India Princess Royal Indian Cuisine

*** This location of India Princess has closed.

This past weekend, the Missus's long Indian food hibernation came to an end. We were walking past an Tandoori restaurant and she turned to me and said, "you'll think this is funny, but I want some Indian food". My reply, "so you want some corn and berries" earned me a dirty look. It's kind of a long story but, during my time doing consulting work in San Diego, the Missus became obsessed with Tandoori Chicken from a certain restaurant in San Diego. So I would have to pick up two to three orders when returning from San Diego. After four cycles of this behavior, the Missus had pretty much burned out on Tandoori Chicken and Indian food as a whole. That was five years ago. During that period we've kind of lost touch with Indian food, but it's a good thing that many Indian Restaurants feature lunch buffets; and India Princess is no exception.

This tiny storefront on Fourth Avenue is pretty deceiving. And it's a looong walk to the dining room.

Since it was the weekend, we went for the Champagne Brunch($11.95). While I went to place the validation ticket in the parking kiosk across the street the Missus got things underway. The buffet is set-up in 3 parts. A garnish, salad, chutney, and dessert section.

A middle vegetable and starch section, and a meat section.

While we were checking out the offerings our Garlic Naan arrived. The Missus forever being proactive had ordered this(it comes with the brunch) while I had stepped out. The Naan was just ok, we've had much better at other places. We enjoy ours more "toasted" and with a much more pronounced garlic flavor.

As with all buffets, there are hits and misses, Indian Princess was no exception. We both loved the Keema Mutter, basically ground/minced lamb with curry, peas, and other spices. We ate the Keema Mutter mixed with the Mint Chutney, making it delici-yoso!!! Surprisingly, I enjoyed several of the vegetarian dishes, the Zucchini Aloo was moist, mildly garlicky, with an almost buttery texture. The Channa Masala, had chickpeas(garbanzos) in a spicy tomato sauce, and was very enjoyable. We both enjoyed the Tandoori Chicken, though a bit on the milder side, was very moist, even the white meat portions. We also enjoyed a type of leavened "bread", the name of which I don't remember, but it reminded us a bit of Chinese steamed buns.

And of course there were the items that were less than satisfying. Specifically the Fish Maharani, in a coconut and curry sauce. The fish was grainy, dry, and tasted "off". It was obviously fish that had been frozen for a pretty long time. Both the Chicken Curry and Chicken Tikka Marsala were on the bland side.

Since we didn't desire any champagne, we got Diet Cokes and a Mango Lassi instead. This "sweet" yogurt drink was very refreshing, and palate cleansing. After tasting a specific dish, we'd take a sip of the Lassi to clear our palate.

If you're well versed on Indian food, a buffet may not interest you. For the fairly uninitiated, like us, a buffet allows us to get some culinary "footing". It also helps if the staff is as helpful as the Gentlemen working at India Princess. One of them actually went down the line,  explaining every item to the Missus, and was oh so helpful! It also helps to go a bit early before the restaurant gets too busy.

Some notes: Indian Princess serves a buffet lunch for $8.95 from Mondays through Fridays. The Champagne Brunch is served on Saturdays and Sundays for $11.95 from 11am to 3pm. The staff is very helpful and efficient. During the evenings and weekends there is validated free parking in the Medical Office Building across the street. The drill is, you park your car, and when you are seated you are given a "ticket"; you then go back out and across the street and place the ticket in the appropriate parking kiosk slot.

We had such a good time, and after eating 4 plates of food were so full that I forgot to take a photo of the storefront. So I went back to get one later on:

India Princess Royal Indian Cuisine 
3925 Fourth Ave.
San Diego, CA 92103

Comments

[clare eats]

Yeah it looks ok,
I know what you mean about the Naan. They should be "puffier" too.

[Reid]

Hi Kirk,

I like Indian food and it's a shame that there aren't any really good places here. I had excellent Indian food in Singapore and miss the Indian restaurants in NYC. There was one restaurant that I used to visit that had a snake charmer in the window.

That said, the food here looks tasty and for $8.95 during the week and $11.95 during the weekends, the price is right.

[Kirk]

Hi Clare - And yes, a little more "puffy"! That's right.....

