The Royal Indian Cuisine (Lobongo Kabab & Cafe) HALAL — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Let me preface this by saying I love Indian food, I love tiny hole in the wall joints, and I love leaving positive, honest reviews. Unfortunately, due to all these things I have to tell you this place is terrible. The food is…bland? How do you make Indian food bland? I am confused by this. Let’s start with the food, since that’s the most important element of any restaurant: The paneer cubes were hard, dry, and overcooked both in our mutter paneer and for the appetizer of paneer pakora. The mutter paneer was rubbery cheese cubes in brown mush with frozen peas. I have eaten Indian packets from the store that I have added water to accidentally with more flavor than this. It’s like magic! They somehow turned a recipe for success (indian food, a normally delicious cuisine!) into sad flavorless calories. The service? Non existent! This place works to make you feel unwanted. It took 3 minutes before anyone came out from the back to seat us. Once they did, they were gruff and annoyed throughout. Then they ignored us once they dropped the calories for sustenance and not joy on the table until we stood up to leave holding cash in our hand. The ambience was also not in the building. We ate in silence to the sound of a kitchen being cleaned and swept. There are many great Indian food places in Philadelphia (love Tiffin! Highly recommend!) but this is not one of them....

I’ve eaten here before and had a good experience. The chicken tikka was standard, which is why I decided to return and try something new. It was late at night, so I asked the manager for a recommendation. He confidently suggested the beef curry, emphasizing the freshness of the meat.

Unfortunately, the dish was extremely disappointing. It was overly oily, and the beef itself was clearly poor quality. It was filled with tough, inedible organ tissue, tubes, and gristle that made it nearly impossible to chew (see attached photo). It felt less like a recommendation and more like an attempt to offload the worst cuts of meat.

Hoping to give the place another chance, I returned the next day to share my concerns and maybe try a different dish. However, the customer service made the experience even worse. Rather than offering any apology or even a small goodwill discount, I was simply told to “come back when the manager is here.”

If you're looking for quality food and respectful service, I recommend Curry Leaf just around the corner. It's also no frills, but with much better food and a staff that actually cares about the customer experience. I won’t be...

I ordered online, Sunday, March 23rd. When I got to the restaurant about 9:15pm, they said that they didn't have my order. So, I called Beyond menu customer service and she said she would call the restaurant and call me right back. I believe the owner came out, and asked me if I had the right restaurant. So I left, the man I believed was the owner, came outside to get me, while the lady from customer service called me, to say that, they would make my food. When I got back inside, he told me to sit down, it would be a few minutes. It was 9:40 and they close at 10pm, but my food was smelling really good. So, when the man came out of the kitchen to hand me my food, he had this big smile on his face, like he knew that food was good and that I would be back. He was correct! It tasted just as good as it smelled. I ordered the chili chicken and chicken biryani and it was the best I have tasted. There is an Indian restaurant near my house, it's good, but it's not better than Royal indian cuisine. I will...