Royal India Cuisine

We ordered for pick up and it was ready in 30 minutes. There were 3 of us and we spent approximately $ 60 for more food than we could handle. Definitely worth the money we paid.
Each dish we ordered mild and it was perfect. I do enjoy spice, but it was a decent way to get a full flavour and test their specific heat levels. I could comfortably handle a medium here.
For our meal we ordered 2 meat dishes, 1 cheese/​vegetarian, 2 orders of rice, and 2 orders of naan bread. We could have done with one less rice. It is a full round foil container. If you are big eaters this is a perfect amount.
The staff was very friendly and the service was prompt.

My engagement party was held here, about 170 people came. Everyone loved it! The food was delicious, the staff were respectful and nice. Thank you for allowing our special day to be the best ever!

Excellent buffet with a great variety of dishes. Staff were friendly and helpful for our large group. Will definitely be back for more naan and butter chicken!

Stopped in to grab some take-​out buffet.
They had a private party going on and their buffet was a custom vegetarian only selection.
The person told me I was welcome to grab whatever I wanted, as the food was already made and they would not eat it all. But he apologized for the lack of meat options. I didn’t mind and decided to be adventurous and try a bit of everything.
I was given some naan and after filling my to-​go box was on my way. Good price and I appreciated that they let me grab some of their food though it was meant for a private gathering.
The items I had were all okay, but nothing was amazing. I love zaag paneer, veggie korma, etc. though they had none of these on offer. All the dishes I ate tasted really quite similar and the naan was slightly burned.
I appreciated the gesture but was not a huge fan of what I ate.
I would come back again try their normal buffet another time though as it seemed to be a totally legit Indian place and the staff were all very polite.

Went in for the lunch buffet. $ 19.95 after tax I think is pretty fair. The food was 9/​10, service was great as well, but kindof felt a bit depressing inside and dark. Might be in need of a small upgrade. ⁵⁄₅ if it was a bit lighter in the restaurant, but the food was great. Check it out!

This is our favourite place for Indian. Lots of selection and the food is always amazing. Lots of saucy meats to dip the naan in. My little ones love it too!

The only reason theyre getting a 3 star is because the food was good, however the service is unprofessional and they take a VERY long time for everything else.

Really like the décor, service and food, just about in any order ;)
One of the bigger Indian restos ive been to, as these guys been in business for awhile, and do lots of private parties, catering, buffets and delivery.
Being in the dt core sure helps too, located right below a major office building.
Was there last year for a biz trip, and can vouch for their butter chicken.
i just remember also the comfortable lounge chairs, felt like a king ;)
Across there’s a parking lot so the resto wil reimburse you $ 2

Went there for a friend’s birthday first time, awesome place loads of space. They had us in the back area which was great since it was tucked away and private.
… from the street this place looks tiny but man is it ever huge! …
They were super accommodating we had a large party and our friend had hired a belly dancer and the staff and owner were sooo helpful and welcoming with the festivities we had or requested.
The food was good — my only complaint was that some of it was cooler than expected temperature wise. Would go back again.

