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We had some bad news, shocking news this weekend and hubby and I need some comfort food. I'm in Sunrise on my way home and my hubbys calls and asks "can you get some Indian?" So I pull off 595 and find Griffin Road and go into Royal India and order our comfort staple...Chicken Tikka Masala (medium) and some Lamb Korma (Hot) with a double order of naan and a side of veggie samosa. I sat outside in the car because my baby was with me and he had fallen asleep. Man the number or people coming and going from this place at about 6:30 on a Sat night was impressive.
The food is still GREAT. The only thing was, the lamb wasn't lamb..to us it was mutton. But the Chicken was still great and the nan was awesome. The samosa we didn't see...our son spirited them away into his bedroom but he later proclaimed them to be GREAT.
For takeout this is a little expensive ($41 for two entrees, one app and two sides of Naan) but for the taste factor its priceless. We ate last night - I had lunch and now I'm after having dinner. Awesome because there is no way I can replicate the flavors at home..
My new GO TO Indian Restaurant. I just KNOW I will be sitting at my computer for days to come… Read more »
This is one of the more Consistent Indian places in the Ft. Lauderdale area...
Good dishes to try:
- the Butter Chicken and Tikka Masala are always good standbys... and always enjoyable!
- Vegetable Pakora
- Vegetable Samosa
- Garlic Naan - (which is good when they make it 'normally' with the garlic on top, but this weekend, they had the garlic inside, layered in it... that was weird and sour for some reason... )
Not so much:
- Chicken Korma, my friends loved it, but I did not enjoy the nuts in it.
- Tandoori Chicken - it's sizzling when it comes to the table, nice presentation, buuuuut, it's always dry, every time we try it.
Based on consistency, cleanliness of the restaurant, and it's secret location ... there has never been a wait, the food is good, and the servers are nice, and are pretty good at giving recommendations.
And
This was my first visit to Royal India Restaurant. It was during a business trip, so I don't have any experience with other Indian restaurants in the area for comparison. Location was very convenient to my hotel just south of the Ft. Lauderdale airport, even though my GPS tried to steer me into a couple of dead end streets on the way back.
The service was excellent - genuinely friendly people, attentive, and prompt. From conversations overheard between other tables and the wait staff, it seemed like there were a number of "regulars" who knew the staff pretty well and probably visited frequently. That's generally a good sign.
I ordered lamb rogan josh (comes with rice), naan, and ras malai for dessert. In addition, papadum were provided as an appetizer with an onion relish (kachumber, I believe, which I had never had before). All of the food was good, but not exceptional. With Indian food I'm pretty spoiled, though - I have it homemade every week and there are a couple of excellent restaurants near home - so that influences my reaction.
Portions were typical size and I could have easily saved enough for the next day's lunch, even though I was relatively hungry upon arrival (I wish I had noted the fridge/microwave in the hotel room *before* the dinner).
I don't have the asbestos-lined mouth of my wife, but I prefer around a 7 out of 10 on spiciness. Presented with a choice of hot, medium, or mild here I chose medium. I would go for hot next time.
I would definitely visit again if back in the area, trying some different dishes or maybe a lunch buffet to get a better sampling of their overall menu. There is so much variety in Indian food it is hard to tell from a single visit whether a restaurant does better on a particular type of dish.
We went in for the lunch buffet and really regretted it. Nothing had any taste - the vegetables had the consistency of a stew without any flavor, there was no potato dish, the chicken curry was meh. The one good part was the naan was very tasty, but without anything to dip it in that fell flat as well.
We're used to eating indian food about two to three times a week here in the new york area and this was a big letdown during our vacation. Maybe their dinner menu is better, but we can only comment on the lunch buffet.
This place has the best Indian food in town!! It's consistent. The food is authentic and always fresh. They have a great, inexpensive buffet daily for lunch.
Personal faves include the butter chicken and aloo chole--excellent!!
I'm not sure if the owners have changed, but over the past 6 months the service has gone downhill. We've received poor service and have been overcharged everytime (bad math on their part).
My husband and I will probably not return after our last dinner there. The papadum had no flavor and the tikka masala sauce was watery, even for the medium spiced sauce.
