Hello Everyone:
This is a review for Royale India's new lunch buffet.
The date of service was 10.10.25 which was about three days into their grand opening for lunch. The cost for the buffet is just about $20 per person - but worth it!
My review is as follows:
What a lovely surprise to be seated at a table with a black fabric napkin and table linens. Typically, you only see this for a dinner meal, so to have during lunch was quite nice.
Roger and David worked today - both did a very nice job. David ensured our water was full and offered us anything from the bar or to make him aware of anything else we may want.
Because the restaurant is still working on the buffet signs so you know what you are eating, Roger took us to the buffet area and went through each item on the buffet in detail so we could make educated choices.
To the right of the buffet was a table with Indian Tea (black tea with milk) and sugar included in the buffet price.
For desert on the cold buffet they had rice pudding and mango (on the right on the cold buffet photo), but I ate so much for lunch trying all the hot items items, I will have to review those next time.
You have a choice of plain or garlic naan with the buffet. This comes out of the kitchen, hot and freshly made. The naan was excellent, crisp on the outside, yet pull-apart doughy in the inside. Five Stars!
The Raita was excellent - nice and thick. Roger said they have been perfecting this recipe. I think they got it ..... Five Stars!
There are also mint and tamarind sauces on the cold buffet for your naan. The mint condiment was a little acidy for my taste for some reason, but it was refreshing.
The Pickled Veggies were good, a little salty, but good.
Rice choices included biryani rice or basmati rice. I nice touch to offer either on the buffet (most buffets only offer basmati rice).
In the hot buffet, there were several items I tried:
Fried Chickpeas - good, not my favorite, a little dry, but I can see where people might enjoy these dipped in one of the sauces.
The Chicken Tikka Masala and the Butter Chicken both had tender cubes of chicken within the sauce, but the sauces were a little too similar for my taste and could be slightly thicker. Both dishes were good, but one did not "stand out" from the other (flavor).
Vegetable Korma - was a pleasant surprise and actually turned out to be my favorite. Excellent dish. Five Stars! It was a nice and thick with loads of veggies.
The Yellow Dal - was a little too thin (consistency) for my taste, it was good, but could have used more lentils in the sauce to thicken it up a bit and have a bit more depth of flavor.
Lamb - the lamb dish was quite nice. The sauce was nice and dark and thick (not runny on the plate), and the lamb was fork-tender. I would categorize this as "very good" if you enjoy lamb this is definitely worth a try.
The Palak Paneer was excellent. The spinach was not too runny, the cottage cheese was just firm enough and held up in the sauce nicely. I recommend the spinach sauce be slightly thicker when served, but I do recommend it.
The Tandoor Chicken had fresh lemon and freshly cut white onions in the buffet tray to add to your plate. While people enjoy tandoor items on a buffet, I wonder if it is worth restaurants trying to keep chicken moist for hours on end during the course of the buffet. The flavor was good, but as would be expected the chicken was slightly dry, there is simply no way to keep it freshly moist. Tandoor is meant to be eaten when the dish is completed and ready to serve. I will leave it up to Roger to decide how he wants to manage this moving forward.
Some of the hot dishes would benefit from more complex Indian layers of flavoring. I am not inferring they need to be spicer/hotter. Rather, the depth of flavor and different spices which set each sauce/dish apart could be slightly improved upon.
Roger said he is monitoring how spicy or not customers would like the buffet items, so I am sure this will get sorted out over time.
I understand buffets are tricky because you have to put out a dish which will appeal to the majority of the customers.
NOTE: Roger offered if we wanted something "spicer" he would try to accommodate us, but I prefer not to have "heat" take away from the overall layers of flavors in a dish. Rather, use of ingredients, the amount of each ingredient and simmering should do the trick without making a dish so spicy all you feel and taste is "heat".
If you leave this buffet hungry it is your own fault! LOL!
I recommend giving it a try, for the price you are offered all the staples of an enjoyable Indian meal.
We look forward to returning for lunch again, unannounced, to see how Roger and his team adjust flavors and sauces in the future.
Also, I will be trying the desert options to see how they stand up to my review.
Thank you Roger and David for a pleasant meal today! read more