royal indianaa - the accord metropolitan

april 3rd, 2022 | time: 7 pm reservation | location: private room for 7 people | price: 1300 inr per person

this is not my first time at a fine dining restaurant so i hope the management seriously looks at these concerns and acts accordingly.

we had booked earlier in the day for a group of 6 people and we reached around 7:15 pm and were escorted to the private room by the staff.

the following is a series of concerns raised not just by me but also my friends and family members who accompanied me that day.

so consider this a collection of feedback from six patrons who were looking forward to having a fine dining experience at your restaurant.

rule no. 1:

if there are x number of people in a table, only x plates and chairs should be present (in this case 6). the extra plate and chair is just clutter and causes mild annoyance and ruins the customer experience.

rule no. 2:

water should be served and the bottle(s) should not just be placed on the table.

i usually eat at roadside stalls (most of them are extremely safe and clean unlike what some people like to believe) and small to mid-range hotels (100-200 inr per person). in those places, i don't expect the waiter to pour water for me because i know what i am paying for.

but in this case, i expect the person to pour the water (kinley water, i really hope the management changes the brand. the kinley water (in a plastic bottle) in a fine-dining restaurant felt out of place, sorry but it's just my opinion).

i asked the other 4 people on my table to pass me their glasses and i started pouring it one by one. as soon the waiter saw this, he said he'll do it and took the bottle away from my hands.

very unprofessional and serving water should have been the first thing on the agenda.

it is called fine dining for a reason and the hefty amount paid is for the customer experience (the food costs are the same across the board in any restaurant more or less).

a definite let-down first-up by the customer staff although i gave them the benefit of the doubt and wanted to make a final judgement at the end of it.

rule no. 3:

the plate size should be proportional to the number ofstartersor the amount of food.

my mother felt this strongly and didn't like the fact that her plate was cluttered with six starters. thestartersare not even left on the table after the initial serving.

i have to ask the waiter every time someone wants any of the six starters. this is quite an inefficient system and i suggest placing thestarterson the table so that the customers can eat at their own leisure.

please consider this. the customers visit your restaurant for the uniquestartersthat you provide. by having this system where customers have to ask every time they want something, you are robbing a lot of people of enjoying the food that they enjoy.

*important note*: i don't mind asking the waiter for six, seven or even 10 servings of a food item but the majority of the population are body-conscious and self-conscious to say out loud that they want something (especially food) in a public setting.

so please understand human behavior and human psychology.

i propose two solutions:

1) leavestarterson the table after the initial serving so that everyone can enjoy and we don't have to make a decision on the spot when the waiter asks "whichstartersdo you want?". for the price i am paying, i would ideally like to have options of all thestartersand eat at my own leisure and not at the pace at which the staff barges in and asks the question.

it is quite annoying to have the staff ask that question and him getting a headcount of who wants whichstartersin the middle of an interesting conversation with my friends and family. completely destroys the "fine" dining experience.

2) or keep coming in with all sixstartersevery five minutes (similar to what happens in grillbox and ab's barbecue, two restaurants whose customer service models i enjoyed recently).

rule no. 4:

the staff should undergo more training and improve their memory.

1) another person and i had requested hot water at the start of the dinner and were served accordingly. during the middle of the dinner, i had asked for a re-fill. at this time, all the other members needed a refill of regular water as well.

while i was away getting some food from the main course area, the waiter had poured regular water in my glass and the warm water had not arrived yet.

i was quite surprised to see it when i sat down. five whole minutes later, the waiter arrived and i told him that i requested for hot water.

he, then proceeded to pour hot water into the glass that had regular water and said "it should be fine to drink now".

i really didn't like his response and the appropriate response should have been to provide a new glass and then pour the hot water.

it baffles me as to how a top-rated restaurant does not maintain professional standards when it comes to serving its customers.

very poor, i thought to myself when i saw the waiter pour the hot water in that glass and asked me to "try it" when i had specifically asked for hot water.

(i don't want to pick on the person here since it seems to be a systemic problem in the restaurant since 2-3 people served us that night and all of them were par/sub-par).

2) reiteration of a previous point but water should be served and not just left on the table.

so far, i didn't talk about the food because the price point is for the whole experience and not just the food.

the food was somewhat average but could have been elevated and the eating experience could have been made much better with quality customer service.

food and customer service are two sides of the same coin and i hope the management understand that and fixes it (if a fix is required anywhere in the system).

first impressions are the best impressions especially in the hospitality industry and i hope the management seriously investigates and understands if this is one-off incident (happened due to sheer coincidence for us on that day) or a systemic problem that requires strong capa (corrective and preventive action).

i really wanted to mention all of this to the manager (but didn't have the time and was tired after a long day) because it pains me to see chef venkatesh bhatt's restaurant perform so poorly when i went there with my family. all six of us had a disappointing/somewhat average experience.