I've been going here for a few years and the food has been consistently good and well priced. I… Read more »
This place is located on griffin east of 441. I came on a sunday lunch where they offered the lunch buffet. I looked at the offerings and was like meh.. I instead ordered the chicken tikka masala which everyone seemed to be raving about. It was 16 dollars (say what...) The sauce was good but the chicken didn't fall apart in your mouth, meaning it wasnt soaked in the sauce long enough. My fiance got the lunch buffet which was only 7.95. It offered only like 6 dishes that wasnt salad or dessert. The saag paneer was good, the naan was OK, the curry is decent. Everything is extremely average, but i guess for the area its probably the best it gets around those parts. This would get 2 stars if it werent for the fact that the buffet is decently priced and that nowhere else near the area can beat it.
The beauty of Yelp-- #56: Hear about a great local Indian place
near-ish your office from a guy 3,000 miles away.
I stumbled upon a review of this place a while ago (thanks, Gerri K.) I finally got to try it for myself. Mmmm Mmmmm Good. Now, I must Yelp!
Indulged in a long lunch here - skipped the lunch buffet because I had a Lamb Biryani craving like all get out. Nothing like satisfying a throbbing craving. I indulged in exactly what I wanted to taste - tender lamb, flavorful rice, just enough spices and lots and lots of buttery, garlic Naan. My friend had a lamb curry. He's English, so he's a tough-as-nails curry critic.
English critic: "I doubt that curry in South Florida can compare with.. (open mouth insert curry from S. Florida.)... Mmm Mmmm.. Well, mmmm.
Me: "Shut up and eat, Crumpet."
This place has apparently been here a long while - and you can tell why. Although the service was a bit slow, the food is really, really yummy, so you want to return. You can't help yourself. The prices are in the low to mid teens for entrees and the lunch special about $8.00, I think. A good value. (Crumpet's a curry critic and kind of cheap, too; he didn't complain.) Not much to speak to on the ambiance side- but you definitely feel like you're in a nice Indian restaurant - that just happens to be in S. Florida.
So - come here to satisfy your throbbing Indian food craving- or to shut up your favorite curry critic. Bloody good!
Truth is, before trying Royal India, I had eaten Indian food only in two cities; New York and London. In New York, I ate it about once a week for about 10 years and I tried pretty much every restaurant on E 6th St. (No, they don't all share the same kitchen) as well as a few in Tribeca and midtown. I am no authority on the authenticity of this food, so I am basing my review of the food on fresh and clean flavors and basic criteria that apply regardless of the cuisine.
I wish I could give this place two and a half stars. I have experience much better, but this is not bad. So I'm going to err on the positive side because they deserve more customers.
Their naan are all delicious. I'm not a fan of the sweet naan with raisins and nuts. But the rest are actually quite tasty.
Their tandoori chicken is well spiced but can be a bit dry which is a problem in many Indian restaurants. I tend to avoid it for that very reason.
I am not a fan of the deep fried appetizers in any restaurant so I can't recommend the samosa or pakora. I recommend you stick with the naan and save room for the main dishes.
I always like to order any of their vegetarian dishes as an extra for all to share.
All their biryani dishes are tasty and I love their spice mix. I tend to order the shrimp or the lamb biryani.
Also, their lamb korma and lamb vindaloo are delicious. I love very hot (spicy) Indian food but I realize it's way too hot for most people, specially at Royal India. I appreciate the fact that they are very flexible about accommodating their clients' requests when it comes to heat.
The service is very friendly and the dining room is cozy. I think it's a great place to introduce someone to Indian food.
Had to go into the office for some weekend catch-up work. My colleague and I finished late and the craving for some good spicy Indian was in order.
We had the buttered chicken and the spinach Sag panir . Fresh baked onion naan and mango chutney. The power went out due to the thunderstorm, we made a call to FPL to report the outage. Getting ready for hurricanes. It turned out we were the first to call from the restaurant. The owners never heard of 1-800-4outage.
