Royal Kitchen — Restaurant in Bellevue

I tried this restaurant for the first time and will be my last time as it was a very bad experience.

It started with a waiter sitting me and my family at a table. It was 20 minutes before I could get a table. Minus 5 points for the extremely long wait to get a table.

Another 5 minutes passed before another waiter came to my table to bring me a tea pot.

Another 10 minutes passed before anyone could come to my table with a food cart.

I wanted to order something from the menu but nobody was around, no staff to be seen so I had to walk up and look for someone. Minus 10 points for customer having to get up to find someone for service.

A person came to my table to take my order, but for some reason walked off when I was not even finished placing my order. Minus 30 points for walking off in the middle of serving a customer. I waited 5 - 10 minutes thinking that person would come back to my table but nobody came, so I had to get up my table again to find someone to place my order. I had to wait another 10 minutes before my order came to the table.

Now here's the shocker...

I walked up to the counter to pay the bill, and I did not feel like they deserve tips for the lack of customer service and the extremely long wait times to get what I needed. The person at the register had the audacity to demand tips from me. I asked to speak to a manager and he said he was the manager. I was shocked that a manager would demand tips from patrons, especially after the lack of customer service I experienced on my very first visit. I paid the full price I owed, and that's all they deserve, yet, they demanded more money and threatened that they will refuse me service moving forward. This was unacceptable, unprofessional behavior and mistreatment of customers.

Tips are earned and rewarded for good customer service. It was non-existent during my stay. Customers have the freedom to choose if they want to tip or not and should not be treated like a criminal for not tipping terrible service.

At big chain restaurants, you would get fired if you demanded tips from customers no matter the circumstances. There's a good and bad days, that's the nature of the business, but customers should not be treated as criminals when the final bill was paid in full. Salary is the responsibility of the employer, not the customer. Customers can only reward good service, and if customers are not tipping, then it means the business needs to work harder to earn the customer's money.

Another reason why it was terrible customer service experience was the way the staff spoke to me and their attitude. Nobody smiled to me and spoke to me in a tone that's suitable for heated confrontations. Not once did they demonstrated friendly courteous customer service.

Lastly, there's lack of sanitation for food safety since the plates and utensils are not thoroughly washed and it's concerning to me. No wonder this place needs to improve. I don't know how the food safety administration allow this business to operate.

I would never recommend this restaurant to my highly respected friends and family that I hold in high regards. I would recommend this place to my...

As a last meal before my in laws were leaving back to Hong Kong, we decided to come here since my sister in law had a good experience last year. But from what I heard a waiter say during our visit to another review that I read, ownership seems to have changed. And there were times where we experienced that this may have been for the worst.

As far as the food experience, we ordered several dishes and they came promptly, as well as steaming hot (which was a good thing!) such as the sweet and sour pork and the crab and fish maw soup. The seafood tofu (particularly the tofu) seemed to have a somewhat off taste than normal tofu.

And as far as the service, I nor anyone in my party can no longer speak positively of this restaurant. Besides the all-black uniformed staff, the presumed owner (since he was only in a blue polo and jeans and cap with an apron) left such a sour taste in our mouths (more sour than the sweet and sour pork). It started when we ordered dessert. We ordered a mango and coconut/red bean dessert, but there's also a green bean dessert that was included. After the first two desserts came out, my father in law asked the presumed owner/manager simply if the green bean dessert was coming out too. The owner replied in Cantonese with much annoyance, "you already reminded me 3 times. I don't have enough hands to bring out all the desserts."

Then after the desserts we're out, we noticed that we didn't have any dessert plates for our party of 10. When we asked for some, the owner came out with 5 PAPER plates. No big deal, it does the job but that's strange that they would give some cheap plates you'd use at a house party. When we finished dinner and dessert, we still had a couple bites of dessert left that we wanted to pack for someone who couldn't join us for dinner. The owner refused and said that they don't have any boxes small enough. Then went on to use the COVID pandemic as the reason why they can't either afford or order small take out boxes. So we innovated and had to use a used paper plate folded up to hold the last pieces.

And the icing on the cake of our poor experience was after we paid and were leaving, a waiter came out to the big table right next to us with two small take out boxes. We couldn't help but laugh at the confusion and excuses that this owner needed to give to spite my family and I. Was he annoyed at a couple toddlers? Were we so demanding? We'll never know since he never said anything, just treated us "differently". Regardless, there is a fundamental problem with management here that has seemingly ruined this establishment. Perhaps get take out and don't get a chance to experience...

Unfortunately, I can not recommend this restaurant. As others have noted the food comes out fast but this is because they are keeping the dim sum warm in back. It doesn't taste freshly cooked at all. There are cleanliness issues. The soy sauce bottle on our table had old crusted over food on it. It was obviously not wiped down recently. The wall next to our table, as well, had food splashed on it. One of our items, the Shanghai buns, tasted off. When we mentioned to the person in charge and asked to exchange for another item, they refused! They said they had served many of these dumplings and so basically were saying that WE were the problem. Sorry but my wife is FROM Shanghai and she would expertly know if they do not taste right. They were not edible. Perhaps other guests were just too shy to say something? The buns also stuck hard to the paper they were served on so you could not eat them without completely tearing them apart. This was the case with many items. I think it's because they are kept under a warmer so they end up basically getting glued to the paper under the dim sum. Not good. Lastly, they have this horrible chime that dings loudly every time someone gets near the door. It was super disruptive to the atmosphere. During the busy time we went, it was dinging every 30 seconds or so. Why is the chime needed when there are literally 20 people packed into the waiting area??? It should be clear that there are customers IN THE RESTAURANT without needing a chime dinging loudly at your guests every 30 seconds. I could understand the bell during a slow time but not then. In closing, there are better dim sum options...