chef venkatesh is someone who sets extremely high standards and exceeds them on a daily basis and it was not a good feeling to exit that restaurant with a sense of bitterness and disappointment.

i would like to give this restaurant another chance to redeem themselves but if someone asked me now for my review, i would tell them to try other restaurants and not visit this place.

overall, poor keeping in mind the price point and the already positive reviews showered on this restaurant.

food tastes very good but poor service for the starters. taking v long time for each serve.
should definitely need to improve managing customers and providing service.we started having main courses before havingstarterssince we waited for so long.

we have visited royal indiana twice and the first time was an unforgettable experience. the menu was really good right fromstartersto desert everything made us think that we should do a come back. home like taste and it matched the ceos vision. however our recent second time visit was a huge let down both in terms of menu and taste. is there any specific dates and menu or os it just random?

went to this place to celebrate anniversary of my parents. the team surprised the anniversary celebration with a cake. thank you so much for that. the buffet menu was awesome. we had welcome drink nannrai sharbath which was really good and carrot soup. thestartersserved were nearly more than 10 varieties and it was a mix of continental, north and south indian.starterstasted great 👌👌.. then it was the main course and they served choicest selection of gravies for roti, naan and also south indian food.. best was their rasam.. then for the desert they had sweets and cakes.. i would like to thank the entire team and also my special thanks to musical anniversary treat for my parents. ambience 5/5, musical treat 5/5..food 5/5... service 5/5 value 4/5..

i visited the restaurant yesterday night to treat my son who cleared the x std... i also invited my in laws and my brother in law's family. we are vegetarians and finding an exclusive vegetarian restaurant is always a challenge even more when you have elderly people with you!

we opted for the buffet - jeera rasam was the appetizer served..no complaints on that. thestartersstarted flowing in - not able to recollect the exact names but here they are - papad masala, arabi, potato, cauliflower, baby corn, cheese balls, bitter-gourd steam cooked in banana leaf, vazhapoo and dahi vada.

the buffet spread was adequate- though i would have preferred some more variety on the vegetable front... but here again no complaints. we had a choice of only one rice other than steamed rice- paneer pulav. the menu featured a amritsari dal tadka, potato based curry, mirchi tikka (similar to salan), mutter palak, udupi veg curry kurma. there was also a veg kothu paratha available which was ok. the rotis were soft and perfect... this was the best i came across for some time in chennai. the traditional curd rice was very good too. i asked for a malabar parotha which was delivered promptly and it was very good. but the salads were not up to the mark...guys please get this done right next time!

the dessert menu fell little short of my expectations ---of course after all we had there was very little room for anything else. there was sago payasam (sabudana kheer) and mini gulab jamuns. vanilla ice cream with minimum toppings was also available. we had to eat the ice cream sans the topping since the nuts container got soggy. did not venture much into the pastries and other items on the table...to be fair it was close to 11 pm when we reached the desserts!

overall very good...service needs mention. all the guys who served us did it with a smile. the lighting could have been a bit more brighter since the environment is more suitable for a bar!

taste : 5/5
ambience : 3/5
service : 5/5
value for money 5/5

an amazing place to visit!

went for dinner. it is quite amazing to find a pure vegetarian restaurant in such a place.. amazing service.. servers served everything with a smile on their face and the manager was an amazing man as well.. thoroughly enjoyed the buffet except for the fact that 10startersfilled my brother and mother's stomach.. otherwise, everything was neatly organized within a small space..
service 5/5
ambience 4.5/5
food 4.5/5
price 4.5/5

inspired by the shows of venkatesh bhat, we had gone there to satisfy our taste buds. suggesting by the name, it was indeed royal.
calming music, variety in food and a very good service, proves a great place to visit.
very goodstartersand main dishes. perfect timing of the cake , ordered for my parents anniversary was cherry on the cake.

we were super excited about this place after reading the past reviews, but sadly we were terribly let down! half thestartersweren’t served on the table, they were cold, greasy and not flavourful! for the amount charged i’d expect atleast warm food that isn’t loaded with oil. the ambience is definitely pretty, and the fare is similar to competing restaurants, it’s just i wasn’t served my money’s worth. the hotel would do better if they improved on the quality, and reduced on the oil.

really good ambience. went for saturday buffet lunch.
wide variety ofstarters, main course, desserts.
good to spend some good time with yours friends.

best forstartersalone!!

this is  a pure vegetarian restaurant and that was one of the reasons why we chose this place. the ambiance is really good. we went for a dinner buffet. they have live musicians performing for you which really adds freshness to the atmosphere. they serve you a wide range ofstartersto your table. thestartersare really good and very tasty. however, they should improve their main course. it was not that tasty, variety was less and not anything special. there were lot of desserts but everything was very average. there was nothing called signature dish to fall for in the main course or desserts.  i would rate it 3.5. i am unable to give a fractional rating in zomato.

