The Royal Rasoi

From 2015 through 2024, an Indian restaurant named The Royal Rasoi operated out of a somewhat hard-to-find location in a Lake Forest plaza, just off the I-5 freeway. Intrigued by the “royal” name, which in other cities historically signaled that an Indian restaurant had upscale ambitions – at least enough for superior cooking, and possibly atypical menu items – we checked it out, and although we discovered a fairly typical Indian restaurant with a lunch buffet, wound up eating there twice.

During dinner, we were impressed by the quality of their Indian dishes, including heavenly spiced onion bhaji fritters, an especially strong vindaloo, and really good naans. The menu also included a handful of Indo-Chinese options such as chilli chicken and garlic shrimp, as is fairly typical of local Indian restaurants, as well as some western Goan items. Largely on the strength of our dinner experience, which was definitely above par by local standards (though not especially “royal”-style upscaled), we decided to return.