Royal India

Everything that you want out of a classy, authentic Indian restaurant. The eggplant (Bengan Bharta) had a great texture and delicious, full-​bodied flavor. The sides were excellent and the service top notch. Well done!

Awesome experience. Authentic Indian food. Fancy place with Chandelier & a 10 ft waterfall inside. Fiesta in every bite! Will come back even though service is 2 stars.

This place used to be my Go to place when I have guest in town or special occasion!!! It’s gone down hill!!! Food soooo salty & too seasoned. There prices gone up. Never coming back again. They lost their good food & customer service.

Food was great. My favorite thing was the mango soup. So very yummy. We will return just for the soup alone. Service was also excellent.

Great food and great service specially the manager Shaan was very friendly and accommodating!

I went here on a Monday for my birthday — Indian food is my favorite and this place was super yummy! And on top of that, our waiter was extra nice and overly patient with our ordering mistakes and corrections after the food had already come out. Plus, he gave us extra rice to take home with all of our leftovers.
Appetizers: We ordered the Onion Bhaji which was crisp and delicious. Plus, the tamarind chutney was thick and just the right amount of sweet.
Main Meal: We had both the chicken saag and the chicken tikka masala, both of which were perfect and thick. There’s nothing worse than watered down Indian sauce where you can tell they’re trying to save money by going cheap [ahem Bombay Exotic]. But that was not the case at all here. The sauces were thick and flavorful to the point where you could dip your bread in it and it stayed there. We also had the Onion kulcha which was filled with onions in a tasty bread.
Overall, this chain is still my favorite and the only Indian place I would recommend in San Diego. And I’ve been eating Indian food in NYC, Chicago, Paris, London, LA, SF… and this is one of the top places overall but definitely the #1 for SD.

My family and I make it down here once every couple of months. We always opt for the curry and we’re never disappointed. Naan is delicious as are the samosas. Staff is extremely friendly and helpful.

The atmosphere is good. I love the Palak, very tasty. Some of the chicken were burnt.
Service is good and fast. The girl who helped us very friendly.

I went here on the recommendation of a friend who had been here before on a previous trip. We walked here from our hotel and were able to get a seat right away. The wait staff was friendly and prompt in their service.
I am new to food from India so I am not the best judge of the food yet. I keep trying different places so that I can become more knowledgeable. We had a chicken dish that was prepared on a kebab and was sell seasoned. We also had a prawn dish that had a tasty sauce and lots of vegetables in curry.
Overall I think that it was a good meal and that my palate is expanding with the introduction of more cuisine from India.

I have been to way to many Indian restaurants looking for authentic food that hasn’t gotten lazy with the details and have been disappointed. I finally found one! Love the service and music as well!

A friend and I ordered two dishes and some naan bread — we called and ordered and were told that everything would be ready in 10 min.
Once I arrive to pick it up I am told that our food is not ready and that it will be an additional 10 min, at this point I’m annoyed but thinking that the reviews were not to bad on this place and I decide to give them the benefit of the doubt.
After 18 min nobody has contacted me or anything, I then ask the same waitress that I spoke to last if the food is ready now, apparently not and I am asked to wait another 10 min because they are still preparing the rice for one of the dishes. Needless to say they only had somebody sitting at one table — so its not like that were super busy. The tone from the waitress was pretty rude and not at all helpfull.
They did not offer any discount or compensation for the wait.
The food in itself was not worth the wait or the price — tacky and very unappealing with dry naan bread on the side — honestly I have had much better with a shorter wait and better service.
We will definitely not be coming back and can in no way recommend this place to anybody else!

Quite honestly, for my taste, it was too spicy. My friends love this place and it is their go to place for their business associates when they come into town. Royal India is great for large groups and their staff was friendly. I did enjoy their rice and tea.

I feel like this place tries really hard, and their buffet is hard to beat for value.
I eat here every single Tuesday because I have to be downtown for an appearance each week.
Here is why I am insulted. I am a very regular customer and that might not mean much except we are usually among very few other customers when we are there. You would think they would notice.
I also send my assistant often for to go orders.
I am so frustrated at how little English they speak. Today I literally gave up and left because the server could not understand my order, and ultimately walked away from me.
I have brought in large groups and I enjoy the food but I don’t think I will go back. Indian food is easy to make at home and there are lots of restaurants who have servers who speak English.
If you are going to live here and want my money, learn the language or lose my business.

