After Tim Kontoff’s first shift working at Royal India Bistro in 2013, Ravinder Singh, 42, co-owner of the restaurant, said to Kontoff, “You get dinner at the end of the shift. What do you want?”
Kontoff, a self-proclaimed picky eater, declined. Singh didn’t push. He simply sent Kontoff home with chicken tikka masala “for you or anyone in your family.”
Singh remembers the next time Kontoff, now 32, showed up for his shift. Kontoff said, “You know, that was really good. What else do you recommend?”
Singh’s unruffled demeanor was on brand. He and his brother Jatinder Singh, 40, have together spent 16 years building Royal India Bistro into a cozy 1,200 square-foot restaurant where young employees are given the space to grow and develop valuable skills; diners can expand their palate for delectable Indian food with no judgment behind their choices; and the owners uplift the community with their brand of mentorship and hospitality.
Rutie MacKenzie-Margulies, 28, remembers dining at the restaurant when she was in middle school. “I could not decide if I wanted a lemonade or mango lassi. Ravinder overheard this and he came over with two small cups — one of each drink, and said, ‘It’s okay, you don’t have to choose; you can have both.’” Ravinder’s compassion made such an impression on MacKenzie-Margulies that over a decade later, she shares this anecdote with the customer service teams that she leads at the University of Puget Sound to illustrate the impact that a simple gesture can make.
Today, chicken tikka masala — the first dish typically offered to Americans unfamiliar with Indian cuisine and allegedly developed in Glasgow by a chef from Punjab, the same region from which the Singh brothers hail — still makes up a quarter of sales at the restaurant. But since the restaurant first opened in 2010, customers have become gradually more interested in the diversity of flavors and preparations of food from the entire Indian subcontinent.
That the town has become more knowledgeable about Indian food is no accident. The energy that the Singhs invest in Lexington — currently employing 28 high school students — sends cultural awareness and culinary knowledge of India back into the community.
“Royal India Bistro is a local treasure,” says Lexington resident and Punjab native Ravneet Grewal. “It is the star of North Indian food around here.” Kuldip Singh, 62, the brothers’ father, “does all of the cooking,” says Jatinder, adding that both he and Ravinder jump behind the stove when needed. “We try to do home food as much as we can,” Jatinder said, including grinding their own spices and making their own yogurt.
Every other month, specials rotate onto the menu. Basil coconut shrimp was added as a special years ago; customers won’t let it come off. Lightly charred tandoori-baked shrimp with crispy tails are cooked in a curry that is brightened by ginger and lemongrass, softened by aromatic, wilted basil leaves, and thickened by coconut milk. The rich sauce is full of warm garam masala spice and dangerously addictive.
“Their recipes have been even more amazing lately,” Grewal says, naming chicken royal pasanda, a curry with roots in the Mughal dynasty and with a name that translates to “favorite,” as one example of a stellar dish. Chicken thighs are diced into bite-sized pieces and cooked in savory spiced coconut milk with cauliflower that is soft but not mushy, and onions and peppers that add a depth of flavor so the dish is more than just creamy. Jatinder attributes the dish’s popularity to the darker meat, which he says is juicier.
Since September, I have eaten their shahi bhindi bhuna, a pan-fried okra dish, four times, and concur with Grewal; the recipe continues to improve. The dish has morphed from an okra and tomato stir-fry with lingering vegetable juices into a drier-but-not-dry stir fry in which each bite is a flavor bomb of tomato sweetness and warm spice, with no juices left on the dish after the last piece of okra is eaten — which it will be, because it’s addictive.
Lexington resident Tuna Chatterjee is Bengali, and says that while most Indians don’t eat like this on a daily basis, her family gets excited to order from Royal once a week, describing the food as “great party fare.” Samosas, naan, pappadum, and chicken tikka masala delight her children, while masala dosas — the breakfast of her childhood in Tamil Nadu — are enjoyed by all. Goan fish curry — a wet curry that you’d be forgiven for confusing with a Caribbean dish given the shredded coconut, coconut milk, and spice — is a sometimes treat for Chatterjee. Close your eyes while eating this dish and palm trees blowing in the wind may appear.
The 35-seat dining room is wrapped in tomato-red painted walls and warm pendant lighting; an accent wall features a colorful, abstract mural of an Indian city skyline over dark wooden panels. White tablecloths peek out from under glass tabletops, and the wood seats are cushioned. The vibe is warm, unpretentious and casual, just as the restaurant’s bistro name suggests.
In contrast, the restaurant’s catering menu is titled “Luxury Indian Fusion.” Photos of catered events are more fitting of the royal descriptor in the restaurant’s name. Elaborate displays of pristine copper serving dishes filled with freshly made curries, lace-rimmed pedestals stacked with street food-inspired canapes and gilded tiered trays loaded with one-bite desserts made to impress.
