Royal Taj

 

4

16

Purple P.

Fremont, CA

This place makes me happy whenever I come here. Their food is heavenly. My fave here are the Saag Paneer, Naan, Chicken Makhati, Gulab Jamun and Kheer. They have a lunch buffet for $7.99 which is very reasonable. Royal Taj is by far the best Indian restaurant in the bay.

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2

21

nita m.

Redondo Beach, CA

Royal Taj is my favorite place to get Indian food, and whenever I'm home in the Bay Area I eat atleast 1 meal a day here. Royal Taj has a few restaurants in the Bay, and we used to make 45 minutes drives to get Indian food from one of their other locations- it's that good.

I would especially recommend the saag paneer from Royal Taj. It's simply the BEST saag paneer in the Bay Area. And the Channa Masala and Alo Gobhi are really good, too. Of course the naan (garlic and regular) is really good. I'm not sure why a previous reviewer got bland garlic naan, because everytime i've order it, there have been no problems (and i love garlic and don't mind reeking of it). I think the only dish I've ever been disapointed in from Royal Taj is the Paneer Tikka, because I was expecting the dish to be similar to the one served at Amber (in Santana Row). But don't get me wrong, Royal Taj's Paneer Tikka wasn't bad, it just wasn't as flavorful as I would have hoped.

I love this place. I would recommend trying anything on the menu because everything from here is good because the food is fresh and amazing, the prices are totally reasonable, and if you order takeout instead of dining in you end up getting twice the amount of food for the same price.

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0

6

Karen B.

Fremont, CA

This place has really tasty food! It's really small inside, so it's better for a dinner with a friend/significant other or takeout, rather than a group. I was delighted to find a good selection of chaat, which you don't really find at most Indian restaurants. However, the papdis in the papdi chart were sliiiightly stale but it was still good.

We ordered garlic naan and regular naan, and the garlic naan was amazing. It has actual small pieces of garlic stuck onto it rather than just a garlic butter glaze alone--and being a huge garlic fan I definitely approve.

The butter chicken (called Chicken Makhani there) is amazing. I sopped up every last bit of the gravy with my naan. The boti kabaab is also really good, and comes out sizzling and steaming with a lot of smoke so it's kinda cool that way too (probably the dish the user below was talking about). The lamb of the boti kabaab was tender and yummy.

Prices are reasonable, too. All around a great find!

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Elite '08

336

468

arnold g.

Fremont, CA

When I saw that Garam Masala had closed (the second Indian restaurant to shut down in this space since we moved here in 2005), I wasn't sad because the food wasn't that great. But the banner announcing that Royal Taj was opening in its place got me really excited. Royal Taj has been one of my favorite Indian restaurants in the Bay Area, and I think they're the restaurant that actually got me to start really liking Indian food. When I used to work in Los Gatos, I'd go to the Campbell location regularly for their generous and cheap lunch buffet, but haven't been there in years because I'm hardly in the area anymore. They also have a restaurant in Santa Cruz.

The new Royal Taj is a huge step up from the two previous tenants, which were...much dingier. It's clean, with new paint, chairs tables, dinnerware, window dressings, as well as the requisite LCD HDTV playing Indian music videos. (Excluding sports bars, are ethnic restaurants the only ones that can get away with TVs in the main dining areas?)

I'm happy to report that the food is still excellent...as good as I remembered it from the Campbell location. We started with a really nice vegetable samosa, and our main courses were an excellent chicken biriyani, delicious rogan josh (lamb with a wonderfully sweet/spicy tomato sauce), and a sublime saag paneer that was blessed with a perfect consistency and texture.

They still have the lunch buffet -- only $7.99 -- and I'll have to try it out next time I get a Friday off.

The only negative was the abundance of cilantro garnishing the dishes, which my wife picked out before we started eating. Next time we go (and there will definitely be a next time), we'll ask them to hold the evil herb.

(The website address is for the Campbell location, but the menu is basically the same.)

***UPDATE 6/25/07***
Got a nice PM from the Royal Taj manager thanking me for the review, and he said they will happily hold the cilantro for me on my next visit. :-)

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21

70

Randy R.

Fremont, CA

We really wanted to find somewhere different to eat dinner and Arnold's review convinced us to try Royal Taj.

Royal Taj is a small restaurant on Mission at Pine.  You enter from Pine St. and park behind the restaurant.  Their small space would be really unimpressive if they hadn't obviously put some real effort in to the decor.  They have the obligatory Indian music videos playing on a flat screen television.  Upon entering, the first thing that hit me was the smell of incense, possibly a bit too strong for a restaurant where you'd expect to smell good food and spices, instead.

I had Chicken Makhani (I think this is the dish more commonly known as Butter Chicken but I may be wrong), $8.99.  Their menu describes it as:  "Oven roasted chicken cooked in a buttery tomato sauce."  It was quite good, lots of wonderful spices in a creamy sauce with very subtle tomato underpinning.  I'd rate it excellent.

My husband had Lamb Jal Frezi, $9.99.  Menu description:  "Tender lamb cooked in a potpourri of chopped assorted vegetables."  He says that the taste was good, not great, but that the lamb was a bit tough.  He really likes lamb so he was a little disappointed.  He says three stars.

Their main courses seem to be ala carte.  The "Dinner Plate," $3.99 (seems to be what you order to accompany a main course) is rice, nan, raita and salad.  We asked to substitute garlic nan and they pleasantly agreed.  Unfortunately, it was bland and had hardly any garlic taste at all.  That was a disappointment.  Minus one star.

The service was prompt (when we entered we were the only customers) and pleasant.  Our food came fairly quickly.

My husband must avoid carbs as much as possible, so the middle-eastern, Indian and asian emphasis on rice is a problem.  Still, so many of the meats and spices are so delicious that we indulge occasionally and seldom regret it.

I would love to know what the dish was that they served to someone at a table near us.  As they brought it out held high, it sizzled loudly and emitted a surprising amount of smoke that had a fascinating smell I've never encountered before.  I think it was lamb but the spices are a mystery.  This was served to an olive-skinned gentleman sporting a large dark mustache and a handsome purple turban, so I'd guess whatever it was was authentic just-like-home Indian food.

Five stars for my food.  Minus one star for the mediocre nan.  Minus two stars for the tough lamb.  Add one star for good service and substituting the garlic nan .  That totals three stars.

We may try them again in the future but it will be a while.

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0

15

Bonnie R.

Fremont, CA

Wow!  Superb cuisine in a really lovely restaurant.  Prices are very reasonable and the service was excellent.  The gentleman who owns this restaurant owns six others and knows how to provide a great dining experience.  Loved it.

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