My friend and I came for the lunch buffet and were happy to have a very good spread of options, plus no waiting! When you’re starving, waiting is the last thing you want! There were some basic salads to start, veggie dishes and about 3 – 4 meat dishes. Pretty much your common Indian buffet spread with saag paneer, a korma dish, tikka masala, a couple curries, and samosa. There was dessert as well and naan to order. The food was good, not the best Indian I’ve ever had but it was good. The garlic naan was ok. For me, naan is a make or break for Indian restaurants and I’m sad to say that I have yet to find a naan that I can’t get enough of eating. If you know how much I LOVE carbs, this is a HUGE disappointment but I guess I’m saving my waistline from unnecessary naan overload. The restaurant has a more upscale décor but all diners are very casual. There were only 1 – 2 tables in the restaurant on a Friday at 1230pm. There is outdoor seating and a large dining room. Parking is street which downtown/​Gaslamp area can be tough depending on the time of day. Service was cordial but again, minimal since we did the lunch buffet for $ 15 per person. Overall, a decent spot to pop in for good variety and quick lunch if you’re craving some Indian.

Great tasty food and excellent customer service with a smile, something sorely missing from an Indian restaraunt nowadays.
We reached around 935 – 940 pm and were promptly seated. Shaan was very courteous and explained the menu. Even though the menu does not specifically call out Halal, since one in the party could only eat Halal preparations, Shaan mentioned everything is Halal.
We ordered Chicken Tikka Masala, Chicken Sheekh Kabab, Chicken Karahi, Paneer Tikka Masala, Chicken Biryani, Naan and Roti.
All the dishes were made really well. Biryani was not the standard Hyderabad biryani and we preferred it that way and enjoyed the taste.
Since we were celebrating an anniversary, complimentary dessert and tea was offered to us. Gajar Halwa was very nicely done.
Had an awesome experience and will gladly recommend it to friends and go there again.

Seriously, the best place ever. Shout out to our server who’s name I don’t remember. But, I went here for the buffett with my sister, and he was the nicest person I think I’ve ever encountered. Always smiling and happy and there with water or naan, which by the way, was also amazing. We even had a brief talk about how naan was tossed and made. Anyways, amazing service, great buffet, awesome patio. Would definitely go back next time I’m in the area.

So I have walked by this restaurant many times but decided to stop by for the first time and I was not disappointed. We had the chicken tikka masala and it was delicious!!! Our server Manuel was very attentive and extremely kind. I will definitely be coming back in the future.

Since my first review, I went to Royal India a second time. It wasn’t incredibly busy, I was seated right away… and after 15 minutes, nobody had stopped by to even place my order. I went to the front desk and advised them that I’d be leaving. One person apologized, and another tried to make excuses («there was a large party being served»). Obviously, I was disappointed by the lack of responsibility taken by the younger gal. That experience left a very poor taste in my mouth.
About a month later, I decided to give them another shot. I’m glad I did. While they were supposed to be open until 10pm, it was a slow night and they were contemplating closing down the kitchen as I arrived. Shaan was exceptionally accomodating, realizing that I wasn’t going to be placing a large order. The food and drink were excellent, consistent with my previous experience. I was so pleased with the level of service that Shaan provided that I didn’t bother to redeem my groupon — I knew I would be back, and I wanted to thank the team for keeping the kitchen open for me.
I returned to Royal India earlier this week, and Shaan was there to greet me again. And, as expected, I had a great customer service experience.
To the ownership of Royal India: you have a real keeper in Shaan! Make sure you take care of him as well as he takes care of your customers. Honestly, you had almost lost me as a customer after my pre-​Shaan experience. Please make sure everyone else on your team understands the importance of timely service and «owning» the customer service experience.

