Royal Mahal Tooting

Been here several times, had mixed results. Highly recommend the dynamite prawns and the Dum Parda Biryani. Chicken tikka masala was flavourful. Best garlic naan I've had in Tooting. The chili chicken and lamb Madras are very spicy. Generally the food scores a 5 for flavour but only giving a 4 because the portions are quite small and in some of the curries there's a whole load of sauce but very little meat. E.g. see the pic of the chicken tikka masala (red). And the lamb is not falling off the bone tender like the Afghan restaurants nearby. The service is not consistent. On our first visit we had the old gentleman with the moustache, he was pleasant and helpful and answered our questions with patience. This evening we had a stressed and impatient young man. Previously we had the young female waitress who has a bad habit of staring and glaring at female customers.

I had high hopes for this venue but was ultimately disappointed. We decided to get the Royal platter which included the chicken biryani, masala chips and three samosas. The protein items on this platter were, masala fish, chicken wings and chops. What we hadn’t realised was that you only got three of each item! The service was very slow we went to eat at around 5:30pm on a Sunday afternoon, the staff were too busy chatting to each other to actually come take our order. We made several attempts at getting their attention and finally managed to find someone, not our original server. The food when it came was lukewarm, we ordered naan after the mains, it came quickly but was insipid and overly buttered and chewy not fresh. The protein items themselves were tasty and well seasoned if on the cold side , the biryani tasted like it was out of a packet and the chips were soggy and cold. I thought the Samosas would be the vegetarian Punjabi Samosas, but they tasted exactly like the ones from Pooja. We had also ordered tap water, it came in a glass bottle which looked like it had never been washed. There were grease marks all over the outside. We decided at this point that we didn’t have enough protein so ordered two seekh kebabs, these did come quite quickly. However, this was a mistake as we felt the flavour was more Mediterranean rather than Indian cuisine. Not a fan. On our exit out of the restaurant the floor was so greasy someone could easily slip and fall, and they’d have a lawsuit on their hands. Don think I’ll be back but good to try something different.

Lamb Nihari had too much salt. Lamb Haleem was too thick and too salty. Lamb chops were hard and chewy. One of the worst I’ve had unfortunately. And staff was probably just not in a good mood. Food influencers caused a hype, but it was definitely NOT good quality food. For specific reference, We tried the food on Monday 5th January around 1pm. Do not recommend this place , over hyped.