After immigrating to the United States with their parents in 2005, Ravinder and Jatinder each worked for a different uncle who owned multiple Indian restaurants in the Greater Boston area. The brothers worked every position in their uncles’ restaurants because “uncle says you have to know everything,” says Jatinder, who had just graduated from high school when he left India. Ravinder was in his first year of studying business in college when he left India, and initially began studies to become an electrician with his cousin. Ultimately, he decided to partner with his brother to open a restaurant instead of going into the trades. Ravinder and Jatinder weren’t especially close growing up, but working together since 24 and 26 years of age has taught them to see each other’s strengths.
Jatinder describes the restaurant as “family-owned.” Three employees have been with the restaurant since it opened, and five have been there for at least three years. On one visit, I meet Aman Deep, 37, Jatinder’s wife, who is working because they are currently understaffed. And then, there are the 28 students. This is more like an extended family-by-choice enterprise.
Years after her lemonade and lassi indecision, MacKenzie-Margulies became the first of hundreds of high school students hired at the restaurant. “They started me on a pretty small set of tasks that were simple. As I’d master the core skills, they’d ask me to do something new and they’d model it and answer questions,” MacKenzie-Margulies said to describe her training.
Ten years later, the hiring and training program remains informal and grounded in a focus on mastery, the bedrock of some of the best learning systems. Current student employees vouch for other hardworking students in search of a job and are brought in for an interview that is usually a formality. Current employees teach the new employees as they were taught: by example, one step at a time.
Three former employees who spoke with LexObserver all mentioned the intensity and fast-paced nature of the work, how Ravinder and Jatinder lead by example, and the space that the brothers have carved out for their student employees to learn, grow, and make mistakes along the way, while still feeling critical to the mission.
“They work hard and are relentless in their energy output towards work. They didn’t expect us to keep that pace, but I wanted to keep up,” says Kontoff, who worked at the restaurant on and off for nine years after graduating from Waldorf High School of Massachusetts Bay in Belmont.
Because this is a first job for many students, it is important to the brothers that it be a positive experience. “We allow the students to make mistakes and we help fix them,” Ravinder says. The brothers did not grow up in a forgiving environment like this, but “you learn from that,” says Jatinder. And it’s working. Meeting mistakes with help instead of judgment has yielded a decade of high performance from a young staff.
One skill that Aman Singh (no relation), 19, learned from working at the restaurant is how to better manage himself in stressful environments. “I remember I was in a rush with dirty dishes on a tray one night. Jatinder stopped me and said it’s okay, don’t rush, be careful. Now on those busy days, I know what to do. Even if there are five things that need to be done, I know they can’t all be done at once so I do them one at a time,” Aman said.
“Ravinder has a way to be so locked in and also relaxed. It’s comforting to be around him because it feels like he’s got things under control. But he’s also very genuine, heartfelt, and vulnerable in sharing his emotions,” said Kontoff.
“I credit that I’ve been able to get to where I am today by working with Ravinder and Jatinder. I am grateful they believed in me and gave me free rein to grow and make mistakes — which I did, many times. They were so gracious, so patient, and I never felt nervous to go to work,” MacKenzie-Margulies said. “One of the places that makes Lexington home is Royal. Aside from my family’s cooking, when I’m homesick, I’m homesick to eat Royal.”
Matthew Pronchick, 34, a 2010 Lexington High School graduate, never worked at the restaurant, but because his friends did, he too became friends with Ravinder and Jatinder, and the restaurant became a third place and locus for him. “I love Indian food. I think it’s one of the most important food cultures on the planet,” Pronchick said. “Even my family who are boomer white people ask, ‘do you want to get Royal tonight?’ It’s changed their palate quite a bit as well.”
Over the summer, Pronchick volunteered at Busa Farm and brought oversized eggplants that were unfit for retail sale to the restaurant to be cooked into baingan bharta. “They just know how to cook [eggplant] better, so they can deal with the big ones,” Pronchick said. Even as increasing prices are a strain on the business, Jatinder is happy to buy the more expensive local eggplants because they taste better, and he also wants to support the local economy.
In February 2026, Pronchick and three former employees, including Kontoff, traveled to India with Ravinder. Ravinder reveled in recalling when the once-picky Kontoff ordered baingan bharta, a mashed eggplant curry full of smoke and spice that is more rustic and homey than the polished, made-for-foreigners classics. The restaurant sent a staff member out to buy eggplant just for Kontoff. “That was one of my favorite baingan bharthas in India,” Ravinder remembers Kontoff saying.
Reflecting on the two-week trip, Kontoff said, “They’ve seen our hometown — it felt fitting to go to theirs.”