It’s tough being vegan when you’re at a work conference. During the day I could only graze on fruits and salads. SO HUNGRY. But then I remembered that hey, I’m on the mainland so maybe I could find some Indian food. I would have settled for decent, but Royal India was fantastic.
Again, SO HUNGRY, I ordered a bunch of stuff: the Aloo Tikki, Chili Naan, vegetable Chili Ginger Masala (which came with basmati rice), and a Royal India Pale Ale. I loved each and every bite/​sip. The Chili Naan had embedded jalapenos and came with two sauces: cilantro/​mint, and tamarind, both were amazing and paired well with the naan. The Chili Ginger Masala was terrific, but the Aloo Tikki was my favorite — perfectly crispy on the outside, savory and creamy on the inside. Beer was good, but I love most beer.
I was literally the only person there at 8pm on a Thursday so everything came out really fast. Service was friendly and attentive. The interior is pretty damn luxurious. I used a Unilocal voucher ($ 10 for $ 20) so the tab was super reasonable, considering the quality of food, service and atmosphere. I’ll be back in San Diego in a few months and I’d love to come back to Royal India.

Amazing Indian food, at least by my ignorant standards. Very expensive, but they generally offer a Unilocal deal to help defray the cost a little. I wish they let both couples use the deal!
I’ve been here 2 or 3 times, and it is always great. Food and service have always been high quality.

Service started off a bit slow but picked up after ordering.
I had the vegetarian meat balls with curry. It was good. I requested a level 3 spicy and it was not spicy at all so those who are new to Indian food but want a mildly spicy dish bump it up to 5 or so.

Been to royal India on Sunday special occasion and thanks to wonderful entrance. Best customer service gracefully taking orders and suggesting accordingly. No rush, food was incredible samosa chicken Tikka Masala. Finally end with chai.
Shaan — thanks for the service will definitely come back for your hospitality. Top natch.

Ate here on 11/​13/​2015. Nice décor and service. We ordered a meat dish, vegetarian dish, and nan. We enjoyed the meat dish and nan very much. The malai kofta not so much. Even on a Friday night, it’s a quiet restaurant. A single dinner entrée will range from a little under $ 20 to $ 35 or so. Appetizers, drinks, and other dishes will raise the per person cost. Parking is street only (free after 8pm). We had an interesting neighbor who complained the entire time we were there about how non-​authentic all the food was and how things have changed since he grew up in India. So, I suppose for somewhat Americanized Indian this was alright. With cost and ambiance, I would recommend eating here if your goal is to eat out at a nice place and you really want Indian. Don’t bet on all the other guests dressing particularly nicely, though.

Nice atmosphere. The food was not great. My malai kofta was bland and oily. In addition, I felt that the food was expensive even with the deal I purchased on Unilocal.It was perfectly edible, but I plan to continue my search for great Indian food elsewhere.

Was here for dinner and liked the casual vibe.
Ms. Ivonne and her crew served a delicious meal and I had a good time.
I’m glad I found this place.
I recommend trying their papadum, it is very tasty!

I was here to celebrate my friends birthday, so a good group of few people eating a late lunch.
The server was RUDE, TWO separate orders had HAIR in the food and they REFUSED to make new chicken dishes for us, we said we weren’t going to pay for the food that had HAIR in it and they called the police on us.
Absolutely WORST customer service. I HIGHLY recommend you go ANYWHERE else to have your meal.
Seriously, what restaurant doesn’t at least apologize and make a new dish for the customer. I’d give a zero star if I could.
Ugh so sad that places like this are still open.

