Royal India
10263 S. 1300 East, Sandy ; 801-572-6123
(see
map)
Delicious southern Indian cuisine in a clean restaurant filled with Indian murals and art.
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Cuisine: Indian
Price: $$
Hours: M-Th, 4:30-9:30 p.m.; F-S, 4:30-10 p.m.
Liquor: Beer & wine
Corkage: $ 6.95
Reservations: Accepted
Accepts:    
Website: http://www.royalindiautah.com
Recommended Dishes: Butter chicken, pakora fritters, samosas, lamb vindaloo, flatbreads, dosas.
October 21, 2009
The quietly consistent Royal India
By Vanessa Chang
Sandy » Whoever says food and dining don't matter in a world of newsworthy upheaval is obviously a bad eavesdropper.
Take one evening at Sandy's Royal India. Behind me, one family discussed their health-care options. Self-employed dad outlined what his daughter's choices were now that she would be going to college. He fortified his points with oversized bites of chicken coconut kurma ($12.95). The daughter listened glumly as she reached for more of her sizzling chicken tikka ($13.95). I eavesdropped during the awkward bouts of silence, punctuated by the clang of the serving spoons against the basmati rice bowl.
Across the dining room, an empty-nest couple ordered a second round of the warm, teardrop-shaped naan ($1.25). The delicious flatbread in their mouths cushioned the harsh words coming out. "His mom hasn't heard from him for a couple of weeks," the husband said. "He's stationed somewhere in Afghanistan."
Even the setting itself isn't a bubble from economic reality. It was quiet that dinner. Too quiet. Owner-manager, Emanuel, noted that business is down 40 percent from the same time last year. "We're trying to stay afloat," he said with an upbeat but cautious smile. Sadly, the characteristic decline is ubiquitous among restaurants as consumers tighten their belts and forego the masala for a box of mac 'n cheese. For Royal India, too, the increased competition from new Indian eateries dilutes an already small contingent of curry-lovers.
Still, whether for solace, company or a reprieve from kitchen duty, there are those who eat out. For anyone considering spending money on a restaurant, here's my plug for frequenting local businesses.
Especially the quietly consistent Royal India. It's one of the veterans among the Indian restaurant community, extending its aromatic influence into Sandy and north into Bountiful. With a judicious and balanced touch to seasoning and the gorgeous textures of many dishes, Royal India's flavors are lighter on the stomach, but just as intense on the palate.
Like many suburban restaurants, Royal India calls a neighborhood strip mall home. Even as neighboring businesses have come and gone, the restaurant is still serving dinner Monday through Saturday.
Take-out patrons sit in the waiting area. The straightforward dining room is neither gaudy nor sumptuous, but just fine for a reasonably priced Indian repast.
After a while, the servers along with Emanuel become familiar faces offering recommendations when the menu seems overwhelming. Two people could easily share any one of the dishes. Add an order of the butter naan ($2.50) to supplement the complementary basmati rice (speckled nicely with cumin seeds and ghee).
Traditionally, two starches is overdoing it. But in hard times, I need comfort. Plus, they both do well to catch the luscious sauces.
Butter chicken ($12.95) is a universally friendly dish, even for people who say they don't like Indian food. It's creamy, has tender pieces of meat and in Royal India's case, isn't slicked with excessive fat. In the vindaloo's ($11.95 to $13.95), tangy scarlet sauce lightens tender potatoes and equally soft chunks of lamb.
There are plenty of vegetarian dishes on the menu, most of them delicious to satisfy carnivores, including palak paneer ($10.95), which features soft morsels of the fresh Indian cheese that alone tastes something like tofu. But when it's swimming in a luscious pool of chopped spinach, cream, and just enough spices to liven things up, it's worthy of the praise reserved for the spinach sides of expensive steak houses. Daal maharani ($9.95) defies blandness, and I like to pair the creamy dish of soft cooked lentils, allium and tomatoes with naan as a somewhat unorthodox dip.
