Restaurante Café Royalty - Restaurantes en Cádiz — Restaurant in Cádiz

I thought it was pretty awful. It looks magnificent. It’s an old room, with fin de siecle preserved high fresco painted ceilings. The right side is a cheaper tapas menu and it is furnished with round marble top tables with bentwood and wicker seat chairs that remind you of a 19th century ice cream parlor. The left side has table cloths and more elegant chairs. Not a single person was on the more expensive left side. On the right side was a bunch of women who spoke and laughed and yelled and even sang so loud that I almost left. Spanish sounds like a Gatling gun to begin with but when you get eight or nine women whooping it up in a cavernous hard edged room (not any sound deadening fabric…even the floors are hard) you can’t think straight. The food was really disappointing except for an interesting potato salad and tuna dish. The shrimp omelette (like a potato pancake) was just salty and crispy and slightly bitter. The croquettes had no real taste. The night before I had at La Candela what I think these croquettes were supposed to be and they were divine. They brought another dish by mistake. It was a bowl of béchamel on one side, beans suspended in oil on the other and a sunny side up egg on top. It was tasteless. The desert was good. It was a liquor infused cake with fresh fruit topped with meringue and, superfluously, a dollop of whipped cream on the side. It cost $28 Euros. Go there. Walk in. Look around. Take pictures. Then walk another block to La Candela if you want superb tapas for the same price. Or if you want to play roulette walk into any of hundreds of little non tourist places where there are no English menus and you probably will not be as disappointed. I hate to publish negative reviews. The waitres asked me if everything was good. I told her, “No.”. She asked the people at the table next to me and they said, “Yes.” They were drinking wine. I was drinking sparkling water. The waitress and male manager—who also waited on tables—were dressed formally.

I’ve noticed one thing in Spanish restaurants. They are sort of like American Republicans who claim to be pro-life but are not. They are pro-birth, but once you’re born you’re on your own. In Spanish restaurants they serve you right away. But once you’re done eating you’re on your own. Until you wave a credit card at them you no longer exist.

Still. I’d rather be in Spain...

I'm giving this place 5 stars with one caveat - our server seemed unhappy and unpleasant. That being said, this was still one of the best meals we had in Cadiz and what a gorgeous and historic setting! I truly hope that others will continue to patronize this historic jewel and hopefully they will also get better service. Now for the details - we ordered the Andalusian brunch to start because we were starving and needed food pronto lol! The jamon Iberico was on par with what we'd had throughout our time in Southern Spain but the standout was the tomato toast. Wow! It was so delicious 😋. Next we ordered the Royalty Brunch. This was truly a meal fit for a king and queen! The fruit was fresh and ripe, the croissant was hands-down the best I've ever had outside of France and the pancakes.... oh the pancakes. This place would have been well worth the hassle of dealing with the waitress just for these pancakes. Tender, flavorful, melt in your mouth pancakes that were better than any pancake I've had in the US. And pancakes are a US breakfast thing. And the cherry on top was the hot chocolate. It came with the Royalt Brunch and I'd already order cafe con Leche for the Andalusian brunch so I figured why not. Ummmm this was not a hot chocolate drink... it was so rich and thick you had to eat it with a spoon. It was only Belgian chocolate with just enough milk to make it into a thick liquid and it was divine! I actually used it to mix into my cafe con Leche to create my own tasty treat :). Bottom line - go here for breakfast everyday while in Cadiz. There is absolutely nothing better...

If you are looking for a beautiful restaurant with bad service and mediocre food, then this is the place you should go. Here’s why:

spoiler: we paid higher prices as supposed to those in the menu. any addition to the order was registered reluctantly and not brought to us swiftly (coffee: I had to ask twice before I got another one, bread: my wish of more bread was greeted with raised eyebrows) instead of pancakes we received a completely different dish (bread with cream). To our amusement it was taken away from us with the reason that we didn’t order it. the pancakes in the ‚Royal Breakfast‘ were forgotten and were brought after we had to ask for them. The Service personell even had to read the menu to be sure that pancakes were a part of our breakfast option!

On the plus side: the pancakes, the fruit and the croissant were great. The rest was mediocre and not worthy of the high price at the end (packaged butter, packaged pate de jamon, cheap sausages).

All in all, it is a great building and a nice place to sit in. Though the nice sounding menu conveys a different message than the quality of the establishment and the service with which the food is brought to the table. We left with a very mixed feeling of the...