Royal Baths Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in England

Excellent! It is easy to be motivated to write reviews when you have a poor experience. But having just written a review of another establishment, I thought that The Royal Baths Chinese deserve to be written about, in a positive way.

In short excellent!

The building is impressive which enhances the experience, they seem to have more staff per customer than I have experienced in almost any other restaurant and all very efficient.

IMHO, I would urge you not to take the easy option and order from the set menus, especially if there is a group, you're bound to order things that you may have not tried before and some you might not like, but spring rolls etc, you can get them everywhere. I am always willing to try something new, sometimes it is not so great, but there are occasions when you find something truly wonderful. Worse case, you know what not to order next time :-)

We had the Steamed Prawn Dim Sum and the Grilled Pork Dumplings, the Steamed Prawn were excellent, the pork was good too, but the Steamed ones were memorable and worth trying. We also had the "obligatory" Seaweed, also very good.

For mains we had prawns with ginger and spring onions and the duck in Szechuan sauce, both very good. This was the first time I have had prawn with ginger & spring onions, very nice but I think I prefer it with beef based on past experience. The duck was very good and of the two, I preferred the duck.

I noticed on the menu that they had something called Hokkien Fried Rice, something I had never heard of. Compared to the rest of the rice dishes, quite expensive, so I ordered it, working on the basis if it is that expensive it must be good (as we all know to our cost, the adage often does not deliver). Fortunately on this occasion it did, and it did not disappoint. If you have not tried it before, I will warn you that when it arrives it looks like one of the most unappetising dishes you may have seen, there is what can be best described as ta translucent sauce with things mixed in, poured over the top of the fried rice. Ok, in for a penny.... Fortune favours the brave and all that! Excellent, worth every penny and enough for 2 people.

They have a very extensive drinks and wine menu, we had been before in between lockdowns but I had a note of the wine we have previously enjoyed, and it didn't disappoint. I'm no wine buff but f you like red wine, Fiorebella (Vivino give it a 4.0 / 5.0) it is worth a try.

Overall thoroughly enjoyable evening.

The review gets 5 stars, but I would probably have it given a 4.7 if had the choice, there were some very minor niggles if you want to be picky., but I am happy with 5*!

The matriarchal manager is a little abrupt by western standards but made me smile, when I ordered the dim sum, she said "it take 15 minutes", we were in no rush, though I suspect she may have wanted to turn the table over as quick as possible, but which restaurant doesn't.

The biggest complaint I have is that it is a 2hr drive for me, and it gets expensive when you add the hotel room, if it was on my doorstep, I would be there several times a...

Avoid this place!!

Prebooked a table a week ago for a birthday meal with my partner. Absolute shambles of a dining experience.

Left in the entrance ignored for 10 minutes. Took to our tables. Ordered food. Starters came out prompt but that was as good as it got.

Took over half an hour to get 1 330ml bottle of lager. Had to ask 3 times for it.

Then left without our mains for an hour. Asked for them to takeaway because we were sick of waiting to be met with a grimace from the waitress who then proceeded to clear and reset the table while we were still sat there and wipe food from the table into my lap.

We were charged over 75 pound for our hour and half sit down. That was for 2 meals, a sharing starter, 2 bottles of beer and a small bottle of coke.

When we got home our meals barely filled half a takeaway container and were hardly of a standard where those prices would be deemed acceptable.

Emailed the restaurant to tell of our experience and got a generic response that they were unusually busy but as a chef of 15 years I can tell you they weren't particularly busy and had more than enough staff to cope with the demand in the restaurant that evening.

It was nice of them to accept they charged us full price for an extremely disappointing evening and wouldn't be offering us an opportunity to return and see the high standards they supposedly set.

If any of my customers had to wait an hour and half for mains I would very offering something, a drink, a dessert, a reduction in their bill. I certainly wouldn't be charging them full price for wasting their time and giving them a poor version of the experience usually offered.

Luckily leeds is half hour down the road where you can get much better food and service for half the price.

Will not be returning and would advise other diners to avoid. More than happy to see you leave disappointed and will shake you for your full bill as you leave.

Worst dining experience in Harrogate.

Beautiful building, shame...

If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to dine under a microscope while being silently assessed for your financial worth, then The Royal Baths is the place for you. From the moment we walked in, the staff looked at us as if we had just crawled out of a sewer and somehow ended up at their precious establishment. It was clear they had already decided we couldn’t afford it before we even sat down.

Throughout the meal, the waiters kept circling our table like vultures, probably waiting for us to make a break for the door. Every few minutes, someone would come back, staring at our plates as if to say, “Are you done yet? Because we’d really prefer if you left.” We couldn’t even finish a bite without someone hovering nearby, probably making sure we weren’t pocketing the cutlery to sell on eBay.

The food? Overpriced beyond belief. I’m convinced I could have flown to another country, enjoyed a three-course meal, and flown back for less than what they charged for a plate of food that wasn’t even that special. It wasn’t terrible, but for the price, I expected to be moved—instead, I was just financially ruined.

The best part? That feeling of being unwelcome never went away. It was like they thought we had snuck in off the streets just to breathe the same air as their exclusive clientele. If we had actually tried to leave without paying (which they clearly expected us to do), it might have been the most exciting thing that had ever happened in that dull, overpriced, judgmental excuse of a restaurant.

Save your money. Unless you enjoy paying premium prices to be treated like a criminal, go literally anywhere else.

If it let me I would...