Hi Reid - The food here was pretty good, at least to refresh our taste-memory, the service was excellent also. The prices are not bad as well.

[Pam]

Kirk!

Yeah, that is a loooong way to the dining room.

I noticed that when you said you picked up a few orders for your Missus when you "returned from San Diego"...did you take it on the plane w/ you to Hawaii? Did it smell up the plane at all? (Like Ham Ha with Ong Choy or Bahn Mi sandwiches...LOL!)

[Kirk]

Hi Pam - No it was just to LA, we lived in LA for several years before moving to San Diego. Though we have done chicken karaage, musubi's, and costco chicken on flights - though it's been kind of a deparved fantasy to take Ong Choi with Ham Ha....

[milgwimper]

Oh I love Indian food, and we have some really good ones up here. My Dh loves to chow down so much so I am thinking I will have to look into an indian cookbook. :) I am glad you enjoyed the meal. We also do a buffet here too, mainly because DH is so greedy he wants to taste many things. LOL He likes it because he can have curry and vindaloo, and tandoori chicken and you get the idea, all in one sitting instead of ording a Thali dinner. He doesn't like the indian sweets much except for the carrot bharfi and the indian rice pudding.

[milgwimper]

Thanks for the post on indian food Kirk, and I hope you get to try many different things in the cuisine. I am still trying new things myself.

[Beth]

Thanks for the post, Kirk. I've been really intrigued by Indian food lately. I'm trying to work up the nerve to try cooking some at home. But I don't know that much about it and I'm intimidated.

Anyway, we went to Monsoon (upscale place) in the Gaslamp last weekend and it was great. My husband LOVES LOVES LOVES Ashoka the Great's lunch buffet on Black Mtn. Road. That's about as far as my experience with Indian food goes. I think the consensus is that SD doesn't have good Indian food, right?

/rambling

[howie]

People always say that SD doesn't have any good Indian food, but honestly I've been pretty happy with a few places. It could be that it's because I've never had *real* Indian food.

I like Bombay (not Bombay Express) in Hillcrest. I tried Monsoon, and it could be that it was because it was new, but the service was slow, and the meat in the curries we had were a bit tough. Strange since Bombay and Monsoon are the same owners.

I also like KC's Tandoori in Mission Valley. And Sitar in the Scranton food court in Sorrento Valley.

[Kirk]

Hi Mills - I think Indian Buffets are pretty good as a whole; you get alot of different tastes.

Hi Beth - I'm a bit intimidated by the unfamiliar herbs and other ingredients, but I think I'll try a chickpea recipe that I've got my eye on.

Hi Howie - I've been told that there is pretty good Indian Food in San Diego. KC Tandoor's ownership has changed, but the food looks the same. That's the place the Missus used to love the take-out from. I know that Bombay Express is long gone, isn't it?

[Julie]

Give Punjabi Tandoor a try - near Little India area on Activity Road (they have a website too). It's the best Indian food in San Diego!

[Brian]

Went to India Princess over the weekend. The food was tasty, and the staff really helpful. Our waiter actually went across the street to put the validation ticket in the kiosk for me, rather than just handing me the ticket for me to walk over.

The looong walk to the dining room is all dining area now with booths lined along both walls.

[fruit machines]

I just love Indian food. Once i visited India along with my parents and the food culture there was really amazing and very diversified. Varied languages and food habits are India's identity.
There we enjoyed many food there like naan, aloo ka parantha, tandoori chicken etc.
I would definitely like to visit there as soon as possible :)

[Brian]

Visited the Indian Princess location on Black Mountain Rd over the weekend (9494 Black Mountain Road, San Diego, CA 92126). Found the staff there to be wonderfully helpful as well. At one point my girlfriend and I got to talking and neglecting our food. Our server, noticing that our food had remained untouched for awhile, came over and offered to warm up our dishes for us.

Food quality was great, too. I'll be back. Oh, and I got a deal on a gift certificate from restaurant.com. (http://www.restaurant.com/microsite.asp?rid=337418&mcn=00040400)

[Brian]

I believe the Hillcrest India Princess is now closed. :( Went there for dinner the other night and there was a banner out front that said the space was available for lease.

[Kirk]

Hi Brian - Thanks! Yes, the HC location has closed. I'm kinda behind on keeping up with old posts!