Royal James Cafe — Restaurant in Beaufort

UPDATE: 12/20/2024 I love the Royal James, but my visit today was abysmal & I doubt we'll be back. I have never felt more unwelcome or had worse service in a restaurant than I did today.

The bartender/cook was openly hostile towards us from the moment we sat down.

I'll skip the blow-by-blow, but he began by asking what we wanted, my companion answered, to which he replied, "And you mean please & thank you as well." I mean, whoa... Seriously, who says that?

We ordered the cheese steaks, and they were prepared contrary to our order. Mine had nothing I asked for and had mustard & chili. Since when does Philly have either? Frankly, they were gross. (See photo for proof)

The entire visit was uncomfortable, and we didn't even finish our beers just to get out of there.

It was clear that this wasn't personal. While we were sitting there, a woman opened the door, looked in and grimaced, and chose to keep moving on.

What a shame that this local legend has been allowed to atrophy.

Below is my previous 5-star review:

Royal James is an unexpected treat.

It's bare bones without any frills. Exactly the kind of place you go to after a long night and the morning calls for a beer and greasy food to settle what ails you.

I ordered Philly, and it was perfect. Exactly what you would like a Philly to be... soft bread, plenty of meat and cheese with onions, mushrooms, and banana peppers. My companion kept it simple with a cheeseburger.

Add a basket of fries and two ice cold Yuenglings and it was perfection.

All for $20.

This place is cash only. An indication of how old school it is right there. So bring cash or be prepared to pay $3 at the in house ATM.

UPDATE// This has become our go-to place after a night with too many glasses of wine. Both the food and service is solid. The prices are very reasonable and the people watching is priceless. An absolute...

Food was great as always but since they don’t accept cards I used their ATM the ATM states it will charge you a $3 convenience fee to withdraw money as most do but instead of charging me a $3 convenience fee it charged me $5! Nowhere did it state that! Then I went to order my food the guy taking my order sorta scoffed as approached the counter, took my order huffing & puffing then when I brought to his attention the ATM they offer their customers is is stating a $3 fee but taking an extra $2 unauthorized his reply “not my problem, I don’t own the ATM” well obviously so I said well “I knew that but I thought I’d make you aware so you could maybe warn your customers that try to use it, or inform your boss so they can either correct the service fee to $5 or put a warning or something up” WHY WORK AT A PLACE THAT YOU DEAL WITH PEOPLE AS YOUR LITERAL JOB DESCRIPTION IF YOUR NOT A PEOPLE PERSON? This the first time since last summer I’ve been to RJ and this is exactly why I’ll wait a while again...

Stopped in because the sign said best burgers in town & they had a 2 person band playing music,upon entering the establishment was very run down & dark,we ordered our food & a couple beverages & waited,the establishment had a few pool tables & what appeared to be a couple locals enjoying a game on the rundown pool table,our burgers came out & immediately after one bite you could tell the buns had sat out with the bag open making the buns stale,things only got worse from there,after the cook makes our food he joins a couple locals outside for a cigarette,as he finishes his cigarette a couple other guests arrive to the bar & have a seat,the cook proceeds back behind the bar picks a notepad & starts asking what they want to drink,no hand washing or glove wearing whatsoever,luckily we didn't get sick but I would proceed with caution eating from this...