The Royal — Restaurant in Hastings

Where to begin… we were amazed!! My partner and I came in recently looking for a quiet dinner, initially it looked like a normal pub with your typical pub decor. However, we were met with a really pleasant server, Christian, who walked us through to the restaurant. As we sat down, the vibe of the place changed. It was quiet yet welcoming, with unique pictures of various plants on the walls. I looked at the menu and didn’t understand half of the words, but every question we had was swiftly answered by Christian, he really knew his stuff. My partner and I love to share food, so in total we ordered 6 dishes, as they come, and loved every single one. What stood out to me was how fresh the Squid with Orzo dish was and my partner loved the Lamb with what we felt was a fun Greek twist. The beetroot starter with capers, we thought was inspired and delicious. We finished with a cheese taster and a Chocolate Tart with Sour Cherries and Crème Fraîche which balanced each other perfectly. We thought this would cost an arm and a leg but we were shocked when the bill came in extremely reasonable. Christian was also very sweet with our son who loves to throw his toys about, so thank you for your patience. Overall, fantastic experience, well done. Thank you for an enjoyable evening!

Tl;dr

Great service, great food, great...

The food is fine but £45 for a Chicken Sunday Roast for 2 was ridiculous given the lack of quantity and strange choice of sides that come with it. £60 for the roast and two small cokes + service was a joke. Sure it was tasty but the lack of meat for the price was really not worth it. The main issue are the staff. We waited a good 45-mins to get served after ordering - no acknowledgement or apology. They seem very frosty - not one smile and the main server seemed to constantly be enforcing rules, especially about where my dog should sit. Just made the whole experience uncomfortable to be honest as I was constantly on edge about whether my dog was in the way (even though a dog opposite us literally had a bed setup in the main walkway between bar and table area). At one point he interrupted my conversation to tell me to move my dog. Just felt very unwelcome the whole time we were there and having spoken to other locals about it since we visited, they all have been saying the same thing. Don’t think we’ll be revisiting again anytime soon, which is a shame as we want to support local businesses like this but if that’s the way we are going to treated and spoken to as locals then we’ll go elsewhere where we know we’ll get much better service and...

What should have been a pleasant family Sunday lunch turned out to be somewhat disappointing. We turned up without booking shortly before meals were served at 13:00. I was told that there was one table available for four providing that we took no more than 70 minutes for our meal. Although, there was clearly nobody waiting for our table as the allotted time approached, we felt rushed and uncomfortable as we waited for deserts and coffee. Why offer coffee and desert if you actually want rid of the clients? One family member is quite disabled. When she felt cold and politely asked for the heating to be turned up, she was told that there was no heating in that area of the bar and that we should all "snuggle up to keep warm". Although the food was quite good, there was an atmosphere of the owners being always right and the customers being just a wee bit of a nuisance. It's a shame really as The Royal has the potential to be a nice...