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The food here is really good. Vegetable fritters are great. The atmosphere is tacky, but wonderful in its own way. It is BYOB, which is great. Good experience!

decor and hygiene i guess is not the best but the food is surprisingly FRESH and delicious and above all dirt cheap. i was impressed that my vegetarian pea dish actually had fresh spring peas in it - they were crispy and not canned, which was a shocker! all the food was great but the atmosphere and decor is not so hot. but a great value for these recessionista times!

I went with a bunch of friends one Saturday night. Not only were we literally pulled off the street, but there were so many christmas lights in the windows and restuarant, how could we resist? The tacky decor was just the beginning. IT was also someone else's birthday, and they turned down the lights and played a techno remix of happy birthday for the other table! Incredible. But atmosphere aside, this place offers middle-of-the-road Indian food at a ridiculously cheap price. I had a four course dinner plus free beer, papadam, and naan for only $15 (included soup, appetizers, main dish, and dessert). I'm not sure I would run back here because the food, albeit cheap, was not particularly memorable, but it's an experience like no other.

Recently I had dinner with my wife at this shop at gramercy wonderful restaurant I ask the waiter where would I find a good indian restaurant he told me to visit Royal bangladesh on 1st ave I heard a lot of not so good things about indian restaurannt on the lower east side but I wanted to give it a try I went the next friday I was greeted by the server Me and my wife got a nice big table and the service was wonderful the food was better than any indian food I ever had I mean I love indian and this restaurant takes the cake on food and service what a great restaurant if you wanted good indian food you gotta check this place out

This place is a great choice if you want a casual, inexpensive meal that's absolutely delicious. My friend and I ordered the Royal Special Dinner - with the Beef Dansak Curry and Chicken Dildar. The appetizers and main dishes exploded with delicious flavors. The food came with free wine - which was (surprisingly) very good. The atmosphere was a little sub-par (the weird lights and plastic decorations on the ceiling were a little tacky), however the great sitar player made up for it. We left the restaurant extremely full and happy - and we plan on coming back soon.

I see some people think the place is tacky, but have you been in any of the other restaurants on this strip? They all vary in levels of decor to put it nicely. I have been going to this location for 15+ years (back when there was fish in the now empty tanks!) The food is inexpensive, so get over the staff asking you to buy more stuff (they take rejection quite well), forget about the guy doing the street hawking -- and just enjoy. When the weather is warmer you can sit outback in their makeshift covered patio through October or so. So...roll with it, it's fun. Once you are a regular and they know you, it's all cool. For the price you are not going to do better than this for cheap decent Indian eats in Manhattan.

The dinner started fine with usual complementary papadum and condiments, but then degenerated. The waiter tried to sell us everything on the menu - beer? wine? bread? raita? chutney? -- and when we asked for choices of soup or salad instead of soup on full dinner menu, he interpreted that to mean that we wanted additional orders of soup and salad. Appetizers were fair. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. Even though they had someone out on the sidewalk successfully hustling in customers, they were clearly understaffed with just a maitre'd, one waiter, one cook, and the sidewalk guy who sometimes doubled as busboy. At one point the cook came out, unkempt and with a dirty apron on, to take a table's order. The place was drafty and a little cold. The CD player malfunctioned and we got warped static over the sound system for several minutes until they were able to fix it. Worst of all, the door near where we were seated was broken, and would very loudly slam shut unless you were careful closing it. I can understand patrons leaving not knowing about it, but every time the sidewalk hustler guy came in and out he let it loudly slam, and there's no excuse for that. Finally, after more than a 30 minute wait, our entrees came out. The garlic naan we ordered was tasty, but cold from sitting out for who knows how long. My dish, the chicken tikka musalum, was disappointing -- I know every place cooks it a little bit differently, but here the dish was FULL of sliced canned mushrooms and green bell pepper, two vegetables I hate. Then we had trouble getting a waiter again to get the check so we could leave. It took us an hour and a half to have a mediocre dinner here. The check for two was only $28 with tax and a minimum tip (not a penny over 15%).