I've ordered entrées as shared meals or in the daal 's case as a companion to my bread. I've had appetizers like the jumbled onion slices in the crunchy bajji ($4.95) or the crisp vegetable pakora (fritters $4.95) as main meals. Samosas -- deep fried pockets of curried potatoes or ground lamb with peas -- are hearty enough for a light meal.
One of the less conventional finds on the menu is the South Indian Delights section. Dosas ($7.95-$11.95) are essentially oversized crêpes made with a batter of lentil and rice flour. As anyone who's had a gluey excuse of a French crêpe knows, it's hard to get the right crispness to the edges, especially with something so large. But Royal India's lacy edges are rolled and served plain with a drizzle of clarified butter or stuffed with savory curried potatoes or ground lamb. Each comes with a bowl of the brown mustard seed-spiked sambar soup. Aromatic, rounded in flavor and at the same time light, it's a perfect match for the substantial crepe.
Yes, I just spent the last few hundred words delving fully into food and nothing but. Yes, I began with a declaration that food and dining are entwined in the news of our lives. But the other fantastic, convenient thing about dining is that sometimes food can shift your focus. It's hard to be depressed when you see a 4-year-old with sticky lips dive into the chewy kulfi ice cream and royal mango mousse cake ($6.95). It's a momentary, fortifying reprieve before you step out Royal India's doors and back into the worrying pockets of life.
Tribune's rating system
Overall rating
1 star Good
2 stars Very good
3 stars Excellent
4 stars Extraordinary
Entree price
$ Entree under $10
$$ $10-$18
$$$ $18-$25
$$$$ Above $25
Restaurant Noise
1 bell Quiet (under 65 decibles)
2 bells Can talk easily (65-70)
3 bells Talking somewhat difficult (70-75)
4 bells Raised voices (75-80)
A bomb Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)
The Tribune covers the cost of all meals at reviewed restaurants. Star ratings are based on a minimum of two visits. Ratings are updated continually based on at least one revisit. There is no connection between reviews and advertising.
January 4, 2006
Follow your nose to Royal India's cuisine
By Mary Brown Malouf
The fragrance of cardamom, garlic, ginger and onion flows incongruously out the door of Royal India, the most commonplace strip mall storefront restaurant you can imagine.
Indian cuisine is based on aromatics in a way that no Western food is. The complex seasonings are layered in such a way that it's hard to tell where your nose ends and your taste buds begin. The word "masala," found throughout Indian menus, refers to the blend of spices -- used by every cook but with specific proportions unique to each cook -- that defines Indian cooking.
Because, like most Americans, I have a foreshortened view of the world, I mistakenly refer generally to "Indian food." Never mind that India is a subcontinent of more than a million square miles with many diverse regional cuisines. Here, it's all "Indian food."
Even so, most Indian restaurants in the United States serve a kind of Amer-Indian cuisine that has no specific roots or history. Like "continental" cuisine, which lumped all of Europe's fine foods together into one menu without a country, Indian food in the United States is a separate cuisine unto itself. And however authentic it may or may not be, it is generally delicious even to meat-and-potatoes palates.
Royal India (with a location in Bountiful and the one we visited in Sandy) is part of this parageography -- the menu features the mix of biryanis, curries and tandoori meats and breads Americans expect from an Indian restaurant. And it didn't disappoint.
Garlic naan ($1.95) was blistered and piping hot when it arrived at our table straight from the tandoor, the traditional Indian clay oven. Paratha ($2.50), the whole wheat bread layered like pastry, had perhaps left the tandoor too soon; it was slightly doughy. But the slight sweetness of kulcha ($2.50), filled with soft-cooked onions, and the full-on sugary peshwari naan ($3.95), stuffed with cashews, raisins and coconut, made a wonderful counterpoint to our spicy main dishes.
Chicken thighs, marinated in yogurt and the spices that dye it a brilliant red, came sizzling to the table in a tangle of fried onions and garlic ($10.95). A "chef's specialty," pudina chicken ($11.95) offered chicken chunks marinated and braised in a pungent mix of mint, ginger and garlic. Both came with a separate dish of steamed basmati rice.
