House of Royals — Restaurant in Bidhannagar

Went to this place on 12th January 2024 after seeing lots of good reviews on social media Facebook reels and YouTube shorts. Ordered Mix Non-Veg Kebab Platter, Chicken Tandoori Sizzler, Grilled Fish in Lemon Butter Sauce Platter and Hot Walnut Brownie with Ice Cream.

The Mix Non-Veg Kebab platter was very costly at Rs 719 for the portion it offered. It had only two pieces each of chicken reshmi kebab, chicken haryali kebab, fish tikka and mutton seekh kebab. At this price, every restaurant of the same league in Salt Lake and Park Street atleast provides tangri kebabs as well. Now coming to the taste, the food had taste and was not undercooked. But, everything except the fish was just dry and too hard, especially the mutton seekh kebab which even made a squeaking sound while biting into it. Also, everything was served kind of cold, luke warm to be precise. Nothing was hot in that platter.

The Chicken Tandoori Sizzler was good for its price for 419 with a tandoori leg portion, sauted mushroom accompanied with some rice and a poached egg. The tandoori chicken was juicy and soft.

The Grilled Fish in Lemon Butter Sauce Platter was very upsetting. The sauce was too salty. Thanks to the rice portion served as its side, that was helping mitigate that extra salt. The boiled veggies that came with it, especially the brocolli, were again cold and hard. It was priced at 449 which would have been reasonable if it tasted better.

But the most disastrous part was Hot Walnut Brownie with ice cream. The Brownie was literally as hard as a brick and it required one person to pin it down to the plate and the other to cut it. It tasted dry like a biscuit. We had to had it changed. The next iteration served was better but then it was nowhere near to hot. It was a bit dry and hard as well but not as inedible as the previous one. Overall, the food will receive a rating of 2.5/5 from my side.

Coming to the service, it was a mixed experience. The attendents leave the customers alone in a closed space and we had to wait long to get water refilled or ask for a replacement Brownie and to get our bill. Also, when a polite feedback (on demand) was given about the veggies with the fish platter being cold and hard and not properly boiled, it wasn't received in a constructive manner. The attendent tried to explain to us that how the veggies in the continental cuisines are partly boiled and party fried and so we cannot find any authentic continental cuisines with properly boiled veggies. Finally, he had to be told that we have had fish in white sauce before at several places and this is the worst of them all because of the cold and hard veggies and salty sauce. However, the attendant was considerate enough to change our Brownie after demonstrating it to him that how hard it was to cut through. The attendent also offered us with 15% discount coupon for our next visit as a good will gesture. So, I would rate the service as 3.5/5.

I was really excited to visit this place because it is very much hyped in social media. However, the food here was a disappointment. And being a person who does a fare bit of cooking, the possible reason that the food items seemed so dry and hard is using frozen supplies and then directly cooking without bringing them to room temperature. Other possibility may be the extensive usage of Chef Mike (microwave oven) to heat batch cooked foods. Only microwaving a frozen item at high temperatures can make it that hard and dry from inside, like what happened with the mutton seekh kebab and the first brownie. And the second brownie seemed like, it was just microwaved enough to get warm from the outside but it was cold in the inside. Even a family of 4-5 who were sitting behind us were talking about how the chicken kebab looks good and has flavour but is very chewy.

All in all, I will rate this place as 3/5. May be it wasn't their best day. I wouldn't say the place is bad because they have received lots of good social media reviews by food vloggers in the past as well as in recent times. So, it's definitely a one time...

Living outside Kolkata for years and being a die-hard bengali foodie is very tough. You never stop dreaming about food, specially bengali food. So I make a special shortlist of restaurants before visiting Kolkata during Dec holidays. And since this is my first visit to Kolkata after 2019, due to covid travel restrictions from Sydney, AU, I was following a few bengali vloggers in YouTube for restaurant recommendations. House of Royals did not live upto its reputation, despite some vloggers claiming this restaurant as the next big thing that has hit the salt lake crowd. Well, that's my humble opinion as a paying customer and not paid for promotion!