After hearing ad upon ad on the radio, I finally decided to give Royal India a try for Sunday Brunch one day. I really wasn’t in the mood for eggs, and heck, how often do I let myself indulge in butter chicken. I’m glad I decided to go that Sunday, as parked cars was fairly sparse. Right across from a city lot with discounted parking on weekends, I would hate to go here during the week when parking rates are at a premium.
My first impressions was that this was a pretty large place at the heart of downtown, with a HUGE buffet. Easily able to seat a few hundred, it was a little quiet at the time, but it looked like it wouldn’t be so for much longer (there was a really long table of 20+ being prepared). And getting things started was easy enough, with a polite enough server just walking up and filling up our cool metal mugs with water. However, nowhere did I see at that time (or on their website), a price list virtually anywhere or a menu for that matter. Still, I said, what the heck, it’s a sunday brunch buffet, how much could it be.
Now as for the buffet food, like most of the indian places in town, I find that their vindaloo really is set for «helpless white person» levels. Honestly, for something that’s supposed to be hot enough to roast your mouth alive, I’ve had watered down tobasco with 3 times the heat. Most of the rest of the food had the general flavours, and the butter chicken was actually fairly decent. Still, nothing had hit outta the park, but that would have been a bit of a surprise if it did.
There really isn’t anything of especial note, but still, I did my best to try everything (and probably paid for that later that night). Service was a little slow as I had literally piled about 3 plates over 40 min of eating before they were collected. As they just left me a pitcher of water as opposed to a waitress coming around to pour, they really didn’t even need to notice if I needed anything at all.
Now, at the end, I finally got the bill, and had a bit of sticker shock. It came out to over $ 20 a person for the basic meal, plus the drinks (fairly pricy mango juice it turns out) and so on. I paid the amount and left a small tip (for not collecting my plates or even checking to see if I hadn’t had a heart attack or say hi), but that’ll teach me for not insisting on finding out that they’re also the most expensive indian buffet in the city as well.
Will I go back? Maybe. I didn’t have any problems with the food, just the service and the price a little. Still, it was an acceptable indian buffet and probably worth a trip back one of these days.

Pricey for an Indian buffet. You can expect great tasting indian food.

We strolled in here on a Friday Night after having taken a random stroll from Kensington, the new Chinese Finger Trap bridge (I made that one up feel free to use it), and the sketchy Prince’s Island Park (it’s so ugly when theres no green and flowers!) and the armpit of Downtown Calgary.
Me and my buddy immediately jumped into the buffet. They had a wide variety all arranged in a line appropriate from appetizers, to various curries, veggie dishes, and tandoori Chicken, to the dessert area. I’m going to be honest, I only know a little bit about Indian food and often can barely tell what is in my meal. I just shovel all that spiced goodness up with Pita bread. Just kidding I know its NAAN.
The price is up there with usual buffet fare. Unfortunately I ended up ordering their Lassi which I didn’t really need for such a heavy meal so with tip I ended up dropping $ 25 even.
²⁄₃₀ — Underdog Challenge

$ 18 Indian dinner buffet… how can you go wrong? They have a decent selection including all the standard Indian buffet eats.
The only issue I had was the $ 3 buffet coke…$ 3 for a coke?! The expensive pop aside, I will be returning here.

Royal India — downtown has two distinct personalities. The lunch buffet is crowded and nothing special — unless quantity is your thing. Dinner is a different story. The weeknights that I’ve been there have been nearly deserted. Tonight for example, my dinner guest and I were the only two patrons. Even with that «crowd,» service is slow and nothing special (but usually friendly). The Vindaloo however is excellent in my experience (and I eat a far amount of Vindaloo). I order it very spicy here and while all is relative, it isn’t the hottest I’ve had by a long shot but the flavors are rich and the spices do as they should, enhance the flavors and not overwhelm them. Other than a nondescript Yellow Tail Riesling and poppadoms, I can’t say that I’ve ever had anything here — no reason to in my mind.
Worth a visit but be proactive on your dinner service! As another reviewer said, I’d go for 3.5 stars if I could. A little more atmosphere (people) for dinner and better service would definitely raise the rating.
BTW — I am #glutenfree and have never had a problem here…

I kept telling at Unilocal party it’s one of the places that u can visit of those Indian restaurants in calgary, but why didn’t I review yet? Here it goes. When it comes to downtown, I can suggest this as one of the good places for buffet of Indian restaurants.
Good that we have lunch buffet here over weekend too.(Saturday there was, but not too sure about sunday.)
I would want to rate it 3.5 but as I have an option of either 3 or 4, i go with 4.
What makes it a 4 star in downtown?
The place is pretty big. Very clean and colorful. You will get to have water in copper coated glasses (Indian style). Tandoori chicken is really good outta here. I usually dont taste lamb curry, but got to taste here and it was really good that I opted to taste it again.
Also they have pakoda, samosa, salad and all as usual menu as other indian restaurants.
But remember to save some space in ur stomach for the desserts. Even if you dont have any space try to stuff it in. Never miss them. Gulab jamoon!!! Oh no!!! mouth started watering already… So smooth, hot, delicious, and fruit custard, kheer, carrot sweet were good too.
Why did I leave the rest of the stars?
Little costly. Like it goes around $ 18 for lunch buffet. Not all dishes are excellent. Some were just upto the mark. It is a typical north Indian food. While Raj palace was more of south Indian flavors.
There is one other Glory of India in downtown too. Never tasted its lunch buffet as they don’t serve it over weekends. I wish i would try that some day and hope it would impress me for 5 stars. Keep waiting: P

