Text 28474, 113 rader
Skriven 2012-08-19 23:40:02 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: Indian lunch buffet
===========================
 -=> On 08-18-12  20:16,  Nancy Backus <=-
 -=> spoke to Dale Shipp about Re: Lunch <=-
 NB>> out...  :)  Dunno about the Indian restaurant in question, but some of
 NB>> the ones around here that have lunch buffets also do a once or twice
 NB>> weekly supper buffet as well, for a slughtly higher price... it might
 NB>> bear looking into...  :)
 
 DS> That restaurant does not do an evening buffet.  There is an Indian

 NB> Guess you will have to modify your normal practice, then... ;)
 
We did just that and went there on Saturday to try out their buffet.
The short answer is that it was very good, and gave us enough of a
picture of the restaurant that we may well return for an evening meal
off of the menu.  The long answer is the review below, essentially as
posted onto tripadvisor today.

Royal Taj

This restaurant is fairly new to Columbia, and based on its #1 rating in
TripAdvisor, we decided to give it a try.

We went to their lunch buffet on Saturday.  A buffet gives us a good
chance to sample many of their foods and in general decide whether or
not a restaurant is a place we will go back to often.  In this case, we
can say that Royal Taj is certainly a place we will return to for an
evening meal off of the menu.

The service was exceptional.  The restaurant is not very large --
perhaps 15-25 tables.  There were about ten servers moving around doing
the various jobs.  A water glass rarely got below 1/4 empty.  An empty
plate was quickly picked up.  One server brought out a small portable
sweeper to pick up some spills a customer had made.  All of this was
done quietly, quickly and efficiently.  

One good sign worth observing of an ethnic restaurant is the clientele.
The majority of the clientele at Royal Taj seemed to be Indian, perhaps
as many as 75%.  That is usually a good sign that the food being served
is authentic and good. 

The food line was well laid out.  

It started with a pretty ordinary lettuce and mixed vegetable salad
(which we did not bother with).  Right next to it were four dishes of
dressings and some hot looking peppers.

Next came a container of basmati rice and several vegetarian dishes.  I
sampled the Alu Gobi (cauliflower and potatoes), the Dal Makhani
(lentils) and a spinach dish.  All were good.  The alu gobi had a
noticeable heat level which I found pleasant, although my fire eater
friends would have said it was barely mild heat.

I tried the Sanbar soup.  It was not as good as other Sanbar soups I
have had.  Perhaps I got the bottom of the urn, but there were hardly
any vegetables in it that were not pulverized.  The broth was pretty
good, and had a mild to moderate heat.

There were four protein dishes, one fish and three chicken.  Tandori
chicken was nicely done.  I only saw dark meat pieces.  Perhaps they
took all the white meat for the other two chicken dishes.  There was a
dish that I think they called Da Wa chicken, but I cannot find such a
listing on the take out menu we grabbed, nor in any web search.  It was
chicken breast pieces, probably marinated and then grilled.  The third
chicken dish was the ever present Chicken Tikka Masala, which looked
like the same chicken pieces as on the Da Wa chicken cooked with the
usual creamy tomato sauce. The final dish was a fish curry, which I was
told was only there on the weekend buffet. There were a few other things
which were said to only be on the weekend buffet, but I did not catch
their names.  I liked all four of these dishes.  My only negative
comment on the dishes I had would be the strong similarity between the
spicing and the sauces. Also, I would have liked to have seen some other
meat dishes, perhaps one of their lamb offerings from the menu.

The highlight of the buffet line was a dosa station.  There was a server
who manned a fry pan in which he was making dosa (a thin pancake made
with a special batter).  He had a potato curry mixture that he used to
fill them when they were done.  If he managed to get ahead of the
demand, he put the freshly cooked and filled dosa onto a nearby tray
that was full of vegetable pakoras (fritters) and Alu Tikki (potato
patties, coated in chick pea batter and fried like the pakoras).  The
dosa did not last long on that platter.

For dessert they had kheer, the traditional Indian rice pudding.  It was
decent, but I've had better.  They also had Gajar Halwa, a sweet carrot
dish -- also decent, but I've had better.  When we go back for dinner,
I'm sure that I would order the Kulfi ice cream rather than either of
those.

There was also a pot of Masala Chai (tea) but I did not try that.

In summary -- this lunch time buffet was very good.  We have been to
several other Indian lunch time buffets in Columbia, albeit a long time
ago. In our opinion, Royal Taj was better than either of those.  It was
better in the quality of the food, and much better in the selection and
variety of items offered.  

We have only ever been to one Indian buffet that I would rate as equal
to or better than Royal Taj.  It is the Sapphire restaurant in Laurel
(30 minutes away) that offers an evening buffet on the weekend with
extensive vegetarian offerings and multiple meat offerings (e.g. chicken
dishes, lamb dishes, fish, and goat).

                               Dale Shipp
                  fido_261_1466 (at) comcast (dot) net
                              (1:261/1466)



... Shipwrecked on Hesperus in Columbia, Maryland. 23:48:13, 19 Aug 2012
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