royal india downtown

had a great dinner last night at royal india restaurant in the gaslamp. it's on market at 4th, where bayou bar and grill used to be. it's elegantly decorated inside, and has several tables just off the sidewalk, but unfortunately there were no 3-tops ready when we got there.

royal india had some of the best indian food i've had in a while - the chicken karahi curry that i had (chicken and green peppers in a spicy red curry) was perfect, and the spinach naan i used to mop up the sauce was very tasty. good samosas too - although they misunderstood us and gave us 3 orders of these, i was glad they had. the chicken tikka masala that jay and our friend mike had was quite good also.

i read on the yelp site that they validate horton plaza parking here for free (beware a few of the "reviews" on that page for this place), but that's just during the daytime, apparently. no problem, it was fun to walk up 4th to the drugstore there for a pack of gum that earns 3 hours of free parking (without validation: $18) with everyone out on the streets.

incidentally, we did see a huge line for the new bar in the ivy hotel. on broadway also had a big line for that hour (10 pm). not so much: martini ranch, which seems to be suffering from the presence of all the new, less-tired clubs it's competing with.