Redmond, WA

I won’t spend a lot of time talking about Kanishka Cuisine of India because it was bad. Not just non-impressive bad, but frozen Indian dinner bad. Our food was bland. The service was bad. They want to charge customers $2.50 for extra rice (not that they’re very generous). The biggest turn-off, our silverware, our dinnerware, and our glasses were dirty with stuck-on food. I would be willing to try their restaurant again to see if I came on a bad night but with dirty utensils, I’m turned off completely. There are far better Indian restaurants out there. Go to those.

Kirkland, WA

Using my favorite Indian restaurant, India Cafe, as my litmus test, Raga Cuisine of Indiais not so great. My boyfriend still complains about the service and the price. I still complain about the chicken.

We visited this restaurant on a snowy Sunday. We went there desperately trying to find a decent open restaurant. Raga is decent and it is clean. It isn’t horrible but if you’re a seasoned Indian foodie, you’re not going to appreciate this place as much as you could.

The food: Indian food is not a spur of the moment type food. Indian food takes preparation–soaking meats and paneer in their respective spicy yogurt marinades. I ordered Chicken Tikka, a marinaded white meat kabob cooked in the Tandoori oven. If done right, the spice, a bright orange, would be soaked through several millimeters of the chicken. Unfortunately, Raga didn’t give the right length of marinade time on the chicken. I actually don’t think they marinaded the chicken at all. If I’m going to pay over 10 dollars for marinaded Tandoori chicken, it better be marinaded.

I don’t know if our pale skin made us look like spice wimps or if Raga doesn’t spice much, but our food was very very mild. All of us in our party are seasoned Indian foodies and can handle heat. We even mentioned we wanted our food on the hotter side. It didn’t happen. Mikel wasn’t too happy.

And then there’s the service. Our waiter couldn’t speak up. We all had a hard time listening. He didn’t write down our orders and even got them wrong. My friend, Rob, was given lamb when he ordered chicken. We were one of the only people in this restaurant and our glasses were empty more than they were full. Also, when our waiter brought out the wrong dish, the owner/manager, yelled at the waiter in Hindi. We thought that was terribly unprofessional and uncomfortable. We ended up taking pity on the waiter.

I would be happy to visit this place again should there be improvement. At this time, unless they work on their food and their service, there are far better restaurants (Royal India) that are close to Raga, in the area that I would recommend.

EDIT: Mikel would like me to mention that the stuffed naan we had was delicious. Indeed it was.

Kirkland, WA

Indian food is my favorite. After moving to King County, I needed to aquaint myself with the local Indian restaurants so Mikel and I have been on a food journey. We have gone to four other Indian restaurants other than India Cafe, my personal favorite. Two restaurants are subpar, one works but not impressive, and one has knocked my socks off! Royal India is on its way to being the best Indian restaurant I have visited.

What makes Royal India fabulous? Royal India is beautiful, the food is impressively good, and the service is spot on. Royal India focuses on detail–as a diner, you can appreciate these details. Read on.

When Mikel and I walked in, I wasn’t expecting to see a canopied table with seats on the floor or saris draped on thoughtfully placed floor screens, I was was expecting to see the same awkward decor I see at every Indian restaurant. Even my favorite Indian restaurant, India Cafe, is awkwardly decorated. Royal India is not only beautiful but it’s clean and it’s well organized.

Sometimes, when we visit an ethnic restaurant, we feel like we’re intruding. This was not the case with Royal India. Our waiter waiter warmly greeted us when we walked in and immediately made us feel comfortable. He sat us at a nice table and started filling our water glasses. Here’s where the attention to details really started kicking in. Bear with me, you’ll start understanding why I point out small things. The waiter used a clean pitcher to fill our water glasses and left us the pitcher to take care of ourselves when our glasses empty. Mikel’s my urologist’s dream of a water drinker because he drinks a heavy amount of water. A waiter typically has a hard time keeping Mikel’s glass filled (note: India Cafe has that covered also). The details keep coming on but I wanted to point out that the pitcher was clean.

The waiter gave us a couple of minutes and then took our order on queue–meaning, I had closed and laid my menu down and without skipping a beat, he came right on over. After taking our order, he discussed our order, showing us he was knowledgeable with the dishes he served, to ensure we knew what we were getting into. Shortly after, our Chai tea arrived.

I’m tea snob. Some people are uber picky about their wine, some about their beer, others about their coffee, but me, I’m picky about my tea. Don’t get me wrong, if I’m desperate for my fix, I will drink Lipton, but I won’t buy it. I travel to Canada to pick up my tea. Now I mention the tea snobbery to help you understand that I’m going to be a bit more critical at what people wouldn’t otherwise notice about tea. This tea passed and I will buy more Chai from Royal India again, but, there is room for improvement. It seemed dumbed down for Americans. I want spicy spicy Chai. It must harmonize with my spicy dinner. The tea wasn’t as spicy as I would have liked. Or as strong. Ehh… nobody can be perfect.