When it comes to food, perhaps the most significant difference between Indians and Americans is that most Indians are vegetarian while most Americans are not. Amer-Indian menus tend to cater to protein-centric American tastes, so every dish is built around beef, lamb or chicken.
Biryanis are the result of rice-based Indian dishes meeting with luxurious Persian cooking. The collision of those two cultures resulted in Mughlai cuisine, the richest style of Indian cooking. Layer upon layer of flavor -- spices such as clove, cinnamon, coriander and bay along with onions, ginger and garlic -- weave savory chunks of meat (at Royal India, we had the lamb) with perfumey basmati rice.
The restaurant's curries -- we tried the vegetable ($8.95) and the shrimp ($11.95) -- were unexciting only by comparison. Another Indian menu classic, chicken tikka masala ($10.95) was flavored with many of the same spices as the curry, but with tomatoes and sweet bell pepper strips added; the dish was softened with cream, making the sauce the color of tomato soup and feeling like velvet in the mouth.
Delightfully and more unusually for an Amer-Indian restaurant, there is also a separate section of southern Indian dishes on the menu at Royal India; this is where the kitchen really shines.
Dosas are the most famous south Indian dish and why they aren't as popular as tacos, I cannot understand. They are often described as bread -- terribly misleading, especially to North Americans; sometimes they are compared to pancakes or crepes. But the texture of a dosa is unique. The batter, made from rice and lentil flour, is cooked until crisp and shiny on one side, then flipped and cooked quickly on the other before being wrapped around a filling and served with several chutneys or dal (a lentil soup). The result is sort of like a long soft taco.
Masala dosa, filled with seasoned potatoes, came as part of our south Indian combination plate II ($9.95); it overflowed the plate by several inches on each side and came with masala bonda, fried potato appetizers. In keema dosa ($9.95), we met the same crisp, rolled dough embracing a filling of ground lamb, peas, onions and, yes, masala.
Even Indian desserts are complexly seasoned -- gulab jamoon ($2.95), doughnut-hole sized spheres of fried pastry, were soaked in rose-scented sugar syrup, and the kulfi ($3.95), housemade ice cream, was chock full of pistachios, cashews and cardamom.
The smell isn't the only thing that makes you smile when you enter Royal India. Probably the first face you'll see is the beaming countenance of the owner, Daniel K. Shanthakumar. He showed us to our table, delivered bread, cleared empty plates and generally assisted our serious but not very assiduous server and busboy. Shanthakumar's restaurant, filled with Indian murals and art, is clean, well-lit, but a rather plain cafe.
Seen through the intoxicating aromas of the food, though, Royal India seems positively exotic.
Tribune's rating system
Overall rating
1 star Good
2 stars Very good
3 stars Excellent
4 stars Extraordinary
Entree price
$ Entree under $10
$$ $10-$18
$$$ $18-$25
$$$$ Above $25
Restaurant Noise
1 bell Quiet (under 65 decibles)
2 bells Can talk easily (65-70)
3 bells Talking somewhat difficult (70-75)
4 bells Raised voices (75-80)
A bomb Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)
The Tribune covers the cost of all meals at reviewed restaurants. Star ratings are based on a minimum of two visits. Ratings are updated continually based on at least one revisit. There is no connection between reviews and advertising.
January 8, 1999
Royal India A Spicy Successor To Erik's
By Anne Wilson
SANDY -- This is a good news-bad news story about suburban strip-mall dining. The bad news is that Erik's, which took strip-mall dining to a new level, closed. The good news: Royal India moved into Erik's vacated space.
Why is this good news? Because partners Emmanual Shanthakumar and Gopal Thevar know Indian food, are gracious hosts and keep their restaurant spotless. They are off to an impressive start.
The look of the place hasn't changed much. It still has the light walls, wooden tables, glass block and neon sign that matched Erik's creative cuisine at its start 10 years ago.
