Address: 3587 Sheppard Avenue East
Type of Meal: Dinner
The Royal is the old school style Chinese restaurant with
minimal décor, tightly packed tables and brightly lit neon signs proudly
showcasing what customers can expect to eat – fresh seafood. At the very least,
be thankful they kept their walls white so all the colours don’t become too
overwhelming.
Following the traditional family style restaurants, The
Royal also posts bright hand written dishes along the walls. Some of these
items are on their menu, with the paper acting to further entice customers, while
others added later so are left off the printed menu. Unfortunately, for some dishes we ordered that night it was the later so not all pricing is include
below.
A big bowl of complementary pork bone soup is brought out
and served. Having been boiled for hours the broth is flavourful but could be
hotter.
Afterwards, dishes are presented in quick succession. The sweet
and sour pork ($8.95) was delicious containing big chunks of juicy pork, fried
crispy and encased in a nice strong sauce.
You really can’t visit this place without having some
seafood. Since we had a larger table we ordered their big lobster which was on
special for $11.99 a pound; we asked for a smaller one but it was still five
pounds. The Royal can prepare it a number of ways – stir fried with green
onions & ginger, steamed with garlic or deep fried with chili and salt. We
opted for the “bay fung tong” style which is deep fried and then stir fried
with a spicy ground beef mixture. All in all, the dish had good flavours and the
lobster was plump and sweet.
With the tomalley, the flavourful gooey mixture found in the
lobster’s head, a second dish was made by steaming it with egg. This is great
for mixing into steamed rice to give it a silky richness. I only wish there was
less ginger as the Chef went a bit overboard with it causing me to have to pick
some out before eating.
The XO-sauce stir fried fish fillet with vegetables ($9.95)
appeared to be a popular dish. The fish may have been frozen as I found the
texture a tad soft and not the best quality, but the XO flavours was pronounced
and had a great heat to it. Tossed with it were crispy snow peas and celery. A
decent dish but for the price I’d suggest going with the seafood bird’s nest
instead.
There is more seafood within the bird’s nest ($15.95) - shrimp,
squid and scallop. All were in fairly big pieces simply stir fried with more of
the customary snow pea and celery. Thankfully, at Royal they still make
their bird’s nest with slivers of taro (some restaurants are taking the easy
way out and using wonton wrappers instead). But, the taro needs to be shredded
thinner as the nest was a tad hard.
For greens we ordered the baby bok choy with enoki mushrooms
($7.45). In the saucy mixture on top there were also slices of Chinese black
mushrooms and grated carrots. In all, it was good but could benefit from more
salt.
Although arriving piping hot, the deep fried pork chop with
chili and salt ($8.95) was only average as the spice mixture didn’t stick to
the meat. So, the dish became somewhat lackluster unless you made the effort to
spoon some of the spices back on.
Not being a huge fan of the next dish, I skipped with deep
fried oyster with green onions in hot pot, but it was happily enjoyed but the
rest of the table.
To end, the complementary dessert. Sometimes you’ll get a
sweet red bean soup but during our visit it was a plate of sliced oranges – I
guess a boost of vitamin C never hurts in the winter time.
The Royal isn’t very big; so, if you don’t make a reservation
or arrive early expect a queue. During our Sunday dinner there was a fair
amount of patrons waiting for a table. However, food comes out quickly and service
is friendly and efficient so no one seemed to have waited long.
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Gastro World's Grading System
- Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
- 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
- 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
- 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
- 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
- 10 - absolute perfection!
