Royal Taj Restaurant — Restaurant in Columbia

I remember Royal Taj when it first came out years ago. This used to be my favorite Indian Restaurant for many years. It is unrecognizable now in my opinion. Here are the following failings I recently experienced:

There is no longer a buffet. If you go there expecting it and find out they no longer have it, I recommend not making the mistake I did and staying to see if it was worth it. Please consider the next three points and just find a new place if the buffet was your expectation walking in.

They charge for naan bread even when you order curry. Minimum price was $5 per order for like 3 pieces. Most other Indian restaurants provide them included with certain entrees, with generously more portions might I add. Stuff like the "rosemary" naan is literally just rosemary sprinkled for $7. Absurd.

The curry are very expensive.. In fact, everything here is like 50-100% more expensive than most other Indian restaurants I've been to. $23 for the "full" size and it is roughly the portion size for a single person. Furthermore, the curry is nothing special and pretty much tastes roughly equivalent to the curry I have ordered at other places for literally half the price with even larger portions in some cases.

While the waiters were generally professional, it certainly felt like they aggressively push things to add to the orders, especially considering things like naan cost extra per instance, rather than included. It's very slyly recommended, such as repeating what drink each individual would like to order more than once despite asking for water already. Furthermore, I asked for the check 3 times, and they literally started placing the dessert menus at our table as well as asking about coffee/tea each time at each instance for the check, knowing at this point they would likely charge for it.

Overall I strongly recommend against this place at this time. The food is not any better than most other Indian restaurants, but it's clear they really deconstruct their entrees and try to charge for every component that's typically included anywhere else. The decor and presentation of this place screams high-rise restaurant, especially if you peruse their drink menu. However, the food experience here is clearly equivalent to any other $$ price...

We visited the restaurant on a Saturday and the place was bustling. Thank God we had a reservation else it would have been tough to get a spot.

As we entered we were seated and water was poured to our glasses and menus were handed.

We made our selections of appetisers, mocktails and main course.

The restaurant is beautifully decorated and looks royal, unfortunately our experience wasn’t.

Our drinks and starters came. There was a mix up where we were given one extra drink. We didn’t mind and we shared it across the table.

As starters were coming, we found the quantities were less compared to what we see in most Indian restaurants. Usually the person taking the orders will suggest and weigh in to our selection and share the quantity after looking at the crowd but we had no such interactions. Had there been a suggestion, it would have helped us.

We ordered chicken curry, my wife asked the waiter, how much will be the quantity. The answer was, it depends on the chef! It can come with 2 or 4 or even 6 pieces. There was a choice of half and full plate, we ordered full.

As soon as we finished our plate, they were being taken away. I understand that is how fine dine works but it felt like there was a sense of urgency. Even though someone was still eating, they started cleaning the table around then.

We asked for something at the end, and the person who took our order said “ you guys drink alcohol?”. I mean, you took our order, you know we didn’t order any such.

In the end, one my friends asked where the restroom is and he was asked “ are you coming here first time or regular”

Finally, we asked for the bill and we paid. We were given a slice of cheesecake. The waiter said it was on the house and that the manager gives it to everyone.

This was our whole experience. We felt rushed and we did not like the service.

Coming to the food. The food was not royal neither was the presentation. The mutton in the biriyani was succulent and soft. The aam panna was not authentic aam panna.

No complaints on the food but it was the hospitality that...

NEVER take an Uber there. No free dessert can fix the sour taste a rude manager’s words can leave in your mouth.

Food was ok: chicken biryani was delicious, keema mutter came out to the table without salt so not an issue that required sending a dish back, chicken makhani was also good. Naan wasn’t too enjoyable, but gobi manchurian was fantastic. Small portions as compared to other Indian places, with higher prices. Expect to spend $40pp for a decent meal. Excellent waiters, HORRIBLY RUDE MANAGER. Manager’s behaviour ruined what could’ve been an amazing meal.

Came in with 3 other friends after a long day of running errands on a Saturday. We had one cup that used to have ice cream in it, and the cup also had another empty can of coke and 2 used paper napkins in it. So while in the hand, it was still one cup and not like a giant bag of trash from our kitchen.

When we entered the owner/manager who was supposed to seat us says “we don’t accept outside food”. I clarified that we just wanted to trash it, and he said “we don’t accept outside trash either”. So I had to go back to the car to put our trash in it, because the owner also assured us that they had zero trash cans outside the restaurant or in the parking lot.

Just put trash cans in the parking lot at least, that’s bare minimum especially if you have a giant parking lot in a suburb with no other establishment at a walking distance that’ll take your trash.

We were lucky to have driven there because if we had to take another Uber just to toss a cup, we probably trash the idea of eating here too.

He spent the rest of the time trying to make small talk. We found it unnecessary for them to send us another dish of keema, because I’d explicitly said that it only lacked salt and that we’d all eaten it by adding salt to it ourselves. The manager also sent out free dessert at the end, but the trash debacle left such a sour taste in our mouths no...