On 27 October the Curry Critics set out for a meal in Royal Budhha, a Nepali Indian Restaurant in Calle Ciscar in the heart of Valencia’s city nightlife. On this occasion, Nitu sat out the meal as she has been arranging a Diwali event there, and to preserve our independence it was felt better if the rest of us went anonymously. We invited Videk, an independent Indian foodie to join us.
Royal Buddha is clean and bright when you enter and we were given a very good welcome by the waiter who had, it turned out, only worked there a couple of days. We were shown to our table and offered drinks, ordering a bottle of Marina Alta (dry Moscatel from Bodegas Bocopa in DO Alicante)
The attention by our waiter as we ordered was outstanding. He gave us helpful advice, recommended a couple of dishes and offered us different levels of spiciness and heat for what we eventually chose to eat. Nothing seemed to be too much to ask!
The menu has upwards of 150 dishes and a very reasonable wine list where the markup is between 200% on the cheaper wines but not more than 50% on the most expensive.
The family running the restaurant are Nepali in origin and there was a birthday party at the far end of the dining area where the kids were celebrating without affecting the experience of others. Nepali food is different in some aspects from Northern and Southern Indian or Pakistani dishes so we were looking forward to seeing how the dishes compared with other Nepali restaurants where we have eaten independently in the past. It would be fair to say we were not disappointed generally!
We ordered three starters to follow the papadums and chutneys (4) which were fairly standard. The Prawn on Puri was adequate, not the biggest, but sufficient, the sauce lacking some heat and the prawns not the freshest. The Seekh kebabs were a little dry and to some a little too firm again lacking in heat but we were spoiled in Lal Qila! The momo-C (a Nepali and Indian variety of the Japanese Gyozo and Chinese dumpling) were interesting. They consist of a meat patty inside the flour-based covering which are then boiled or steamed and which were served with a hotter version of the sauce accompanying the Prawn on Puri. we all noted white onions rather than red had been included in both sauces.
The tandoor is a ‘harsh mistress’ and the seekh kebabs could simply have been the result of overcooking. Nitu had eaten there on a previous occasion and had found them to be very good.
Matt found the Momos to be very tasty, something we would all agree on.
For the main courses we chose Nepali Lamb Sekuwa, Haryali chicken, Lamb saag and the fourth dish was to be a surprise, asking for something the chef wanted to showcase. It turned out to be a Methi Chicken. Two were ordered mild and the other two with a degree more heat.
The four of us would say the dishes were all excellent, with a completely different range of flavours and spicing.
Haryali chicken is now a firm favourite and one of our reference dishes. Having complained on a previous occasion about the lack of mint in the green sauce it was somewhat an irony that if anything the mint was too powerful on this occasion. The meat was beautifully tender and moist but could have done with a bit more charring…..again a matter of seconds in the tandoor.
The Methi chicken was cooked well with Nepali spices, the sauce was tasty and it made an interesting contrast to the usual masala we include!
The two lamb dishes were outstanding. The lamb saag was very tasty, tender and creamy and Marian found this to be her favourite. The Lamb Sekuwa was large chunks of tender tandoori Lamb, well-grilled and not charred, which were an eye-opener. There was a spicy curry sauce to go with the Haryali and the Sekuwa which was very well made.
Collectively this was the best set of main courses we have enjoyed anywhere and consistently well-cooked with the widest variation of flavours. We may have liked a slightly higher degree of spicing or heat but there were no complaints.
They were accompanied by a plain naan, the fluffiest and most authentic we have tasted, a cheese naan which oozed its interior and was very tasty, and a pilau rice coloured with saffron and spiced with cumin seeds.
The portion size was good, we finished almost everything except for a bit of rice.
The ambience was fine (Nitu even got to choose the music when she went) and she highly rates the dry chicken chili which is one of the house specials. The restaurant and its toilets were clean and overall service was a 10/10.
Next time I think we would choose the most expensive white wine , the Anma White (Garnacha Blanca) from Chozas Carrascal (DO Utiel Requena) but the Marina Alta worked well with the flavours of the food we ordered.
Price-wise for a restaurant in the city centre it scores highly, we paid 27€ a head which included two bottles of wine.
We would definitely recommend Royal Buddha and award an 8/10 score. This was a real pleasure.