Royal Punjabi Tandoori Indian new restaurant opens in East Street, Rockhampton

Manmeen Minhas has opened a restaurant in Rockhampton again after a few years away from the dining scene, with a focus on an affordable but delicious buffet.

How does all you can eat for $25 sound?

If that tickles your fancy, check out Rockhampton’s newest restaurant, Royal Punjabi Tandoori Indian.

The Indian restaurant is located in East Street, in the former TruFusion space, across from the closed Kern Arcade.

The menu includes all of your traditional Indian foods from samosas, vindaloo, curries, madras, korma and more, and has a focus on Tandoor cooking.

Meat options include chicken, lamb, beef and goat with an ample selection of vegetarian meals as well.

For desserts, there is a variety of fresh sweets which are all made in house.

There is also a buffet menu, $25 per person for meat options and $18.50 for vegetarian, with 10 dishes on offer, and you can top your plate up as many times as you want.

Owner and cook Manmeen Minhas has a focus on authentic Indian cooking and has almost 30 years experience working in hospitality in Australia.

He first worked in a restaurant in Sydney before opening his own in the capital city, then he moved to Mission Beach where his brother had a restaurant and then to Rockhampton in 2006.

It’s not the first restaurant Manmeen Minhas has had in the space; he previously owned and ran Punjabi Indian Tandoori, which he had for 12 years before he sold the business to TruFusion Indian Bar and Grill.

Trufusion moved to the restaurant space at The Edge Apartment Hotel in December 2020 and Mr Minhas decided to open a restaurant in the East Street space again.

The restaurant is open for dinner at this stage with plans to open for lunch in the future.

Mr Minhas is still looking for staff and has found it quite hard to recruit.

“It is very hard to get staff at the moment, I couldn’t get any so I am doing mostly all of it myself,” he said.

“There is a shortage of staff in Queensland, a lot of people like to live in the big cities and like to come to the countryside.”

Positions vacant include cook staff, kitchen hand, waiter/waitress and staff manager.