BY VEENA RAO

Tucked away in a little strip off Abbotts’s Bridge Road in Duluth, Royal Indian Cuisine offers a trove of gastronomic treasures from the deep south. Try their luscious paniyarams, light appams, or authentic kothu parathas, and you will know what this writer means.

The menu is extensive- 154 items in all. There are vegetarian and non-vegetarian appetizers to choose from, a full tandoor section, a chaat section, south Indian and north Indian vegetarian, non-vegetarian and seafood entrees, and an Indo-Chinese section. 

But Royal Cuisine, possibly, has the most extensive dosa varieties in all of Atlanta. There are 25 different kinds of dosas to choose from. These include interesting variations like the Madurai malli masala dosa, chettinadu podi dosa or karaikudi chicken dosa or non-dosas like idiyappams (rice noodles).

Royal Cuisine thrives on its extensive lunch buffet spread. There are 40 items to choose from during the weekends, and 25 items on weekdays.

“Once people try our food, they know what authentic really means,” says owner Srinivas Venkatesan, a Madurai native, who runs the restaurant with the help of four other friends. A former chef at the Le Royal Meridien hotel in India, and later the kitchen-in-charge at the Aurora Balaji temple in Chicago, Venkatesan has been in the food industry long enough to know what authentic is.

“Our chettinadu entrees are hugely popular amongst patrons, as is our goat biriyani,” he says. “Our idlis and coconut chutney are the best in town,” he adds with pride. This writer, who got to savor the soft, Royal Cuisine idlis, must agree with this claim.

There are also unusual items on the menu- crab curry and quails. No other Indian restaurant in Atlanta offers these delights.

Venkatesan, who moved to Atlanta from Chicago a few years ago, saw a huge potential for a restaurant with a focus on fine south Indian cuisine in the Duluth area. 

“Duluth has a huge Indian community- mostly young professionals with young kids, who have no time to cook because of their busy lifestyles,” he says. 

Since opening its doors in 2007, the restaurant has accumulated loyal customers not only from Duluth, but also from all over Atlanta and its suburbs. “People always come back, because our food is not only tasty and authentic, but it is cooked as per the customer’s order,” says Venkatesan.

The restaurant is one of the few in Atlanta that also offers breakfast catering, apart from regular catering.

Royal Indian Cuisine has a sparkling, newly renovated kitchen. The chefs place a premium on hygiene and quality food. The restaurant also has a 50-capacity banquet facility for parties and get-togethers.

If you are not yet acquainted with the authentic treasures from south India, put a visit to Royal Indian Cuisine down in your ‘to do’ list for this weekend. You will not be disappointed.