The Royal Punjabi — Restaurant in Norwich

Before I start writing a novella here, I feel like it's necessary to share that I personally call The Royal Punjabi "Fast Indian Food". Does this mean the food or the restaurant itself is low quality? God, no, absolutely not.

A lot if not all of the dishes are kept in containers explicitly meant for take out, such as styrofoam or plastic deli containers (and as a side note if you don't already know it, do NOT throw those plastic containers out. They're reusable!), even if you're dining in. This isn't a bad thing! If you get too full dining in, you can just close the leftovers, get up and go. I've never had a bad experience with the food itself, it is always FULL of flavor and spices that you'd expect. Seriously, even the tomato soup blew me away with how complex it was. The menu itself is expansive, and if you or someone you know isn't too keen on Indian, they explicitly also serve wings as a staple on their menu; I've yet to try them myself because I'm primarily there for the Indian food, but I've had an eye on them for a hot minute. [UPDATE May 2024] The wings are 100% worth it. I wouldn't say they're perfect (as many other parts of this restaurant are), but damn, are they good.

Service and atmosphere is simple. You order up front, the staff are kind but not overbearing, and inside the building itself lends to your eye wandering around to check things out. No real complaints, at worst you could make a case over the fact the bathroom seems to serve as a storage room, but I really don't mind since it isn't crowded, nor is it— or any part of the restaurant you see for that matter— dirty.

I don't have much critique to talk about otherwise, since I don't think The Royal Punjabi is really meant to be taken with a magnifying glass like that. It's quick and tasty Indian food with a side of some other foodstuffs you can take a gander at and order when you just want to indulge. Or maybe you're intoxicated and hampering for something that'll fill you up. I'm not judging either way. I won't hesitate to say I am just a SUCKER for this place. I got a sample of Jalebi one time and I was delighted even if I was already extremely full, just because of the fact I was offered a sample at all! I get surprised at seeing new desserts written with sharpie on paper at the register because I'm curious. Stuff that makes you smile from the love for the little things in life.

It's nothing intentionally trying to blow your mind. Just a down-to-earth human experience to suspend your disbelief and enjoy yourself with some damn good food. And brother? I'm...

Wow, what a surprise in Norwich. We went for the lunch buffet. It was nicely priced at $8.99 and they have a punch card program. Get 7 stamps, get your 8th lunch buffet free. And you should get it because you're going to want to come back again and again. The food was delicious, fresh and authentic. The buffet was replenished often and it had a great variety. They had a nice romaine, tomatoes and fresh veggie salad, mango chutney and a cold pickled salad. Yummy thin and crispy Pappad (lentil wafers with cumin) and fresh hot soft naan bread to soak up all those flavorful sauces. The hot food section had a delicious golden chicken curry, hot Indian wings, luscious chicken tikka masala, biryani basmati rice, a cabbage vegetable dish I'd never had before and it was just awesome. As a matter of fact I had another dish here I'd never tried before, and I've been to a great many Indian restaurants in CT, N.Y, Boston, even FL. This dish was a Soy curry. A golden brown concoction with a delicious flavor. It had soy balls like small little fluffy but dense texture meatballs. At first I thought that they were meat, but I had to check the nicely labeled buffet. It was mixed with tender veggies and it was quite good not what you'd expect a vegetarian meatball. There was a great selection of vegetarian dishes on the buffet like dal makhani a lentil dish, channa masala a chick pea dish and a vegetable and bean dish all tasty. For dessert, sweet gulab jamun(deep fried milk donut balls.) The host explained that the buffet menu adds new dishes and changes it up some to keep it fresh for those frequent diners. The food was not overly spicy. They do this on purpose so you can spice it up if you like it hot, but not die if hot spice is not for you. Ambiance was bright and airy. Big windows and good table set ups. The host and cashier is up front as soon as you enter and was very nice and attentive. The owner and cook would come out often from the kitchen bearing hot fresh steaming food often. So check it out and be...

So we came here on the night of the Norwich light parade and had an amazing meal and time, but then a week later we ordered pickup and that's when things changed. We ordered the food and was told 25 minutes, ok no problem. We showed up 30 mins later and then were told 15 more minutes....but it only takes about 20 minutes to make, since that's what I took the first time we ordered the exact same dish??? So we waited, and waited, and at this point it was about an hour after the initial order.

Someone else had gone in to pickup and I was waiting parked in the car (thankfully there's about 10 spots around the place). At the hour mark I went into the store and asked them to refund us, since it was obviously not done. They didn't want to at first (of course) saying that it was almost done and then after a few other people came out from the back and me waiting another 5 minutes they finally refunded me.

I fully understand that people get busy, but it seems like they just forgot to put our order in, that's the only explanation for a 20 minute dish still not being done at 1h 5m.

For the record the food was sensational. The first time we ate here we had 4 of us and everyone universally praised what they had.

I would eat here again, I guess I would just recommend that if it's busy, tell people. Don't say 25 minutes if you need an hour. I get that many people would say nevermind, and no one wants to lose business, but what you did made it so much worse.

I would eat here again, and plan to give them a chance at redemption soon.

Update: I've since given them several chances and while the food quality is usually good, they have been consistently terrible with their service and time. Of the 5 timeswe have come back, only one of those have they not made us wait 10+ minutes longer than they told us. Just be...