By far the worse service I have ever received in the Gaslamp district. I came to this place for my birthday and I can easily recommend everyone that plans to come to this place to think twice before you enter. The décor is tacky and the service is the worse I have ever seen. Blue Point Coastal would have been a better choice, only a block away.
I entered the place with the hopes of having a great time and instead we ended up having to get the cops involved because they did not want to admit that there was hairs and particles in my food that was not supposed to be there. There hair in my food was a blond and their excuse was that the green onion had blond hairs so I said ok what about the black hair that was in my food? Did that too come from the green onion? Or is this what you tell everyone to get away with food contamination? The Health Department should really take a look at this place.
They don’t care because they expect everyone to be a tourist and the way the manager thinks, is that as a tourist you will not be back so your complaints do not matter. If you don’t like the food or if there is hair in your plate then who cares because you will be going back home in the next two days. Every person coming to visit the Gaslamp district should really avoid this place if you want to go home safe and healthy.
The server was sloppy and was by far the worse server I had ever encountered. I recommend everyone to try out the Blue Point Costal first (Which is only a block away and has quality wines and exceptional dining) before you step a single foot in this place. They think that as a tourist you don’t matter and the only thing that matters is your pocket book. The wine was old and taste like vinegar. There are hundreds of better options in the Gaslamp District than this place. I am surprised they are even in business anymore. Eat their food at your own risk. To add insult to injury the price is ridiculous for the food they provide. You could do a lot better at Blue Point Coastal and the service there is a million times better than this place.
So an employee of this establishment sent me a Unilocal message, a very racist one at that. I will quote her here and post a photo image of the message she sent. This place really has a lot of class and ethics. Not only is the message ignorant, has poor grammar but it is also very racist.
«next time make sure to tell your friend to write „dinner“ instead of lunch lmao so contradicting retards.
its cause of latinos like you we are sick of having. i would be embarrassing to be Mexican»
In Reply:
We were there 20 minutes before you opened which makes it our lunch, A late lunch but there was nothing dinner about it. Secondly, the word retard? really? These are the kind of employees they are hiring? I love that you assume I am a Mexican. I am not but lets run with you assumptions, the remark you just made is very racist, humanity has evolved a lot more then that so don’t get left behind. Now how can I post a photo copy of this message so the public knows I am not making this up.

Awful food, no atmosphere, poor service. Spend most of the night on the toilet, 30 mins after leaving.
This is not a fake review, we booked a table for x5 people at 8pm last night and I have the receipt to prove it …

This is a review specially for the Owner OR their Unilocal Admin guy who keeps tagging all the negative review as FAKE.
Tagging a bad review as FAKE REVIEW won’t make you the best restaurant in SD. Instead of playing the blaming game, take the criticism to improve on your customer service. Asking your friend & family to give you 5 starts will not get you long time customers. In India we treat guest as God but you might not know that coz we all know the truth behind the FAKE Royal India name.
Don’t stress your self in order to reply to this message rather invest that time in some good customer service and then you will know how REAL success tastes.
GOOD LUCK!!!

Best Indian Restaurant in San Diego!
The ambience of the restaurant is casual and their staff are super friendly. We were greeted right away by their hostess and our server was very knowledgeable about the food. We had the Lam Rogan josh and the chicken korma. Both of the curries were very tender and tasty. The garlic nan is to die for, and they prepare everything fresh all the time… Which is great because it brings the flavors of the food even more. I’m definitely coming back, I can’t wait to try more of their delicious curries.

We love Indian food! It’s one of those things I crave often and need to eat at least once a month. We were in San Diego and we didn’t know what to eat and it was nearing 11:00pm. That awkward time where most restaurants are already closed and the only food options are fast food or bar food. We walked by Royal India and decided to order some food even though they were about to close in 20 minutes. They were nice enough to not only allow us to dine in, but their service was good!
We ordered the Veggie Korma and Chicken Tikka Masala which are two dishes we order at pretty much all the time at Indian restaurants. One thing that I appreciated was that we didn’t have to order rice on the side. It comes with your entrees unlike many other Indian restaurants. We also ordered some Garlic Naan to go with our food. I really enjoyed my Veggie Korma. I do have to say that they are skimpy on the vegetables which doesn’t make sense vegetables are what makes up the majority of this dish. Still, the flavor was very good. The Tikka Masala on the other hand did not taste all that great. It was clearly tomato based which isn’t that much of a problem but this was way too heavy. It tasted like tomato sauce which was just not good. Great garlic naan though and the rice was cooked and seasoned properly also.
We enjoyed our dinner for the most part. It made for a good late night meal and the service was good even though we were there after closing. I’m not entirely sure if I’ll be back since I think there are better in the area but it hit the spot at the time. ³⁄₅

