The Royal, Charlton Kings — Restaurant in Cheltenham

This is a great gastro pub situated in the heart of Charlton Kings. The surroundings are stylishly modern whilst retaining some of the essence of the place. The staff are warm and welcoming and the food is fantastic. I had the calamari starter, the duck breast on a mushroom risotto and a chocolate strawberry cheesecake for dessert. It was the best meal I've had for a very long time.

The duck breast was nice and large, evenly pinky-grey and nice and tender. The mushroom risotto was lovely and creamy with lashings of tasty mushrooms. I had thought of adding a side dish of vegetables, but I'm so glad I didn't as it was perfect as it came.

When it came to dessert I ordered the rocky road brownie having been told by the owner that the white chocolate strawberry cheesecake wasn't available yet, only the normal chocolate one. He then, without being asked, came out with a taster sample of the white chocolate cheesecake for us to try, which was a really nice gesture. It was divine and was obviously in the process of being made then and there. I then asked if I could change my order to have some of the normal chocolate cheesecake, which they did quite happily. I'm so glad I did as it was so yummy and a generous portion as well.

Being a foodie, it's so nice going to a place that's not only friendly and helpful but where they're really passionate about and interested in the food they serve up. Unfortunately desserts are often after thoughts these days, not given the attention they deserve. Thankfully this is not the case at the Royal.

My only regret is not finding out about this...

After years of visiting the Royal and always enjoying the food, myself and my wife were very surprised and disappointed with our meals on Sunday evening. Firstly the menu is very limited if you're not a big meat eater.

Firstly we ordered a starter to share as it says on the menu, starters and share. We received 5 rings of calamari. Hardly enough for one as a starter.

I then ordered the Swordfish. I received a small triangle of what tasted of bitter water, no flavour and to be honest enough for a starter. I ordered chips with it but wish I had gone for potatoes and some vegetables as the chips were clearly from lunch time and dry.

My wife ordered the only thing she could find that appealed, the vegetable pie, this was actually quite nice but again the chips were again clearly left overs from earlier and the meal was small.

We didn't give up, we ordered the cheesecake as it's our favourite. Description was Coffee and chocolate cheesecake. We got a tiny small triangle of chocolate moose with a white layer of something white and tasteless, no hint of coffee anywhere.

All in all it seemed as though we had clearly booked the wrong time, 5 on a Sunday evening, as I think the chef had gone home.

Basically I think our visits to the Royal and over. It's a shame as we've always suggested it to friends.

You could say we didn't like our visit.

I've never felt the urge to write a review before. ...

Lovely place from the outset. However, the bottom line is - if you are a family with kids you won't feel welcome.

As soon as we arrived in the restaurant/pub, my 2 boys walked over to another part of the restaurant (not far from us) to have a look around. We were immediately told "please keep your children sat down at all times". Hmm.

Together with our friends, we had 5 kids at the table. We always ensure our kids stay as quiet as possible and teach them to respect the environment and the people around them. However, sometimes kids can get a little noisy, our kids aren't perfect but you'd think they were behaving like drunken louts they way the staff were behaving. The constant hard stares and "apparent complaint" from the people around us (of which there were 3) made us feel very uncomfortable and unwelcome.

I would not recommend families with kids to go here.

I would recommend that the management and the staff at The Royal warn people who book a table that kids aren't welcome.

I don't usually feel strongly enough to complain, but I just don't want other families going through the same as us.

P.s. The surf 'n' turf was much more surf than turf. A small to medium sized steak with 2 prawns and a soggy side salad isn't really...