The disgraced restaurant Royal India, which has been hastily rebranded “Dastoor” and claimed to be “under new ownership” by the still-current-owner Aeisha Bhatti, has been kicked out of its Kirkland location for good. However, the Bhatti family and their longtime complicit managers, Alina Florescu and Estera Florescu, continue their thieving business as usual at their longtime Lynnwood location. It is well known that Royal India/Dastoor was recently operating at this location with an ice machine full of toxic black mold and that the business leads the state in wage theft complaints for non-chain restaurants (see Seattle Times article). The landlords allowing this restaurant to stay in business ought to be accountable to the community. 

The building at 7531 196th St SW in Lynnwood is co-owned by Alix Anne McDonough and Carl L, Hossman Jr., and managed by Strickland Real Estate Holdings, LLC (Rex T. Strickland and Thomas Strickland) in Mukilteo. These landlords should be ashamed of helping their tenants run such a shady business, and should follow the example of Royal India’s former Kirkland landlord in kicking their wage-thieving, food-and-fire-safety-regulation-violating asses out.

Workers at Royal India/Dastoor deserve to be paid properly and promptly for their work, and to be treated with respect. On March 25, 2023, members of the Seattle Solidarity Network went to the (former) Kirkland restaurant and delivered a demand to the Bhatti family to pay two former workers, Juan and Pedro, $130 and $1,500 respectively in stolen wages. These demands have not been met. Help us show Aeisha and Mohammad Rashid Bhatti that they cannot continue to steal from their workers and do business in our communities by boycotting the remaining Lynnwood location of Royal India/Dastoor until Juan and Pedro are paid what they are owed.