China, India, Afghanistan? France, Italy, America? Dining out in great restaurant cities is a way to take a trip when you can't get on a plane. Amid the holiday chaos, give yourself the gift of a mini-escape to a place where delicious surprises await you.

This New Indian (the critic calls it "California-Indian") place in L.A. gets big design points for leaving neutrals in the dust and taking up with a riot of color instead. S. Irene Virbila says walking into Tanzore "feels like stepping off a flight to Bombay straight into a happening cocktail lounge," complete with a Bollywood flick on the flat screen. Velvet lamb kebab, and the nan (the breads in general, Virbila says), are stand-outs, but there are issues with consistency. Chef Gautam Chaudhry and his team have good CVs, but "both the menu and the execution can also be wildly erratic, depending on who is in the kitchen on a given night."

Same coast, different 'hood, different journey: Chopan Kebab House in L.A.'s Northridge area, an Afghan place, is "The Find" this week. We read excitedly about manti, the meat-onion-vegetable dumplings of this country that "have that irresistible yogurt sauce-saffron combination," remembering the wonderful Afghan place we used to live down the street from (which was a total bargain, like Chopan seems to be). Thanks, Times -- now we have to have Afghan, and soon.

Noodles with a side of noir! You have to love it! Peter Meehan delights us again with a fun review in The New York Times of a cheap-eats noodles spot where he envisions action heroes might dine after they "beat the living daylights out of each other in a parking lot." This write-up will have you laughing out loud and craving hand-pulled noodles in a bowl of steaming soup. Another cute detail is that it is called Food Shing, "though the awning and menus read Food Sing, a printer’s error, they say." Never mind that the old place, before it reopened in its new spot next door, was called "Foo Shing." Darn printers.

Fuhgeddaboudit. Let's just do a pie over at Valentino's, eh? Sounds like the genuine article, folks. Good pizza is worth a drive, wherever you live in Washington. So maybe if you don't feel like doing fancy food tomorrow night, you could just go see what Wally and Armando are baking in Alexandria. If you can't finish a pie between ya's, the slices are huge.

Here's what caught Post critic Tom Sietsema's eye this week: Villa Mozart, a Northern Italian spot opened this fall by Andrea Pace, who has cooked all around D.C. and finally has his own digs in Fairfax City. Venison, chestnut soup, rack of lamb -- sounds like some wintry comfort food.

And Eve Zibart, also in TWP, tips us off to this "Dinner Deals" spot: Ceviche House in Rockville, Md., where there are seven ceviches on offer along with lots of other good Peruvian dishes. Papa a la Huancaina is "sliced boiled potato and egg under chili-spiced cheese and condensed-milk sauce, or you could try causa rellena, "a sort of large petit four of mashed potatoes with shrimp salad in the middle" that's offered on weekends. Knock back a Pisco sour with your dinner, or try a Peruvian beer.

Frank Bruni of the NYT reviews a new place, pretty favorably, in lower Manhattan called Allen & Delancey, where the chef Neil Ferguson is trying again. He was previously working under Gordon Ramsay at the schmancy London NYC hotel in midtown, but it didn't work out: "He failed to wow most of the city’s prominent critics, including me," the ever-humble Bruni writes. So it may be surprising to find him tucked away at this small spot where there are seven apps and seven entrees, but a rough experience in New York can make privacy appealing.

Bargain ethnic dining is great, and we do love feeling like we've been transported to another continent. But Hot Plates must also tell you that sometimes the greatest trip you can take is into your own backyard. We had the great fortune last night to eat at Todd Gray's Equinox in downtown Washington, and the reason we will never forget that meal goes beyond the fabulously classic-meets-inventive cuisine: Eating there is like being at a really lovely but somehow familiar house. There is a warmth about the place that makes you let down your guard and luxuriate in the experience. Plus, Gray himself is charming and hilarious. You feel so totally taken care of by the staff, so you let yourself really kick back -- which is its own kind of wonderful journey.