creative as well as inexpensive Indian food.

Lunches including that naan flat bread and rice are mostly under $10. And obviously now there is the very popular  wide selection of vegetarian plates offered for both lunch and dinner at attractive prices

Thus if simple basic Indian food (amiably served in a semi-exotic surrounding)  can create a pleasant evening or inexpensive local  lunch experience  then Bollywood is certainly  worth a try.  Perhaps, you just stick with classic clay oven roasted Tandoori Chicken or go for the vegetarian dishes. 

One warning, however!!!!!  For many, many reasons, you may want to suggest that Bollywood go  lighter on the salt. When my wife tried to take off her wedding ring the day after dining there a la Nurse Jackie, she was not successful.

OK But NOW...Stop The Presses!! We just got that response from a guy in Simi named Steve G. but whom I think is really named Pandit Nehru jr with a wife named Indira.

He advised me that the restaurant in Camarillo is Cafe India and there is another called The Curry Leaf. Two others in Ventura are called  Maharajah and Taj. And finally there is one in Simi called India Hawelli. He has eaten in all including Kohinoor. Not yet at Bollywood. Other comments have suggested Cafe India as a good choice.

But Steve says Taj in Ventura is the best and I will take his word.  If you are willing to travel to the "dreaded" Valley , we have also  had a recommendation for Taj of Tarzana  ( not related any other Tajs) This is from from a worldly, very well  traveled universal maven from the sophisticated hills of North Ranch.  

I guess Taj and Tandoori are the only two Indian words any one knows.