The naan stole the show. The nan alone gets one star. It was of the thinner more crispy type, not the thick fluffy type. Three stars for the curry. I did not think it was better than the other smaller Indian places around Calgary.
Personally, I prefer the smaller mom & pop Indian restaurants. Royal India would be good to host banquets or company events, the place is huge and even has a dance floor.
Overall, the experience was not bad and I would go back.

Royal India is by far the best Indian restaurant I have been to, and a model to which I compare all the rest.
Food was not just good, it was delicious, abundant, with lots of variety, and nicely served. There obviously was some Kingfisher accompanying it, and waiters were very polite and careful. I have read some negative opinions and can imagine that quality varies, but at least the time I was visiting Royal India I might have been really lucky to get the best.
I would say that the only thing I did not like was that for a huge group of people we were (a team event for 20) they could have pulled at least three waiters to provide the needed speed-​up of the service. But except for that slow-​down, everything else was very decent, very good.
Also, the restaurant is located sort of upstairs in the second floor of the building, so it might be tricky to find the entrance for the first time.
My wife is totally not into Indian food, but if I’d ever decided to initiate her — my first thought would have been about the Royal India.

Attended a private dinner year back in April. This restaurant is quite big, has a dance floor at the back.
The food quality was not that good, maybe it was because of the mass amount of people that were in attendance, proper care was not given into preparing the food. Chicken wasn’t cooked properly and just left a bad taste in my mouth. Indian food is known to be spicy, all the dishes were sweet for some reason. The staff were so so there was nothing over the top about this place that would make me want to come back.
I’ve been to a few parties that Royal India has catered and it was the same situation, the food on various occasions simply was not good.

My colleagues and I decided we wanted to bond so we opted to try something new, enter Royal India. When you enter the restaurant you are welcomed by two life statues of people just like you and me except they are wearing traditional South Indian clothing. This is a nice touch, this and the wonderful beckoning interior color décor, fusia and oranges… very stimulating.
Our group of 15 were a bit early but yet the owner of the restaurant graciously opened the all you can eat buffet for us, so we had first dibs at fresh tasty Indian food. This spot because of its downtown location caters to the downtown passerby’s so therefore it affects the heat of the Indian food, it was quite mild than what I am used to.
The buffet itself has many options, most notably the nice assortment of bread and the desserts. The mango salad was so delicious and so was this carrot concoction. My personal favourite is the Gulab Jamon which I could eat forever and create a diabetic problem for myself. Thankfully I was already full with the buffet so I didn’t indulge my sweet vice.
The lunch buffet is a bit steep at $ 20, I know other Indian places that charge $ 11 to $ 15 for a lunch buffet but I guess you are paying for the downtown location. All in all a nice Indian place to eat with milder South Indian flavours.

The first time I was confronted with Royal India’s buffet, my stomach expanded six times. Buffets are not my friend, and this had a selection of all of my favourites — delicious butter chicken, fresh cooked Naan, paneer, samosas, paneer, vindaloo. My plate was full like a little mountain, and I felt like I was going to explode for the rest of the day. Which was a bad thing, because at the time I worked in the building above the Royal India. Try concentrating when you are about to burst.
My proximity to the restaurant meant that I went back for lunch a few more times — while exercising careful restraint of course. And the second time around I noticed that while it is pretty decent Indian food, it isn’t quite stellar. Quality is sacrificed for quantity, at least buffet wise.
Also, can I just say that the service here is pretty stellar. A full star full of service actually — I was debating three but they have never been anything but courteous, helpful and kind. They legitimately ask about your day, and are always quick to fill water glasses and to take away dirty dishes but also to let you linger if you want.