Went with 3 friends, didn't order their thalis, as I went by the recommendation from the vloggers. As entrees, we ordered fish fries (came with potato wedges), golden prawn fry (came with the same wedges) and keema pao with poached egg on top. The fish fries were very thin, they used bhetki fish fillet and even though it was not the quintessential kolkata fish fry from one of the famous cafes, it tasted good. Unfortunately the wedges were not boiled fully, so were bit hard and very low on salt, so we didn't even touch it. The golden prawns fry was a disappointment, the batter were soggy, not crunchy and didn't taste good, though the jumbo prawn used inside the batter was quite big and soft, and the problem with wedges were the same as the fish fry - hard and low on salt. The keema pao was another story though, was a brilliant dish and a very modern take on the Mumbai dish, which blew our minds! To be honest, the keema pao was the saving grace of our entrees and can visit the restaurant again, to finish off a few more plates of that keema pao!

Next was the mains and you are not a true Bong if you are not ordering biriyani and chaap if you visiting this kind of restaurant. So we ordered the chicken biriyani and chicken chaap. The biriyani was okay, bit surprised to see cashews on top of the biriyani as my olfactory senses started questioning if it was a biriyani or a pulao. Taste was okay, above average-ish. I somehow didn't like the chaap preparation at all, just didn't cut it. Felt something was missing and not making the combo complete for me. Sorry, hate to give bad (but honest) feedback!

I am traditional bengali middle aged foodie, love the saying - "don't fix what's not broken". The bengali biriyani, chaap and fish fry are recipes that have been perfected and passed down through generations. There are so many current bengali vloggers who have gone to crazy levels of posting comparative analysis and almost Masters PhD thesis over which biriyani and chaap to swear by in Kolkata - be it D-Bapi, or Dada Boudi, or Arsanal, or Siraj or Aminia or New Aliah etc etc. So HoR is trying to experiment on a very sacred soil which can bring in a lot of feedback/criticism. So I think this was expected. And it also gave me a new perspective of not taking all vloggers feedback on face value, rather with a pinch of salt and some further analysis for my next Dec's Kolkata eating list!

In the mean time, if anyone is visiting this restaurant, their keema pao is to die for and order that with your...

House of Royal’s: A Disappointing Durga Puja Experience in Salt Lake City, Kolkata

As a food lover, I was excited to try the much-recommended biryani at House of Royal’s, a fine dining spot in Salt Lake City, Kolkata. With a cosy, intimate ambience and seating for around 60 guests, this restaurant also features a small waiting area, which is convenient given the festival crowd. However, despite its promising setup, my experience here during Durga Puja was quite disappointing, especially considering the high expectations.

Ambience and First Impressions The ambience at House of Royal’s is indeed welcoming and warm, creating a lovely setting to enjoy a meal. The decor and lighting are understated yet elegant, fitting for a fine dining experience. However, ambience alone does not make up for the lapses in food quality and service.

The Biryani Experience Given all the hype around their biryani, I was eager to try it, but unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the expectations. The biryani had an overpowering scent of attar (a traditional fragrance), which was so strong that it masked the delicate flavors of the spices. A good biryani should have a balance of aromatic spices and fragrant rice, but here the attar overwhelmed everything. Even the alu (potato), a staple and highlight in Kolkata-style biryani, was bland and lacked flavor, which was another letdown. However, the mutton was tender and flavorful, a silver lining in an otherwise disappointing dish.

Service: A Painfully Slow Experience Service at House of Royal’s was unfortunately very slow. Despite the restaurant not being too crowded, it took about 20 to 30 minutes to get a single plate of biryani. Additionally, the waitstaff was inattentive; we had to call multiple times just to get water, and basic amenities like cold soda weren’t available. The fresh lime soda they served was at room temperature, which just doesn’t hit the spot with biryani.

Billing Woes When it came time to pay, I encountered yet another inconvenience. I was hoping to pay via debit card at my table, but the waitstaff insisted on UPI or cash. When I pressed for card payment, they informed me I’d have to go to the counter, which seemed unnecessarily tedious for a fine dining experience.

Overall Impression All in all, House of Royal’s fell short of expectations, at least as far as their biryani is concerned. With slow service, lackluster food, and payment inconveniences, it was far from the satisfying experience I’d hoped for. I haven’t tried other dishes here, so perhaps they might redeem the restaurant in the future. I’ll update this review if I go back to try other menu items.

Final Verdict: If you’re looking for a memorable biryani experience, you might want to...