Authentic Indian restaurant Zafran Pot in Culver City

A ‘Biryani Hot-sPot’ with ratings above 4.5 and over 100,000 + biryanis sold to date! Zafran Pot is located on Venice Boulevard in Culver City, California, notable for its dining and busy nightlife scene. Keeping these in mind, the founder has curated everything from the location to the logo meticulously. Check their website to learn more about this.

Birth of Biryani at Zafran Pot

From the journey of a roller coaster ride to running a restaurant successfully, the owner shares her story of victory.  

“I put my love, sweat, and energy to build this restaurant”, says Snehlata Gumidelli. Zafran Pot started in the year 2016 as a catering business and emerged as a restaurant. Following this, Sneh and her husband Santosh Gumidelli have been, as one can say, ‘Killing it!’. After two years of catering, Sneh got an opportunity to work at Mytable as a home chef. In addition, she was lauded for her performance by customers. Taking a big leap, Sneh and Santosh decided to open Zafran Pot for people to enjoy her exclusive home-style Indian cooking.  

Santosh hails from Hyderabad in India, where a special type of biryani originated – The Hyderabadi Dum Biryani. Sneh says, “my husband introduced me to biryani”. She always loved food and cooking. But never imagined turning it into her career. A massive tragedy in her life inspired Sneh to start this business and proved to be a stepping stone. Today, she is fulfilling her sister’s dreams and succeeding with flying colors. 

What goes into preparing the authentic biryani?

‘Biryani‘, derived from the Persian word ‘birian’ means to fry before cooking. So typically the ingredients used are fried, mixed with rice, meat/egg, and placed in a handi (metal pot used in Indian cookware). But let’s find out how Zafran Pot prepares its authentic biryani!

The chefs here follow a unique recipe. They marinate the meat for 12 hours, with onions, yogurt, mint, cilantro, and various spices. The basmati rice (long-grained aromatic rice) is soaked overnight and cooked on a low flame the next morning. Summing up, these ingredients are then placed in a gigantic utensil and cooked in the dum method. Originally, the dum method uses a dough to seal the container to cook biryani. Although Sneh uses her version to seal the container with aluminum foils. 

Zafran Pot is the only restaurant in Culver City that prepares its dishes using organic chicken (halal only). They do not use additives such as MSG (monosodium glutamate), and colors. 

Zafran Pot is not all about biryani  

From appetizers to desserts, Zafran Pot has numerous dishes to try out. You can order your favorite meal at Zafran Pot now!  

To celebrate their fifth anniversary, Sneh and the chefs are adding new dishes to the menu. If you’re planning to order food this weekend, you wouldn’t want to miss out on this authentic Indian restaurant!