Was able to finish off the excellent meal with rice puddding. I had my key chain flashlight and was able to light my way out to he darkened parking lot. The entire neigborhood area was out of power. talk about lights out.......
Just want to weigh in on this one:
- if you are looking for a fabulous and great-priced lunch buffet, come to Royal India. (but don't expect to get a lot of work done in the afternoon....) Lunch buffet is $7.99 without drinks. The food selection is ample, there's a salad section, there are some desserts and fruits for your enjoyment, also.
- if you are going and want to order off the menu, please get the butter chicken. This is the best, best bet you can go with. I totally agree with the other reviewers that mention they haven't found another butter chicken to beat this one.
Only complaints I have: there's no outside seating. There's a nice outdoor patio, but it seems to be always shut, with no chairs, tables available outside. too bad. good space by the canal that should be used!
Other complaint: if you sit at the tables up by the mirrors in the "main dining section" you'll be bumping elbows and knees etc with the people at the table next to you. Not very convenient for those fast trips back down to get another plate of delicious chicken....
I also score it as a moderate in price because if you don't go with the lunch buffet or you get a drink or something else, you're going to be right at $11-12/person. Which is a totally great price!
For the area, this is a very good Indian Restaurant. The service is excellent and the food is good.
We ordered the following:
Veg Samosas - These were excellent.
Sag Paneer - Also excellent.
Butter Chicken - It was good, the spice and sauce were good, but something was just a little off. I've tasted lots of Butter Chicken, and this one was missing something (I won't knock them for it this time around)
Basmati Rice - It was good, although this is the first time I've seen Yellow Basmati Rice.
They have a lunch buffet 7 days a week from 11:30am - 3:00pm and dinner service begins at 5:00pm.
The decor is neutral and not particularly Indian.
If this restaurant was in Chicago, it would be a solid 3-stars. I'm giving it an extra star because there are not that many Indian restaurants to choose from here in South Florida and this is probably one of the best ones that we've been to.
Royal India will definitely be on our rotation for the foreseeable future.
I went back a few weeks ago with a few friends and the butter chicken was even better than the last time I had it. How is that even possible??
Check this place out you won't be disappointed.
If there was an award for The Best Butter Chicken in the world, Royal India would win it hands down.… Read more »
I love this place! The food is great, the staff are SUPER nice. I have been eating here for over 15 years.
Christmas Eve, and I'm trying to stay up to see Santa.. My phone rings, its AW, she just finishehed watching Slumdog Millionaire and is craving Indian food, this appetite I carry wouldn't have allowed me to say no.
We get there hoping it would even be open, it was! We sat down and began ordering, noticing as our food came that the place had begun filling up. We had ordered like beasts; meat samosa, chicken pakora, spinach paratha coriander herbs, tandoori mixed grill lamb chicken shrimp, and vegetable biryani, to start. Everything was amazing, yet we made sure to save some room for the desserts; gulab jamun, and firni custard rice cocunut milk w dry nuts.. need I say more?
The staff was extremely friendly and the ambiance was superb. We had eaten so much we stayed glued to our seats for a while. This was such an amazing place; it got us thinking of a must needed road trip; the next morning we found ourselves in the car heading towards Tampa. Would I eat here again? You best believe!!
I grew up in South Florida, but didn't discover Indian food until a trip to Asheville (while living in SC). So, when visiting my Florida family, I sought out the best reviewed Indian restaurant near Hollywood.
I have probably driven by this place 100 times as a teenager. My girlfriend, now wife, lived about 1/4 mile from here.
First impression: dozens of newspaper and television awards along the wall. This place must be good!
Complimentary lentils and chutney are delicious. Two orders of garlic naan have begun to fill my stomach, but will I stop eating? NO!
I had Chicken Korma. Absolutely delicious. Great food. I ended up taking some home and having it for breakfast.
I used to live in a county/state that had many many many Indian restaurants and a large Indian population - so, I had REALLY good Indian food options. In fact, I ate at Indian restaurants usually weekly. I moved to SoFl knowing that Indian is not the predominant cuisine but hoping.. praying... for good Indian food somewhere. When my Indian friend (international student) came to visit me down here.. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out one of the Indian restaurants that had high Yelp ratings. Thus began our trip to Royal India restaurant.
