The Royal — Restaurant in Nelson

Donairs! Yay donairs for $5.75! That price is not all the time but during "happy hour" which I'm trying to remember when it is... around 5pm to 7pm... it might've been till 8pm... not sure, my memory is not holding this particular MB (megabrain) file.. At any rate, their donairs are frikkin good and totally east-end Vancouver price affordable. Every evening they're available. They make falafel, I think wraps, and burgers for, I think, all same price as donairs. I DO know that it's $10 for a pint o' beer and donair or falafel thingie or burger. For Nelson, it's almost unheard of to find a place to eat that's affordable, and satisfyingly filling for most folks. Aaaaand, I personally like the Paint Live events the Royal hosts on occasion, I'm told that they are now hosting Paint Live paintin' party every month! That's great, especially since it'll be just after "welfare day" when unemployed people have the money for it. But... now I'm moving away to Vancouver for an 18 month graphic design diploma course so I'll permanently miss these now, except for tomorrow, friday, march 23rd... that will be my last one. Topic will be night sky with either moon or "Death Star". I've missed more sessions than I was able to attend, mostly due to having been held at the broke part of the month (by one week before welfare day, most people on assistance are flat broke) or it wasn't posted anywhere albeit posted online, Facebook and their own webpage, "paintlive.ca". This is a great idea: they supply each participant a canvas, a paper plate with blobs of acrylic paint colors (blk, wht, red, blue, yellow), sm, med, lrg paintbrushes, and good DJ music that energizes the scene... and to each a big beer! Lol ... Not... u buy ur own drinks. that's my own beer-centric wish.... lololol! Goes from 7 till 9pm, and one of their guys stands on the stage and paints while we follow (he suggests to use ur own style while just using his directions as a general guideline - subject matter is always a simple one with room to add or flourish. The last one I wish I didn't miss it (broke) it was northern lights and a fox on a hill. The wavy colors I would've had fun emulating and "trippefying". I wish to thank Royal on Baker for hosting these original creative fun events, and the two "Paint Live" guys, who, looks to me, to have a bit of an overhead supplying all what's needed for 30-some folks to exercise artistic expression. Youse have provided me a much needed boost to my otherwise underfed inspiration. I hope others get similarly psyched and intuit! And.... Royal is the only place I know of around here where one can play pool. (Some might disagree, but I loved it upon first landing in Nelson -2007- how we could smoke while shootin' pool in an enclosed room, especially wintertime! And, there's just something about a beer on the side, a smoke hanging from lips, and eyes squinting and measuring the logistics of the angles of the game of pool.) There. Stick a fork in...

Okay the food was amazing. Gluten free fried chicken! Thank you for the amazing food. Why my review is low…. The young lady who primarily “served” our table. She was lack lustre, I honestly thought she was mad at me.

When I went in to ask to sit on the patio I was greeted by a sweet red head girl. She is who I thought would be serving us and I wish she had been the only one. The girl who came out after to take our drink order the girl in the camo pants…. Was less then hospitable. I was really excited about the menu having so many GF option's, which is you require this can be a little overwhelming. Was not pleased with me when I asked follow up question.

When I asked if the Korean style fried chicken was GF she said “why would they put it on that part of the menu?” if it wasn’t, i would have gotten sick. It’s important for me to all because I have celiacs.

Then my husband ordered a second beer. Which never came…. She came in and out of the restaurant a few times without it. Then my husband went in to use the restroom and she was gone. He couldn’t find her.

Finally the lovely human with the red hair came back. And she got us some boxes and our bill. We figured they were sharing tables and that was probably the only reason we tipped.

To sum it up. Gluten free chicken was amazing. I ordered way too much. The patio is dog friendly and they brought my dog water.

The blond girl in camo is not it. And she should reconsidered the...

After hearing all about The Royal during the pandemic, we were finally able to get to Nelson and Check it out. The pictures do not do it justice. This place is huge. Lots of seating, including a tiered seating area facing the stage. We tried a couple items on the menu, the fried chicken, probably one of the best I have ever had with a subtle but very tasty spice to it, the smash burger, aptly named because it was piled so high with goodness I had to smash it down (recommended method of handling it by the way) to take a bite. We also shared a plate of the pork and date dumplings. I can't describe to you how good these were. It was a new taste (after 65 years who knew there were new tastes left?) and one I would go back for again and again. The rotating beer tap full of BC sourced product along with the BC sourced wine list makes this a positive buy local spot to eat and imbibe. Sadly, we arrived a day late for the live act that played Saturday night but from what we over heard from some of the patrons, they don't cheap out on live bands. Huge stage to play on as well which is a big plus for musicians looking for a venue, and with the amount of seating available likely a good paying gig. Staff were excellent, and very friendly to a couple of senior tourists! First place we'll hit when we get back to Nelson!! The down side, way too hot outside for patio lovers while we were there, but I won't hold the Royal...