Eatery - Royal Khyber (CA)
1621 W Sunflower Ave, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Pricing - $$$/$$$$ | Dining - Dressy | Cuisine - Indian
www.royalkhyber.com
I had remembered seeing this as one of the restaurants during OC Restaurant Week but never got a chance to make it over here. However, a recent acquiring of a $25 for $50 deal led to an expedition here for a nice dinner out. When I was looking at the menu online, I realized just how pricey the entrees were, especially from the typically priced Indian food I see. After getting lost for a long time leading to being almost half an hour late for the reservation, we finally got there and walked in feeling a little underdressed (a nice top + jeans weren't exactly the norm). Oh well.
The very, very low lighting made it difficult to take quality pictures but I managed to snag a few. We were started with this starter I've seen before in another sit-down Indian restaurant but still don't know the name of (researching time!). It was nice and not as salty as the one I had had prior. It had some dipping sauces too. As for drinks, we ordered the mango lassi but man was it salty here! Weird! We only drank it to quell the heat from the spices in our entrees later - otherwise, it was pretty bad.
I ordered the Khyber's Nectar since I have a penchant for ordering items w/the restaurant's name in the title; I mean why would they slap a name on there unless they were proud of it? It was a lamb shank in their special Khyber sauce (14 hour-long process) served with naan and rice pilaf. It was crazy how soft the meat was as it fell off the bone at a touch. To be honest, loved the sauce but could hardly taste it in the shank. It was good but not memorable. He ordered the Methi Chicken Punjabi, our favored of the two; it was chicken breast in a sauce of green chili, yogurt, and fenugreek gravy served with naan and rice pilaf. So delicious! The chicken had a nice taste of the oven to it too.
We also ordered their onion basil naan which is probably the best naan I've ever had. We also got a side of the saag paneer which isn't a dish he has liked in the past but he liked this one. I enjoyed it too but after a while, began to question whether it had begun to curdle or not as it got sourer as I kept eating. It was a generally good meal but for the price? I wouldn't come back.
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