We ordered veggie samosas for our appetizer. Comparing India Cafe’s samosa and Royal India’s samosa is almost like comparing apples and oranges. Both are equally good but for different reasons. Royal India’s samosa is dry and the seasoning is spot-on and complicated (complicated is good). The chutney Royal India serves with the samosa is delicious and beautifully plated. You’ll want the chutney with the samosa.

We just barely finished our Samosa when our entrees arrived. Two dishes of bright orange are brought to our table and a nice platter of basmati rice accompany them. The entrees are the real test. I don’t care about awkward decor, tea, or samosa, if the entree isn’t good, the restaurant is a waste of time. Brace yourself. Okay, I didn’t know chicken, especially white chicken, could be this tender and moist. The curry was fantastic but the chicken is what has me raving. The chicken is so tender, you don’t need teeth. Paired with the basmati rice, also tasty and perfectly flavorful, I believe I have had the best Butter Chicken ever. Oh man, so good.

The garlic naan rocked also.

The waiter was the icing on the cake. I appreciate that I didn’t have to ask for more tea, it was offered. He didn’t over approach, he didn’t under approach, and he took time to visit with us. He acquainted us with the restaurant, asking us if this was our first visit, advising us the restaurant is 15 years old, and letting us know what the restaurant has to offer–not in a salesman way, but in a “welcome to the restaurant” way. Wrapping up our visit, the waiter didn’t do the faux pax many waiters do. He didn’t give us our check while we are still eating and before making sure there wasn’t anything else we wanted. I tip less for this faux pax because it makes me feel rushed and I simply feel it is rude to hand the diner the check while still eating. Not only did our waiter give us the check after we were done eating, he “gave us the extra pickle.” Along with our receipt, we were handed two lidded to-go cups filled with Chai. He got an extra tip.

Okay so this restaurant isn’t perfect. I should point out that the prices are higher than most Indian restaurants, certainly more than India Cafe. I should also point out that the portions are smaller than most Indian restaurants. Finally, according to Mikel, the restaurant shares their bathrooms with the bar next door and thus the bathrooms are a total mess. I recommend peeing before visiting. So that’s the bad stuff, done and over.

Now I will rave about Royal India as well as India Cafe. I highly recommend both of these restaurants.

Lynnwood, WA

If you only went to one restaurant that I ever recommended, this is one restaurant you must go to but only if you love spicey food. The India Cafe serves the most amazing Indian food I have ever had the pleasure of savoring and encompasses the very trait that fell in love with Indian food for. Good Indian food should have musical flavors. The spices should be melodious and harmonious all in one bite.

My absolute favorite dish is the Chicken Dopiaza. This dish contains chicken, marinated in yogurt and spices overnight, and barbecued before being placed in a spicy, onion-y sauce of blissful spices. This dish is super spicey so if you’re sensitive to heat, I wouldn’t recommend you eat this as there is an element of napalm and your mouth will burn for awhile. The napalm is required as it adds to its deliciousness.

One of the greatest thing about this restaurant is that you won’t simply see the normal Chicken Korma, you will see a variety of dishes you have not seen at other restaurants but it has the normal, comfortable, trusty Indian food people like.

The staff are attentive, ready to refill your bowl of rice and your half-empty glass of water. Neither my boyfriend, Mikel, or I could drink our glass half-empty before it was refilled. For me, this is normal, for Mikel, the infamous water-drinker, this is amazing. The amount of service provided was nice and it wasn’t too much.

The restaurant, although nice enough on the inside, is located in a run-down part of town in a building that almost looks abandoned from the outside. Across the street from this restaurant is an old Comp USA store no longer in business as well as other dead stores. I almost didn’t go in this restaurant on the first visit because of how sketchy things looked on the outside. One should know you can’t judge a book by its cover because I was so wrong about this restaurant.

While their food is amazing, the prices on the “Indian food accessories” (naan, raita, chai tea…) are expensive. If you read my critique on the Curry House, you’ll see that I prize this restaurant for its inclusion of the Indian food accessories in the price as well as the little pot of tea they provide. You’ll also notice that I mention that I didn’t like it when other restaurants merely give you one cup of tea and charge you 2.50, this is a restaurant that does it. While India Cafe is generous with ice water, it is not so with tea and naan.

If you’re in Lynnwood, you really really need to go to the India Cafe. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate good Indian food and how rare I think it is to find the blissful goodness.