The few Indian objects scattered about by the new owners are an attempt to create an Eastern ambience. There's work to be done.
Shanthakumar learned to cook in restaurants in his native India and the United States, where he has lived for 10 years. Although this is the first restaurant Shanthakumar has owned, there is no doubt he and Thevar have mastered the components of Indian cuisine -- lamb, chicken, shrimp and vegetables, seasoned with a wealth of spices.
You know most of them: ginger, garlic, cumin, coriander, cloves, cardamom, turmeric, curry and coconut milk. Others may not be familiar by name or taste -- tamarind and ajowan, for example. If you are unsure of anything on the menu, just ask. The wait staff will gladly offer suggestions.
And there is a lot to consider on the Royal India menu -- the bread selections number more than a dozen. Is there a vegetarian in your party? No problem. Another dozen dishes are meatless.
You may want to begin with the mixed appetizers ($4.95), a sampler with vegetable samosa (deep-fried dough stuffed with seasoned potatoes and peas), plus chicken and vegetable pakora. The pakora, strips of chicken or vegetables that are battered and deep-fried, come with two smooth chutneys -- tamarind and mint.
Tamarind, the fruit of a tall shade tree, yields a sour-sweet pulp that is used in East Indian cuisine much as lemon juice is in the West. It lends a tang to the chutney, a plesantly pungent condiment for the pakora. The chicken was tender and more tasty than the vegetables, although everything on the mixed appetizer plate was delicious.
Other appetizers include keema samosa, dough stuffed with ground lamb and deep fried ($2.50), and pappad, crisp, mildly seasoned lentil wafers ($1.75).
Several dishes are highlighted as chef specialties. Of those, definitely try the chicken coconut kurma, a slightly sweet and delectable mix of chicken chunks, onions, tomatoes and coconut milk flavored with ground cashews and raisins ($9.95). All entrees come with flavorful basmati rice.
Shanthakumar and Thevar imported a tandoor oven for the restaurant, which allows them to cook authentic tandoori dishes and flatbreads. The tandoor is a round clay oven heated by a charcoal fire on its floor. While food grills, flat breads are pressed on the side of the oven and cooked in minutes.
Supplement your meal with this bread, called naan, which comes plain, buttered or with garlic ($1.25 to $1.75).
Entrees cooked in the tandoor range from chicken thighs ($7.95) to jumbo shrimp ($13.50) and lamb kebobs ($9.50). The shrimp, marinated in spices, came in a thick red sauce with chunks of onions. It had a slight smoky flavor but was otherwise mildly seasoned.
If you like curry, try the lamb ($8.50), cooked with onions, tomatoes, ginger and garlic and seasoned to your order. But even the ``hot'' curry seemed tempered for Americans' less hardy palates.
Vegetarian dishes feature everything from eggplant and cauliflower to spinach and lentils. The spinach selection, palak paneer ($7.50), is prepared with Royal India's homemade cheese, cream and herbs. It has a creamy texture and wonderful flavor that goes well with anything on the menu. The bengan bhartha ($7.50) sounded tantalizing to an eggplant lover -- tandoor-roasted eggplant pulp cooked with peas, cream and spices.
Desserts at Royal India are equally exotic. One of the most interesting is rasmalai ($3), a dessert composed of a cheese patty crumbled in sweetened milk, garnished with almonds served in India on special occasions.
It is an interesting contrast in textures -- medium-hard but mild cheese, crumbled in syrupy milk. Definitely different.
The beverage menu includes juices, yogurt/fruit blends, Indian tea and soft drinks. There is a limited selection of wines. But if you imbibe, definitely try the Indian beers. There's nothing better to temper the heat of a curry.
Royal India
10263 S. 1300 East, Sandy; 572-6123
Hours: Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; dinner, Monday through Thursday, 5-9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5-10 p.m.
Reservations: Yes
Prices: Moderate
Wheelchair Access: Yes
Credit Cards: All major
Liquor: Yes
Takeout: Yes
Child's Menu: No
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