Royal Bengal Restaurant
Cambridge eatery serving an authentic departure from usual Indian fare.
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Message from Royal Bengal Restaurant
Remember when the idea of Indian cuisine was exotic? It still can be. You may think you've sampled all that India has to offer, but unless you've been to Royal Bengal, Boston's first and only authentic Bengali restaurant, the odds are you haven't. At Royal Bengal, a small family run restaurant opened at the beginning of this millennium, with just 32 seats, and already expanding. At Royal Bengal, every sauce is different, and the sense of seasoning is most unusual, you can choose from an array of traditional Northern Indian fare, but the menu's, also swimming with two dozens of unique Bengali dishes. All Bengali foods are prepared with extraordinary care, subtly spiced, and they're cooked with mustard oil, which is greatly healthy for the heart. Best of all, all fishes are freshly imported from Bengal, and they're made-to-order.
Editorial by
The SceneThe 32-seat room shows loving touches on a budget--Indian wall hangings, folk art and posters fix the ethnic identity, and servers wear traditional Bengali garb. White tablecloths and pink cloth napkins dress up the look for patrons from MIT and Bengalis delighted to have some home-cooking.
The Food
The spicy, complex cooking of Calcutta and Bangladesh is worlds away from what usually passes as "Indian food," so skip the standard fare and concentrate on a separate menu featuring Bengali specialties. It's customary to start with a vegetarian dish like tandoor-roasted eggplant with mustard oil and hot peppers--a smoky treat. Next, move on to a fish plate like carp and cauliflower in spicy ginger broth (beware bones), and finish with a meat dish such as sauteed goat chunks in hot sauce. The food's delicious but fiery--a side of naan will help douse the flames.
Key Points
- Authentic Bengali restaurant
- Imported Ingedients
- Northern Indian Fare
The Inside Scoop
- Save Money - Students get a 10 percent discount on orders of $10 or more.
- When to Go - More Bengali specials are offered on Friday and Saturday, including crepes stuffed with sweet coconut and clotted cream.
Insider Pages Reviews for Royal Bengal Restaurant
Royal Bengal (formerly called Royal India) is a gosh darn pretty tasty and vegetarian friendly Indian restaurant located between Central square and MIT.
I think they specialize in "authentic" Bengali dishes but all I know is the lunch buffet is good and the dinner menu is as well. I believe the buffet is knkow $6.95 for all you can eat.
PROS: tasty, not too expensive, vegetarian friendly
CONS: sometimes a little oily
Posted 07/09/05 | Report Abuse
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Latest reviews from Citysearch.
Best Bengali food I've had since my travel in south-east Asia. I'm surprised it took me nearly 8 years to discover this great place. I've yet to try their lunch buffet, which seems perhaps the best deal around. I'll review that here as well.
Pros: Bengali and Indian cuisine
Cons: Only 35 seats, gets crowded
Posted 08/25/09
My girlfriend and I went there last weekend, must say its one of the best place to dine out. There're two menus with so many great choices it took us forever to place our order. We had Begun Pora (roasted eggplant), Murgir Jhol (chicken stew), and Royal Platter (pepper with stuffing). The food was marvelous, but a little spicier than we're used to. Overall a great experience and highly recommended.
Posted 02/28/08
There are plenty of good Indian restaurants in cambridge and this is just not one of them. The naan I ordered was burnt and I have had much better curries elsewhere. Their service also could be improved a lot.
Pros: Good location, easy access
Cons: Neither the food nor the ambience/service was good.
Posted 11/12/07
4 of us, ordered 5 different dishes and 2 of which were burnt. We sent them back and got refunds, but it threw us off the place. It was cheap, and the rest of the food was good, but would not recommend or go back.
Posted 07/16/06
Has Bengali, Muslim (halal) and traditional Indian food. The Bengali food definitely carried the flavor of Bengal. The Aloo Bhate had a strong mustard and chili flavor, the Begun Bhaja was tender but could have been slightly more crisp, the Chingirir Malaikari was delicious but slightly overcooked so lost the full crumbliness of fresh water prawns and the Kasha Mangsho was mouthwatering but could have been slightly drier. The nit-pics are very minor and I suspect more a matter of interpretation than anything else. Only warning is Bengali food has a strong, and acquired taste specially the dishes with Ilish (a type of Shad) and mustard oil. People expecting standard Indian (Pujabi style) food should stick to the main menu.
Pros: authentic Bengali, good food, friendly service
Cons: small place
Posted 12/29/05
A former reader reported that the food is not Bengali. This is probably true of the buffet, but the a-la-carte includes several typical Bengali items: Try the fish called Hilsa (a million bones, but extremely tasty), and the eggplant cooked with mustard seed. The Bengali menu is small, but excellent. It's a small, unpresumptuous place, a simple ma-and-pa restaurant with excellent food and kind service.
Pros: food, service
Cons: none
Posted 06/30/05
I've eaten several times at this buffet restaurant, mostly because of the convenient location (notwithstanding the massive rubble pile which has graced its entrance for the past few weeks thanks to City of Cambridge construction). They advertise as authentic Bengali food, but it is not different from you average Cambridge Indian buffet. The samosas are distinctly Bengali though (smaller and crispier) and I will wager by the 4 arms of Vishnu that they prepare the filling fresh each day, instead of recylcing last week's leftover Aloo Gobi. The sauces are rich, but a little too glumatic for my tastes. I have seen the owners and someone whom the owner described to the cute Latina waitress as "mi hermana" eat their own food, so it can't be that unhealthy. Overall, a good eating experience if you are hungry and in the Kendall-Central stretch of Mass Avuenue...
Pros: Good samosas, Good fried foods
Cons: MEthinks they put MSG
Posted 05/17/05