Royal Parasol

Rating: Excellent
Meal:  Lunch for 3 people (plus extra bread to try)
Price:  6,000 yen
Payment:  Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Chicken Curry set, Non-Vegetarian Dosa set, Lamb Biryani, naan, roti, paratha, chapati
English Menu: Yes

Smoking: No

Stop the presses!  We have finally found the best Indian food in Japan so far!  I can't believe we haven't found it before because it's about 30 minutes away from us in Hayama and has been open for 6 years.  But the other week a friend at work saw it and asked if we would go there sometime with his family.  Well, he's been gone travelling for a while and it was Memorial day today, so we needed to figure out what to do with ourselves.  We decided to try this place called Royal Parasol out.

It's a bit of a drive, probably quite difficult to get to via public (though possible, a bus does go out there).  It's a bit south of Hayama proper, along a road that skirts the west side of the Miura Peninsula.  There are a few parking spots available, so as long as you don't show up right during a busy hour you should be good to park.

Here are some of the menu pages from lunch:

As you can see the prices are a bit higher than usual for lunch specials.  But...they are absolutely worth it!  Finally we have found real Indian flavors here in Japan, and (relatively) close to us!  My son got the chicken curry with a single naan piece.  That naan was humongous!  And it wasn't sweet!  Neither was the chicken curry!  My dish was the Dumbok Zafrani Biryani set (lamb) which was made from real basmati rice.  The flavors floating up were so amazing I made everyone at the table smell it once.  It also came with a yogurt/cucumber sauce for adding some creaminess.  My wife's dish was the non-vegetarian dosa thali set (dosa are usually vegetarian).  She got keema for the inside of the dosa.  A dosa is basically a large crepe-like thing wrapped in a tube with stuff inside.  A thali is the term for lots of little small strong tasting Indian dishes that come on a single plate with some rice or bread.  In this case it came with the dosa.  All three of our sets came with a salad, which was very good, and our choice of drinks.  My son got the regular sweet lassi and my wife the masala chai.  I noted that they had a salt lassi ON THE MENU (gasp) and asked if I could have that instead.  He said for the lunch sets I would have to pay extra, which I was fine with.  It was delicious, if a little thick, but that is easily solved by drinking some and adding water.  It's like doubling your drink.

Dosa Thali Set

Biryani

Chicken Curry with Naan

We also had to try all of the bread.  You already heard about the naan, but we also ordered roti, chapati, and paratha.  I think the chapati was my favorite, but it was all very good.  Everything was made with what looked like whole wheat, and it was clearly made there at the restaurant and not trucked in.

Chicken Tandoori

Oh, I almost forgot about something that came with my wife's dish...the chicken tandoori.  This was amazing!  It had a lemon zestiness to it and encrusted with spices.

Salt Lassi, Salad and Soup

They also gave us (on the house) some little soups with our salads.  These started the entire meal off on an incredible foot that indicated where things were going with the complexity of flavors.



Last but not least were some little pudding dessert things.  We think they were either vanilla or almond flavored, but they were great, not too overwhelming.

By this time we were about to burst and we had each eaten about half of our meals.  So we asked for some containers and packed everything up.  Dinner is now taken care of.

We will definitely be returning to this place and will bring everyone we can think of.  This place deserves to be far better known.

Pudding for Dessert

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Update 1/2/2016:  We went back for a meal at Royal Parasol the other night and were once again blown away by how incredible it is.  We were beginning to doubt our memory as some people were not raving as much as we had.  I can only conclude they don't have a clue as to what they are talking about.  Royal Parasol remains the best Indian south of Tokyo that we have discovered so far.  Some spots in Tokyo might be a bit better, but not much.