The Royal Leichhardt — Restaurant in Sydney

Just came back from this gem of place in Leichhardt. Spontaneously went to Norton St for a bit of a wander and decided to pop in to the Royal Hotel for lunch! And what a find! Nice building, lovely ambience, good food. The only let-down was the service. While bubbly and friendly, attention to detail fell short.

We ordered our lunch (Barramundi + Pumpkin Ravioli) l. The food arrived but we were surprised to see the waiter bring a dish we didn’t order and to be told, ‘The pumpkin ravioli is out so the kitchen made you a burger’. The assumption was that I would be content with the replacement.

With regret, I don’t eat burgers so I ordered something else. Thus my companion ate their lunch alone while I waited for my replacement.

I totally understand that the kitchen runs out of things and sometimes you need to order something else, but I’ve never been in a position where a dish was brought to me as an assumed replacement. Just a weird approach, and not in keeping with best-practice.

That said, the food was amazing! My replacement dish (Sri Lankan curry) was absolutely delicious. In fact, lunch was great - except for the service hiccups.

Would recommended the Royal Hotel to anyone. Everything was fabulous ... almost. A bit more communication with guests would...

We are not locals in Leichhardt, but we've been to this pub a few times usually following soccer games in the area.We really enjoy the pub atmosphere, attentive service and great food!

But this time the pub really went above and beyond to make our night extra special, I'm giving 5 stars, only  cause 10 stars are not available! We ordered food at the bar, the bartender was extremely friendly and helpful, but he must have been new, cause he forgot  to write our table number on the order. As a result, we waited a little bit too long for our food...not a crazy excessive amount of time, it would have been max 20-25min. A very apologetic waitress approached us, and due to the inconvenience she offered a complimentary glass of wine to me and a dessert to my partner (who could not longer drink cause he had to drive).

We really appreciated what the waitress did to make our night pleasant! We both come from an  hospitality background, and we know that in hotels/restaurants things cannot always go right...mistakes and inconveniences happen, but the important is how the restaurant responds to the issue and is able to turn a negative situation into a good experience. We left very happy that night and we will definitely be...

If you've every enjoyed a leisurely lunch on the balcony at the Royal Hotel in Leichhardt then think again because those days those have gone.

As most good restaurants in Leichhardt have gone the way of the dodo bird so has this place. The table service has evaporated yet still funnily enough the prices have remained at restaurant prices with the patron doing essentially all of the work except cook the food.. After jumping up and down like jack rabbits I asked the manager what's happened to the table service and the reply was "oh, we had to change that because of covid". I've found that most restaurants have ramped up service delivery and food for that matter minimising patron movement within the premises because of covid..

So we then get to the food.....my friend and I shared an entrée of the croquettes which were lovely. We'd both ordered the standard menu baked salmon which was $29 and to be honest a sliver of fish in a broth with another sliver of bok choy. When I asked our waiter if this was a main or an entrée she informed me that salmon was very expensive...

My advice is just order a burger or a parma ....that's the best option in yet another establishment that serves burgers, parma's and salt and...