In a nutshell:

Delicious & ‘almost real’ Chinese Cuisine served in a nice ambience.

Address & other details: Royal China

Cuisine type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Meal for 2: Rs. 1000 onwards

Short description : In case u r in a hurry:

Chinjabi lovers, beware. This is the real thing & u may not like some of it as much. Those who have developed a taste for the real thing will however have a ball of a time.

The Restaurant looks like any other high end restaurant I have come across in Hongkong & China. The restaurant with full Glass walls, being located in a Highrise enables u to enjoy the view of the city while dining. Ambience is nice & enjoyable.

The staff seems to have been a major issue when the restaurant started – as I have been told by some friends. However, on the two anonymous visits (I did not divulge my identity) to this place, I had a good experience on this front. In fact the guy named Suneil who served us on both the occasions, was extraordinarily good at his job. He was very well versed with the products on offer & made some good suggestions that enlivened our dining experience. In absence of Suneil, another guy popped in for 5 minutes & he was surely a disaster. So, I guess staff training still needs to b prioritized by the Management.

The food & overall experience was so memorable that we returned back for some more in a short span of 10 days.

Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:

Day 1:
We thought of trying Peking Duck here. The options are full duck or half duck. We chose the half duck option for he three of us.
Duck meat is usually stiff & not as good in texture as Chicken. However, the Chinese method of cooking Peking Duck reverses the whole game & thus tames the duck meat into a super soft super juicy texture.

The peking Duck served at Royal China had a very thin & very crispy outer layer and as expected, a soft & juicy meat inside. This was served with a dark brown sauce, that had hint of both sweet n salt. Among other ingredients, the sauce was made using the juices generated during roasting of the duck.

The Peking Duck tasted very good with the sauce. It tasted subtle & good as it is too.

The duck came with three accompaniments – pancakes, baby thin spring onion & cucumber slices.The pancake was not like the traditional European thick & sweet pancake. This one was actually like a super thin & super soft roti envelop made with maida. The envelop means it had two layers between which u cud pour the filling.

The thin slices of cucumber did not have the seeds.

So, u wud have to assemble cucumber & baby thin spring onion urself & pop in the Peking duck wrapped in super thin & super soft pancake envelop inside ur mouth.

Liked it a lot but I still feel that the Peking Duck served at The China Kitchen, Hyatt Delhi is much better & more magical than this one. The one at Smoke House Room, Delhi is also better than this. So I wud rate the Peking Duck here as the third best in Delhi.

Second in row was Steamed fresh scallops.Wow. Super soft, melt in the mouth, buttery & unbelievably good. This was served in a pool of thin brown sauce that was non uniform in texture. The sauce was so good in taste that we finished it off with spoon till the last drop. The scallops on their own, the sauce on its own & the scallops alongwith the sauce – all these options were great. My second best scallop experience in Delhi (first one being at Smoke House Room, Delhi).

Seafood dimsum with ginger & chilli oil came next. The Chilli oil was too good. It had a definite flavor & taste to it unlike the mindless tasteless red chilli sauce that is served at most Chinjabi joints. The Chilli oil along with the outstanding dimsums made a great combo. Loved this dish as well.

Minced tenderloin dumpling was the last item we had on day 1 – soft, thin translucent outer layer. The meat inside was high density, had lots of flavor & good taste. However, the texture could have been much better if the meat was hand pounded instead of making a smooth paste. I wud give a 3.5 /5 for this dish.

For desserts, we ordered Fried ice cream. This was not the tastiest dessert ever but it had a huge fun element to it. An icecream scoop was layered & deep fried for few seconds in bubbling oil. The result was a crispy 5mm thick crispy crust & a solid but semi molten ice cream within. The fried ice cream balls were then topped with molten chocolate. Enjoyed it.

We also tried a sweet dimsum.

The dimsum was super soft, warm , mildly flavored & looked like a boiled egg from within.

Day 2:

On Day 2, we ordered a rather unusual vegetarian dish – Sesame potato. It turned out to be a thin layer of mashed potato topped with sesame & then baked. The result of this over simplified dish was however cool. It was superb to taste. The mid layer of the potato was soft & the outer layer (that touches the base) became a tad crisp & interesting. The sesame on the top released oil & flavors.

Overall the texture reminded me of a bread toast that is crispy on the outside & soft inside.

Next came Mixed seafood with lettuce wrap. It was a heap of subtly cooked mixed seafood with veggies thrown in – tasted outstanding. Iceberg Lettuce was served along with this – We wrapped the seafood in lettuce & munched away to glory………… reminded me of my numerous China trips when I wud freak out on this (to me then) new dish. U can of course spice it up with the mayo or the outstanding chilli sauce mentioned above.

Post this came an unbelievably super soft dimsum (looks like Bengali dish partishapta) named fish cheung fun. It was bland as it is, slightly slippery & tastes good as it is (for those who have started appreciating the real China cuisine). For everyone else, this tastes great with the mayo based sauce & tastes even better with the chilli sauce served.

Followed by the Fish was Tenderloin crisp – shredded tenderloin crispy fried & sautéed in a sweet n’ salt sauce, served on a bowl made of crispy noodles!!!! This dish gave me mixed feelings. I have had something similar in China on several occasions but the sauce was different & less sweet. The sauces that I have had this with in China had an interesting twist to it but the one at Royal China failed to come up with the kick. My fellow diners who have not been to China liked this though, since they had no point of reference.

The second last dish for the evening was Steamed whole fresh fish – in our case the fish was Snapper. We were recommended to have this with ginger spring onion sauce by the Gentleman who served us. This dish again gave me mixed feelings. While the taste of the sauce was good & authentic, the choice of fish probably had some limitations. The fish that I have always had in such dishes is softer & juicier but the one here was relatively dry (not juicy within). I think that is to do with the choice of fish & the best the Restaurant cud do is to source fish that is available in India. Once again, my fellow diners who did not have a reference point, liked this dish.

The Showstopper for the evening was however Flaming Prawn in Superior Sauce. It came with a bang – in a lidded container, with flames & a lot of dramatics.

Awesome presentation, amazing aroma. Ecstasy continued when we bit into it – it burst out with flavors & had an outstanding taste. Loved it.

Overall – Loved the place & the food. Some dishes are surely better elsewhere & service still needs to be better in some cases & most importantly, consistent. Ambience is great & we have good memories of two fine evenings.