Location: easy enough to get to.. kinda isolated but who cares
Parking: good - private lot
Service: service with a smile is always good!
Ambience/decor: fine - my Indian friend wondered why the decor was not Indian and couldn't figure out what the theme was for the decor ??
Price: A bit pricey compared to what I used to pay but still moderate
Now for the important part - the food...
The fried appetizers were FANTASTIC!! - although there was some heartburn later
The Malai Kofta (my favorite dish) was good.
My husband's Lamb Korma (his usual favorite) was not so good - in fact, he didnt' eat it - which is not like him at all)
My friend's eggplant dish was good (we both liked but not loved it)
The rice was not very Indian-ish but okay - not enough flavor
TIP: if you like spicy Indian, make sure you tell them... otherwise, they tend to err on the side of caution and a mild-medium was VERY mild
Overall, the food is okay-good depending on the dish. I would probably stick to the malai kofta and make it spicier. Worth a try.. prolly pretty good for the area but I really miss old out of state favorites.
Watch your friends break a sweat trying to finish a plate of chicken curry vindinloo! This is a spice that keeps on giving. The more you eat, the hotter it gets! I love it!
I've been coming to this place for years for their lamb or chicken curry and home made chi tea. My most recent experience wasn't that great which is why they only got 3 stars.
I usually come for dinner and I brought friends for lunch. They were serving a buffet and we wanted the menu's since the really spicy stuff isn't on the buffet. Well most places don't like to serve it your way so I guess we had it coming.
Like I've said before, the point and grunt gets the best results. If you need communicate more then that you're in the wrong restaurant for what you're looking to eat.
The first time we didn't even get to try their food because apparently they couldn't keep a table open for our reservation that we had made. We waited for an hour even with a reservation. That was a Saturday night.
A couple weeks ago, on a week night, there were only 4 tables.
I had better Indian food elsewhere. But I guess since this is the only that I know of that's around Weston, I guess this will do for my Indian craving.
I know I sound a little bitter but right when I was about walk out, a table of older white people stared at me and murmured something about "Chinese" under their breath. WTF!! You're at an Indian restaurant for God's sake. Hopefully I'll have a better experience next time.
I CRAVE THEIR CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA!
This is another place I recommend to go to with friends, especially someone who knows one or two things about Indian cuisine. But the dishes are big so sharing is caring. With a group you can do it up: samosas are tasty, naan is delish and the sauces that smother some of the meat (chicken tikka masala & lamb rogen josh) are tasty. Best use for the naan...mmm soak up the goodness. I always leave stuffed, I over eat here because the flavors are excellent.
And even though the staff may not be entirely Indian, what ethnic restaurant is these days?, Indian families do come here for events and regular old dinner. It satisfies their pallet and mine.
Oh and its great for that rainy night of take out....mmmmm, curl up on the couch and sharing naan with your lover. YEAH!
The place is located on the rather drab Griffin road. It is situated right along a canal and has a patio out back, but when we've been there it has not been in use. The dining room is rather dark and murky so you come here for the food rather than the ambiance.
Their bread is delicious and fresh baked, something that really raises the standard of the place. The lamb dishes also stand out, especially Lamb Saag. The chicken dishes however seems a bit bland and tough, making me wonder is it's old hens rather than chicken.
Fort Lauderdale isn't exactly spoiled for choices when it comes to Indian food, but Royal India serves up some tasty and authentic grub that does the job.
You would think that finding a good Indian restaurant would be easy. But it's not.
When I lived in New York I had the luxury of 6th Street. But living in L.A. I have never found solid, dependable, and delicious Indian fare.
How fortunate then, that on a recent Miami sojourn, I cruised through the carved wooden doors of Royal India.
The service is attentive, the ambience is like a cozy ocean-going vessel, the staff is professional, the owner is accessible and the food is delicious.
We had a delightful tandoori, a good lamb curry, a wonderful eggplant, nice daal, amazing puffy poori bread (not on the menu, but ask for it- it's an inflated buttery delicacy), naan, your basic roti, butter chicken, mango chutney, raita, and tamarind.
