BY VEENA RAO

For lovers of Kerala cuisine, and for foodies who are hungry for variety, Royal Indian Cuisine in Duluth has recently introduced several traditional dishes from God’s Own Country. Chicken stew, vegetable stew and seafood dishes are fast becoming popular items on the Royal a la carte menu.
“That makes us the only restaurant in Atlanta to serve Kerala style food,” says new owner Dhana Shekar, a Deloitte employee by day, and restaurateur by passion. He runs Royal India cuisine along with partner, Washington DC based Chandra Shekar, with help from manager Selva Kumar. The restaurant staff and management are gearing up to celebrate Onam on August 22nd with a Kerala style buffet and ambiance.

Royal India Cuisine continues to be a unique restaurant, serving authentic dishes that are not available on any other menu in Atlanta. Savory and sweet paniyarams, idiyappams, palappams, appams, kothu parathas, karaikudi chicken dosas, quails, crab curry… the list goes on. The Royal idlies continue to be the softest in the city, says Shekar. “We recently had a idli-sambhar, medu vadai and pongal fest for 450 people which was a huge success.”
There are other popular items on the menu that sometimes appear on the lunch buffet- chicken tikka masala, chicken madras curry, chicken chettinad, Andhra style chicken curry, malabar fish curry, fish kolambu, goat biriyani, goat pepper fry, avail, kara kozhambu, baingan bhartha, Punjabi kadi- patrons have over 185 items on the menu to choose from! 
The weekday lunch buffet has over 25 items for $8.99, while the weekend buffet has over 40 items and is priced at $11.99. The restaurant also has a banquet facility that can seat up to 60 people, which is a regular meeting ground for several Atlanta associations that are supported with discounted prices. Royal also has tied up with large private halls that can accommodate 100 to 300 people.
“We also do onsite dosa, appam and paniyaram parties apart from regular catering,” adds Shekar.

The restaurant was recently renovated to create a cozy ambiance, with large pictures that depict scenes from the real Indian life. “Our motto is to encourage patrons to sit long, relax, chitchat and laugh often,” says Shekar. Royal is a regular hangout for many patrons who now know the personable wait staff and the chefs by name, he adds.

The two young partners have plans of expanding to the Washington DC area. “Ever since I heard that Madras Woodlands catered for the White House Diwali party, it is my dream to do just that,” laughs Shekar. “We continue to grow and serve better each day inspired by the words, “Love all serve all’.”