I DON’T RECOMMEND THIS PLACE UNLESS IF SOMEONE WANTS THEIR NIGHT RUINED.
I found this place on Unilocal and when we went there it gave me and my family (8 people) a very good first impression. Our hostess seemed very nice and our appetizers were really good too but everything went downhill from main course.
Firstly, the service was very slow. We had finished our curries when the second round of Naans arrived which took even longer to order because our hostess didn’t bother asking us if we needed anything or if everything was alright. We had to call her to bring us something. When I dad complained this to her she didn’t even want to listen, and while he was talking she interrupted him and said that u hv to order faster for me to bring it faster, and she said this in a very rude tone with a bad attitude.
Secondly, there were flies everywhere on our table. They kept sitting in our glasses and food, and when we told this to the hostess she just said that yeah she knew there were flies.
Lastly, we ordered about 3 types of chickens and one of them had carrots. My mom was eating it and she felt something bad in her mouth so she checked it. It was a bad carrot that was probably rotten. We told the hostess that this happened and she took it back. A few minutes later she came back with a small plate with about 2 pieces of carrot and asked us what was wrong with the carrots as they seem fine. We are stunned that firstly she didn’t understand us when we explained and secondly rather than replacing it she came back with those pieces.
All in all this place was probably the worst experience I hv ever had in a restaurant. Being an Indian, I expect a little bit more variety in the food but it all tasted the same for us. I wouldn’t hv written this review but the way the hostess talked really made me mad so goodbye to Royal India and I look forward to never seeing you again.

Location: This place is located in Gaslamp so of course can be difficult to find parking that isnt astronomically expensive. We did a food tour and thus spent almost the entire day in the area which made parking in a nearby structure worth it. I understand that it gets pretty crowded, however we went with our tour right when it opened and there was a good deal of seating available.
Service: Can’t comment much in this area based on our first visit as it was a buffet and our tour guide directed us to our table since it was our initial meeting point. Again though, since its a buffet…
Food: I am generally wary of Indian food because I can’t handle a very high level of spice however to my surprise, I was able to eat everything I tried! The Tikka Masala was great and I also tried a beef curry that was on the buffet. The sauces which were at the start of the buffet were yummy too. My favorite thing however was the mango dessert — delicious!
Overall: If we were in the area, I think that we would definitely go back to try some of the things we did not the first time. Since we were on a food tour, we were allowed one small plate to try what we wanted and were only allowed to go to the buffet once.

I love Indian Cuisine!
I’ve been to a few Indian restaurants and Royal India is by far my favorite. They have authentic Indian Cuisine, super delicious and very affordable. Lunch buffet is the best way to sample all their delicious dish. I really like their Samosa, Tandori and Chicken Masala. I wouldn’t known about this place if not for bitesandiego food tour. I came back with my family the next day and everyone loved the buffet.

If you want ambiance with the rich flavor of Indian dishes, Royal India is the place. Located downtown with many tables inside and out (they can cater for big groups too).
To start, we shared an order of the vegetarian Pakoras (deep fried pastry). Served hot and with two dipping sauces. Not overly stuffed but were good in size. The vegetables and the fried pastry were seasoned well, soft in the inside, a bit crunchy on the outside, and when paired with the sweet and tangy taste of the two sauces were just an excellent starter.
We then ordered their curry specialties — chicken tikka masala and the tandoori butter chicken. Both entrees came with rice and we ordered garlic naan on the side as well. First off their portions are huge. The chicken of both dishes were tender, and the curry was thick and had an abundance of flavor. Seasoned well and just made one order or naan for dipping not enough. I suggest ordering two especially when sharing.
Even if we couldn’t finish our meals (too much food) we still ordered a mango lassi. They are my favorite. Creamy and the mango flavor comes through. One per person is highly recommended. Also order a mango martini. Strong and if you love mangos (like me) the taste is there!
This visit was our second attempt at dining here as the first night while their site states they close at 10 pm they closed at 8:30 pm that night as they were slow. On a Friday? What? Unbelievable because we enjoyed it and god thing we returned.