Royale Eatery – A Dining Experience

Tuesday 26 April 2011

It was a cold and stormy night with torrents of rain gushing down Long Street so it was a relief to find myself inside a cozy, warm environment that is the Royale Eatery. I was immediately struck by how comfortable the patrons looked as they were hugged by American-Diner style sofas and how the décor was strung together so tastefully under beautiful dimmed lighting.

I have been hearing enticing stories about Royale since it opened years ago and so had rather high expectations to begin with. Since turning vegetarian a little over 9 months ago I have been receiving endless feedback on their hamburgers and the word on the street is that they are some of the finest hamburgers on the planet. If only I wasn’t such an animal saviour, however a good friend of mine who is vegan told me about Royale’s Chickpea burger and guaranteed that it would blow me away. By the time we ordered our food it was already 10:35 and I had eaten rather handsomely earlier so I opted for a dessert instead and considering I don’t drink alcohol anymore I needed a sugar rush to blast me through the rest of the night, and thus my sugar dose was delivered in the form of a Malva pudding and ice cream with honey and crunchy caramel something that literally shot me to the moon and back. It was sensational. It felt as if the universe had conspired to place me in that precise spot surrounded by those beautiful people and delivered a Malva pudding of such magnitude that it changed my outlook on life and I briefly saw rays of sunshine coming from the moon.

It is not always easy to give a completely objective view on a restaurant as the overall experience can be drastically altered simply by one’s mood entering the restaurant. On entering my socks were literally soaked from the long walk down Long Street however my spirits were lifted by the people I was with. There is only one thing that can ruin a perfectly fantastic mood and that is:  bad service. Perhaps it was due to the fact that we were all so beautifully in synch but when I ordered my dessert it was as if the waitress literally took the words out of my mouth, she knew I wanted that Malva Pudding and she knew I wanted another cappuccino too. Infact all I had to was look up and make eye contact and without even having to open my mouth I got exactly what I wanted and so did everyone else.

 

The attention to detail at Royale is superb: I loved the fact that the menus are made to look like old fashioned, worn hard cover books and the overall branding is a lesson to be learnt for all restaurants. The theme felt coherent and I got the sense that the eyes behind the overall design were playful and yet restrained in all the right areas; the layout and design of the furniture was thoughtful and even the wall covered in hats which borders lightly on the “kitsch” side of the fence seemed to tell a story.

 I will be returning to the Royale Eatery very soon and I’ll tell all my friends about it. They struck a chord with me as they seem to do with everyone else, so at least they have their advertising taken care of and in the restaurant business word of mouth is the literally the word of God.