Tonight we went to the Royal Garden Indian Restaurant and had a spectacular meal. I’m a regular customer of the Star of India and was very excited to hear they had taken over this restaurant.

We started with the “platter for 2″ entree which was superb! When the mains arrived they looked great and tasted divine! In our opinion, this is the best Indian around and I’d recommend it to anyone.

Under new ownership the restaurant has been decorated beautifully and the service was top notch. The staff deserve a big thank you for being so friendly and attentive.

I popped in for a $10 lunch recently, ordered the lamb vindaloo which was well cooked, well seasoned. More importantly the rice was freshly cooked and cooked perfectly. The Indian tea I enjoyed was also very nice. The wait was no longer that 5 minutes, so I will most likely visit again to try another dish.

Being Indian, we don’t often go out to Indian restaurants, as we are always disappointed with the quality of the food served. But we were pleasantly surprised when we tried Royal Garden Indian restaurant. The food tasted authentic, the spices were fresh, the dish was not simply filled with a greasy, cream sauce with a few pieces of meat or paneer garnishing it. My husband had a chicken tikka and I had a mattar paneer and both were delicious. There was a large bowl of basmati rice accompanying the meal, and the rice was enough for both of us. We also ordered naan, and requested it not to be covered in oil-and this was also made perfectly. The food was reasonably priced and the serves were quite large. Decor was nice, and the place looked clean and bright. The only negative comment would be the TV with the music videos, which was sometimes quite loud and other times lacked sound altogether-it might be better not to have it at all. This is the only Indian restaurant that I would be happy to recommend in Palmerston North.

My partner and I were not impressed when we went in February. But the new owners did definitely a good job. The place is nicely refurbished, the staff is extremely nice. We went tonight and the food arrived in a reasonable amount of time and was very tasty. We got exactly what we ordered with just the right amount of spice. My partner had the goan chicken masala and loved it. So meaty. I had the prawns vindaloo and it was full of prawns like I wanted. It’s going to be hard to choose between this place and star of India now! Definitely worth the try! Well done!