LA ROYAL — Restaurant in Cambridge

Came here with my partner because Celeste is one of our most favorite restaurants in the Boston area, so the premise of a sister spot opening was super enticing. But we were really disappointed, and will be sticking with Celeste.

Firstly, this location doesn’t have many vegetarian options if you happen to not like mushrooms or eggplant. They show up in some form in almost every vegetarian dish. Even if you do like these veggies, if you’re planning to order from every section of the menu, it feels repetitive across a meal. (And then the causa section is all the same as Celeste’s menu, so not interesting for someone who eats there all the time and is looking for a totally new menu.) For an app, we ended up ordering the only other vegetarian starter, cheesy polenta, which didn’t sound that interesting to us, but we ordered for lack of options, and despite the carefully listed ingredients in every other dish, this cheesy polenta had secret raisins in it. A really unpleasant surprise, that could’ve used explanation on the menu—and flavor-wise our instinct was right, it wasn’t much to eat.

I’m not vegetarian, so I ordered the grilled shrimp, with yucca, which were the best part of the meal. The shrimp were cooked and seasoned well (eg not rubbery and overcooked). Though unfortunately it doesn’t seem this is on their menu anymore.

For mains, my partner ordered what essentially just boils down to vegetarian lo mein, and costs a fortune (also at this point: not one ounce of vegetarian protein across the meal).

For my main, I ordered the tacu tacu and it was fine, but the seafood in this was really overcooked, as compared to my appetizer. Everything was so rubbery, I ended up picking out all the seafood and just eating the lima bean risotto, which was good, and which I shared with my hungry vegetarian dining companion. :( But in effect I paid 32 for rice because I stopped eating the unpleasant seafood.

Lastly, our cocktails were very tasty, but in a way also disappointing. The cocktail service here is super similar and in some cases exactly the same as Celeste. Again, if you patronize Celeste and are looking for a totally new menu, this isn’t it.

So if the cocktails we love are the same here, but the food is worse… why not just stay at Celeste?

Ultimately, what I loved most was our waitress. She was very kind and attentive, and offered to take the secret raisin polenta off our bill when she came to take the plate and noticed a pile of picked out raisins left behind. I hadn’t ask to be comped, so I thought that was a gesture in really good faith. But all in all, I think La Royal is struggling a bit from the Bon Appetit effect: listed in a taste-making publication largely for the photogenic space that plays well in a magazine spread, but is disappointing to actually eat at (similar vibes over at Dear Annie on Mass Ave).

For us it just isn’t worth the trek this far off the red line when we know Celeste nails it every time and we could (and will!) just go...

We found La Royal to be hit-and-miss. A group of four of us visited the nicely decorated restaurant on a Friday evening. The bench seating by the window is a bit hard, shallow and not very comfortable, so if you are fussy about comfort, you will have to fight for who gets the chairs and who has to endure the bench, since as far as I could tell, all of the tables are against the exterior of the building with chairs facing the windows, and the bench for those with their backs to the windows. A cushion would take care of that.

We were greeted then taken to the table. The waiter we had was very nice and helpful, the right combination of being present without being too chummy. We started off with cocktails, all four of ours were wonderful, each served in the right type of glass for the cocktail, the right ice (yes, it can matter!), and creative garnishes. The mixer gets kudos!

We ordered various starters which were mixed. I had the causa de pulpo - the octopus was wonderfully grilled, but was extremely oversalted. The starters were a bit messy on our utensils. When they took our starter plates away, we we told to keep our very messy utensils. When we asked if we could get a new set, there was enough hesitation and surprise to make us feel odd for asking, but reluctantly we did get more utensils. I think the problem is they only have utensils wrapped in napkins, so requesting a new set requires a redundant cloth napkin. Oh well....

The next odd thing was when we asked our server for advice on a choice of wine. She, being relatively new and unfamiliar with the wine list sent over someone who may have been the floor manager. Given that he had very little knowledge of the wines, he only seems familiar with two white wines and suggested those are the two he regularly recommends. His unfamiliarity with the wines is OK, but he should have either just said so up front. Or they could have someone familiar with the offerings write up descriptions of the wines on the menu to guide the patrons. Nitpicking here, but he also provided verification of the newly opened bottles to all of us, rather than one. I doubt he knows the purpose of the protocol.

The main dish I had was the cau cau de mariscos, which was quite good. When it came time for dessert, there are two choices - a mousse and a roulade, which are exactly the same except one has a meringue crust and the other is in a glass. And they ran out of the mousse (at 7:15 on a Friday night). It was not a great dessert and was left unfinished.

The bathroom lighting is very dim with no mirror. The music level was fine, and the playlist acceptable.

Overall, there is a lack of attention to detail which for the price-point, makes it not a good value. I expected a better level of service at for the cost, too. Also, there is a lot of redundancy in the food, the same components and sauces are seen on different dishes.

We certainly had a pleasant experience, but not good enough to make us...

First and foremost, this is not a Peruvian restaurant. It is Peruvian inspired/it uses Peruvian ingredients in their foods. DONT BE FOOLED! If you’re looking for traditional Peruvian -try Tutti Frutti or Betos in Eastie.

My overall experience with La Royal was extremely dissatisfying primarily due to the horrible customer service. One Friday I decided to treat my mom to what I thought would be great Peruvian food. Once we arrived, we were immediately greeted and sat down for our reservation. We started with Pisco sour and maracuya sour. I liked my drink, but my Peruvian mother was not impressed. We started with ceviche and jalea because if you know Peruvian food, you know this is a popular delicious combo found in Lima. The ceviche arrived first and we were immediately underwhelmed with the food’s presentation. My mother took one bite and noted the ceviche had lots of olive oil in it (which traditional Peruvian ceviche doesn’t take). I honestly didn’t mind the creative twist on ceviche but what I disliked was the fact that the fish was bland without the sauce (almost as if they quickly tossed together the ingredients without letting it properly sit -this can also be dangerous to eat if the fish is served too raw). Throughout the night, no one even asked what we thought about the food or came to check up on us either.

We got the Jalea much later than the ceviche which was disappointing as they’re meant to eat together. The food was dropped off (again no checking in on how the ceviche was). Jalea was so burnt, we both just had barely two bites. Again, no waitress/waiter/manager ever came by to check in on how we were doing or how the food was. I had to flag someone down for any attention. Being a frequent restaurant goer, this lack of attention was one I’d never in a restaurant in Boston/Cambridge area. (It doesn’t help that I had gone to Fox&theKnife the night before which has the best customer service). When a waitress finally came over, she had the nerve to argue with my Peruvian mother and tell her that the food was Peruvian, when my mother insisted it wasn’t. She was extremely rude and disrespectful/borderline racist. To top it off, the manager rudely dropped off the check without explaining anything or even trying to get our thoughts on our experience at La Royal. He clearly just seemed to not care at all. For my Latino customers, do not waste your time here. Anda a un lugar donde les van a respetar!! My non-Latino friends, you are not eating traditional Peruvian...