THE ROYAL COCKTAIL CLUB — Restaurant in Porto

I tried this place multiple times on my Porto visit and it just... never lived up to the hype. Didn't impress me at all. I've heard such great things about the bar program and the quality of cocktails, even from other Portuguese cocktail bartenders who are amazing themselves.

Perhaps Royal has seen better days? A place like this relies on the quality of its staff. Not sure these guys are quite up for the demands.

Everything is too sweet. We tried ordering custom cocktails and specifically said "not sweet". It was sweet. These are meant to be the best bartenders in Porto and they couldn't even manage a cocktail that didn't rely on sugar?

On our second visit, we tried more menu cocktails. We went for the strongest and allegedly most complex hoping they'd be less sweet and less juicy. Sadly, we were mistaken. Somehow, even despite more challenging spirits, they were still sweet and tasted very one-note. The spirits didn't even shine as the other ingredients weren't exceptionally complementary. No layered tastes to explore. Now, they were not as sweet as the other cocktails but I don't understand why a cocktail bar of this class can't create a single menu option that is simply a strong, complex flavour profile without falling back on sweetness to appeal to basic tastes. Not every drink requires sugar syrup, sherry, or agave. Or at least not so much of it.

The atmosphere is also not very comfortable and staff is...

Skip this one. For a top 50 Discovery Bar this is a huge miss. I’ve had better drinks literally anywhere else in Porto. They have huge plug in scent boxes continuously piping in the cheapest perfume smell you can imagine - like a glade air freshener cinnamon. After a few minutes inside my girlfriend and I both felt nausea and had developed a severe headache since entering the bar. Having a drink here felt like riding in a bad Uber with too many gas station air fresheners. Cocktails are a sensory experience, and I couldn’t tell you what my drink was supposed to taste like - my senses were overwhelmed with whatever scent they were pumping into the space. I needed to leave and felt 10x better within a few minutes of getting back fresh air, but we couldn’t go anywhere else for another drink and had to call it a night because of how bad being in this space made us feel. We did mention this to our sever when paying the check and they said we had “the best worst table” and pointed to the air freshener. Although they thanked us for our feedback, they were unapologetic and seemed well aware of what other reviews we wish we had seen before visiting indicate is an ongoing issue. The menu itself is nothing exciting and I don’t feel like I missed out on anything at all by leaving. I regret giving...

We've visited so many top cocktail bars around the world, and sadly, this was the one where the vibe was so crazy off, we couldn't get out of there fast enough.

Listen, the drink we ordered each was good: layered, nice balance of sweet to bitter, nicely presented, and so on. The bar's default water was even strawberry and mint infused, which is fancy. The space was dark, cozy, and refined.

So with all of these great points, what absolutely ruined the atmosphere? It was the music. It. Was. An. Atrocity! The Royal Cocktail Club unironically blasted American roadhouse pub tunes, we're talking typical Ford commercial kind of stuff: "Like a Rock," "Old Time Rock and Roll," everything a particular demographic would enjoy. Sorry if the above is your jam, but it was simply not befitting of a top bar with such a nice space.

These guys could have the most sophisticated drink presentations, ingredients, and flavours, but if you closed your eyes and walked in, you would assume they specialized in bad beer, highballs, and cheap tequila shots. It was so jarring because nothing about it was hip, suave, cool, or fun. With each song we were driven a little more and more and crazy, and despite usually going three or more rounds, we just could not physically stay...