Everything delicious. Even the rice (which I am still thinking about now).
Our Brazilian server's name was Elizabeth- she was friendly and fun, and the owner Robert (who used to own a restaurant in Bombay named Shalimar) came over and talked with us about India, Politics, Philosophy and invited us to come back again soon.
All in all a delightful and fabulous evening. Not the last time we will be at Royal India.
Been going here for years. Order the Chicken Tikka Masala and the Kashmiri Naan. I like it hot and this place delivers quality food everytime. The atmosphere is stuck somewhere in a time warp - the wait staff are seemingly from the Eastern European countries but they are normally very attentive, if not wonderful. The apps tend to all be fried and I'm not into that as it just ruins my appetite for the GOOD STUFF. Go there often and you won't be sorry!
Okay, Im not an Indian food expert here, but we went here with my roommate and parents (who are Indian) and let them order off the menu for us. The food was GREAT! I was sweating a little bit, but it was really flavorful, and I was surprised at how awesome everything was. oh, ya know what else was awesome? The waitress' mini skirt. HA! ;)
We ordered drinks, appetizers, bread and several entries. Our waitress was horrible as was the other staff. Drinks were forgotten and never refilled, our bread was nearly cold by the time we got it and the entries weren't that great. Perhaps it was a bad night but I've personally had much better Indian elsewhere and certainly wouldn't go back without visiting some other local restaurants first.
I love Royal India's reasonable prices and the lunch buffet. If it were a little closer to my home, I would go out every week. I am HOOKED on the Naan bread and would love for the chef to share his recipe!
I have been eating at Royal India since they opened over 12 years ago. The food gets better and better each visit. Dinner is the BEST time to go. I like the large free parking, easy access, the clean environment. The food is always good, the service attentive. My favorite dishes are: Onion Nan, Dahl Makani, Saag Panar, Tandori Chicken, (Indian food always comes with Rice, Basmati Rice in this case). Try Royal India. You won't be sorry. Best to go with a person who "KNOWS" Indian food. India food can be made: Mild, Medium, or Hot. Your wait person will ask you how you want it. Don't confuse Heat, (hot) with flavorful. Indian food is flavorful but does not have to be overly Hot for your taste. In going to eat Indian, best to go with a few people so that you can have a little of many dishes, which is the way Indian food is eaten. Always has: Rice, Dalh, Subji (vegetable dish). Enjoy!
This place is surprisingly yummy, and they have a tremendous selection for vegetarians. I've been here twice now, but the first time was quite some time ago. I think I got the same thing back then as I did last night -- Mushroom Sag. MMmm Mmmm! My only regret is that I can't speak on more of the menu.
The Naan is a wonderful combination of fluffy and crispy, and the service is wonderful.
I asked for water with no ice (as usual), and when the server came by to refill my friend's glass, she poured his quickly, ice and all, and then artfully poured mine without a single tiny cube falling into my glass. She didn't infer the idea that one of the reasons I don't like ice in my water is that it's too darn cold, but it was quite impressive. Twice.
My favorite Indian restaurant in the Miami/ Ft. Lauderdale area. I've been coming here for years. Whats not to like, the food is delish, the atmosphere is pleasant and clean. The staff is friendly and attentive. Prices are on the high side, but the food is above average too. Give them a try, you won't regret it.
I had a hard time believing that I just had bad Indian lunch buffet when the reviews that I've read on Yelp and everywhere else stated otherwise.The buffet was such a letdown.Not much variety to choose from and food was bland.Perhaps it is just that one day but the husband and a couple of his friends had had dinner there prior to this and had enjoyed their meal tremendously.No complains so perhaps the dinner menu is way better than their selection at the lunch buffet supposedly.Service I have to say is pretty efficient though,so at least they deserve a good tip :-)
we have eaten spectacular indian food around the world, including sydney, australia; durban, south africa; many places in europe and in india. royal india is some of the BEST indian food we have ever had. it is FANTASTIC, and we would recommend it HIGHLY! 5 STARS & MORE!
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Well, when working in Plantation, you have to eat!…