food-onlystarterswere good ,3
ambiance-4
price-3
service-4

perfect place for family get together and dinners. very pleasant ambiance with a pleasant live music. they provide north indian and south indian buffet.startersare served at the table and has about 10 varieties. tasty main course and desserts as well!

cheers to zomato reviewers, i chose this restaurant to get together with my friends where some of them were strictly vegetarians... the food was amazing and every bite was tasty pleased few others who need chicken for every morsel of food.. . an array ofstarterskept coming and i couldn't get enough of the soooji bonda!! otherstarterswere equally yumm.. in the main course they had two different spread.. north indian and south indian both were equally good.. i had jeera rice, the aroma of the ghee and rice was just wow... different types of rotis with chettinad sabji combo was yumm. paneer was nice and soft....sambar, moor kulambu, carrot pachadi, vendakkai fry was a combo from heaven...being a sambar fan the taste was outstanding.. finished it off of with absolutely yummy curd rice!!! i didn't have space for dessert.. but my friends loved the jamoon.. must go place for those who fancy yummy vegetarian..

30-june : my second visit , took a friend there promising her a wonderful veg buffet... sigh chef had let me down... other than potato bonda and keerai pakoda rest were not even ok... hummus and pitta was bad!!

the sambar in main course lacked the lovely flavour that i tasted in my previous visit. coconut rice was tasty.. palada pradhamam was yumm..

lack of consistency in taste... i have reduced my rating from 4.5 to 3.5..

today i had my lunch for the second time in this restaurant in less that 2 weeks! yes, that probably sets the tone for my review already.
i was looking for a pure veg restaurant that might offer a quiet and peaceful lunchtime with family and quiet especially because i wanted to take my 50days old little daughter out for the first and well, the second time; pure veg because the first time was with my mom-in-law and second with my parents who are all vegetarians.
not too many options available in this right mix within chennai and that’s a shame. in fact, i wouldn’t be surprised if royal indiana is the only such restaurant.
reservation was easy the first time around, as it was a saturday. when we came in, we were sat at one of the 4 tables occupied. this gave me false hone and the next time which was a sunday, i walked in without a reservation to a fully packed restaurant. arrangements were made and we were sat at a comfortable place with room for my littleone’s car seat. the restaurant is overall well done, clean and well lit with easy access to all quarters of the buffet from anywhere across the room. soothing music and easy access to the restaurant once you arrive at the hotel but nothing else to write home about so i’d say 4 on 5 for ambience.
welcome drink, soup andstarters- all served at the table; both the times we were offered clear soups that were very well made. the first time was a coconut based soup and the second time was a vegetable the lentils soup. nannari serbeth was served as welcome drink both the times and it was made with just the right amount of sweetener. it was a welcome change to have nannari instead of a botched up mock tail which is offered in most places these days. so, right there the restaurant was a winner for me! every starter that was served was unique and yet tastefully created. may it be the karuveppilai- podi dosai or the raagi pakoda, this restaurant is the answer to every question pointed at a vegetarian on what’s great about vegetarian food. what more, the starter spread was completely different of both days. who comes up with such different and elaborate starter menu? i’d give 5 stars only because zomato doesn’t allow more :)
main course - it’s a spread of the usual veggie main course suspects, veg biriyani, rice, saambar, rasam, coconut rice, several north indian curries, rotis, dosai, etc., the quality of each curry was mind blowing. to name a few, the methi malai and koftas were extraordinary. my mom who doesn’t have onion had quite a few options to try and that says a lot... i never knew restaurants could make interesting food without onion. and i’m not talking jain food here. i judge a restaurant by how they make certain dishes which are often underwritten, case in point, vetha kozhambu! it’s a good to have but not many care about how good it must be as it’s only a cure rice accompaniment. royal indiana nailed their manathakkali vettha kozhambu! eye for detail, my friends :)
desserts - great spread but i’d say they could do better here with respect to taste. out of the 15 plus varieties, not more than 3 are great and worth a second walk to that quarter. the chocolate fountain they had on one of my visits did bring a big grin on my little niece’s face.

with pleasant, accommodative staff and reasonable price, this restaurant is a winner and i’d strongly recommend royal indiana to those who want to try a tastefull vegetarian feast, made with a lot of thought and care.

thestartersand the main course is really yummy and instagram worthy! do come here if you’re a vegetarian who loves a big buffet spread.they even serve freshly baked red velvet cheese cakes,black forest cakes and other decadent pastries.

delighted to be there for our wedding anniversary last week. 

with so many vegetarian items to satisfy our appetite, this restaurant is definitely a recommended one for pure vegetarians. 

there were around 10startersand all were nice. the main course was not disappointing too. and the desserts were outstanding (esp. the hot gulab jamun/ kaju watermelon).

the staff were very kind and provided a great service. the choice of music, though was mild, could have been better. 

being a week day, there was no crowd which made it feel like of an exclusive private party only for us!! got an additional delight in the form of a surprise cake which made the event even more memorable.