Mystic Royal Restaurant — Restaurant in Stonington

We'd read the stellar reviews of this place and thought it was time to give it a try. We've spent a good amount of time in the UK with amazing Indian cuisine on offer and frankly everything around here (Mystic and environs) had always fallen far short. So we took the plunge and ordered pick-up tonight.

We asked for 7:15 pickup. No problem, we were told. Showed up at 7:15 and were told "Sorry, it will be another 10 minutes...we ran out of rice." Fair enough, I waited in the car and did some evening work. The fellow came out of the restaurant to invite me in about 15 minutes later, indicating my order was ready. Great!

When I went in I was told "Sorry about the wait, we did get rice to complete your order but we have none of the Paratha that you ordered. We have a food truck too and everything is messed up with it tonight; the lady who answers the phone is there with my children fixing the issue now."

Good-naturedly, I suggested as long as I hadn't been charged, no bread was no problem. I then reminded him that the website indicated a 5% discount for pickup. He rejoined, "Only if you are paying by cash." I wasn't; I did not have enough cash on hand to complete the transaction. I payed by card and received no 5% discount, even with the offer on the website that did NOT specify form of payment for the deal,

My wife was understandably perturbed that I was arriving 30 minutes after I left (we only live 1/2 mile away) and once she discovered they had been unable to fulfill our order, made me wait and then didn't honor the discount they had offered on the website-with no caveats regarding payment, she called to discuss the situation. She got the woman on the phone with whom she'd placed the order and summed up the issues. She received the expected "This is not acceptable. This should not have been your first experience with us; the food is awesome and I will tell the family about your experience, at the end of our next conversation, you will be satisfied."

Good, responsible reaction. My wife had told her simply crediting the card for the advertised 5% for pick-up deal would make us happy; instead my wife received the sharp end of a short temper. The fellow with whom I dealt while at the restaurant (looks by pics on the website to be the owner/chef's husband) had the temerity to call back on my wife's number and tell her off for complaining! "He KNEW there was no bread and that he had to wait for rice. Is the food good? The food is good, no?"

Young man, it is almost irrelevant how good the food is when the reaction to difficulty is to call back, denounce a grievance, tell the customer they are wrong and never actually LISTEN to how the customer views your missteps.

Onto the food ("Was the food good?"): food was subpar. The chicken in the Wedding Chicken Roast was overcooked, most likely due to the last minute discovery there was no rice. Running out of rice at an Indian Restaurant is unusual, one would expect. As the result of a last minute scramble to procure more, the rice offerings advertised on the website menu--"5-ingredient aromatic kalizira rice" for the Chicken Roast entree, "5-ingredient white Basmati rice" for the Beef Curry with Roasted Potato--turned into "one-ingredient white rice." Regarding the beef entree, one of the pieces was simply a large cube of fat.

The young man allowed that they were experiencing problems with their food truck which was out on an engagement. My guess is that the family is well-meaning, but overextended. Their food truck business has taken off and has left the restaurant orphaned. Might be time to procure an additional truck, close down the restaurant, and...

Had a very bad experience here. I wish I would be able to give a lower rating than one star. We arrived there at 8 pm for dinner and waited for nearly 10 mins to be seated without luck. There were only 2 tables for indoor seating of which 1 table was occupied. The outside seating area was deserted. When my husband looked in through the service door he saw 3 people inside and decided to knock on the door to get some attention. Even though the restaurant closes at 9 pm we were told that they would not be able to accommodate us. When we asked whether we could atleast order for takeout, the chef said that she would be able to begin cooking our order only after 45 mins and hence would not be able to do that too since there would not be enough time left till closing time. We had seen great reviews of this restaurant and decided to ignore all the great eateries on Main Street to be able to eat here. Lucky may be those people whom the restaurant owners wish to serve and who have written those great reviews. All I can say is that one needs to be able to eat to be able to write rave reviews. We did not want to walk all the way back to Main Street, so ended of ordering online from the Wokery. The food from there was piping hot...

We had a lovely time at Mystic Royal Restaurant. There is outdoor seating and indoor seating. A clean unisex restroom. There’s outside parking, and there’s pavements so that you can walk in too. I liked the personal touch on the artwork on the walls. The food is delicious here. Beautiful Bangladeshi cuisine. I would definitely recommend the Achari Beef, the railway rice dish which had vegetables, chicken and shrimp. We also had the tandoori shrimp. The mango lassi was amazing. You can tell that each dish was made with care, because the food was mouthwatering. If you want genuine ‘Indian’ food - it is worth every penny. The restaurant owner was very attentive and a great hostess. Come and support this local female owned business. I look forward to trying out the Mystic Royal food trucks too. The manager/chef Sheuli told us, the truck is in Groton soon. Can’t wait for our next visit....